BIOGRAPHY
Daryl Qilin Yam (b. 1991) is a writer and editor of prose and poetry, born and based in Singapore. The manuscript of his second novel Lovelier, Lonelier (2021) was shortlisted for the 2021 Epigram Books Fiction Prize and received further support in the form of a National Arts Council Creation Grant in 2017; the published work was then nominated by the National Library Board for the 2023 International Dublin Literary Award. His novella Shantih Shantih Shantih (2021), optioned for the screen by Fiction Shore, was shortlisted for the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize (Fiction in English) and subsequently bestowed by popular vote the Readers’ Favourite award across the Fiction, Poetry and Creative Nonfiction in English categories.
Yam’s fourth book, a short story collection, brings together a decade’s worth of interlinked short fiction, and is forthcoming from Epigram Books in late 2024. His writing has appeared in periodicals and publications such as the Berlin Quarterly, The Straits Times, Transnational Literature and The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singapore Short Stories anthology series, and is forthcoming from Sewanee Review and Mekong Review. His first novel, Kappa Quartet (2016), was longlisted for the inaugural Epigram Books Fiction Prize and has been released in Singapore and the UK. It was selected by The Business Times as one of the best novels of 2016 and was also described by QLRS as “[breaking] new ground in Singaporean writing… a shimmering and poignant novel, an immensely sympathetic and humane exploration of our existential condition.”
Aside from writing, Yam is also an arts organiser and producer. He is the co-founder and first Station Control of the literary charity Sing Lit Station, where he presently serves as the treasurer on its board of directors. He is the web editor of poetry.sg, prose.sg, the Backlogues podcast and the SingPoWriMo magazine. He co-edited SingPoWriMo 2015: The Anthology (2015) with Jennifer Anne Champion and Joshua Ip; SingPoWriMo 2016: The Anthology (2016) with Joshua Ip and Ruth Tang; and SingPoWriMo 2017: The Anthology (2017) with Stephanie Dogfoot and Ruth Tang.
He holds a BA (Hons) in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Warwick. As an undergraduate, he was awarded the Second Year Prize from the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies and spent an intercalated year studying under the AIKOM (Abroad in Komaba) program at the University of Tokyo. He has also been conferred an MA in English (Specialisation in Creative Writing) from Nanyang Technological University; his thesis was the aforementioned collection of short stories, with a critical exegesis on homonationalism, queer worldbuilding and the Singapore short story cycle.
Author Biography © Daryl Qilin Yam (via darylqilinyam.com). Author Photo © Epigram Books. All rights reserved.
