BIOGRAPHY
A graduate from the University of Queensland in 2002 with a Master of Philosophy in Creative Writing, Felix Cheong has an extensive collection of works that include 5 poetry collections, 8 collections of short fiction and 2 children’s storybooks.
His third collection of poetry, Broken by the Rain, was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize in 2004. Vanishing Point, his short story collection published in 2012, was inspired by real-life cases of missing persons and went on to be long-listed for the 2013 Frank O’Connor Award.
Between 2014 and 2016, he published the Singapore Siu Dai series (which featured flash fiction that took a quirky and satirical look at life in Singapore), which marked a shift from the serious tone set in his previous works. The trilogy was heavily praised by local humorists for its “wit” and “snappy story-telling”. Some of the stories have since been adapted into animation films by students from LASALLE College of the Arts, with plans to be showcased during the 2020 Textures Festival.
Some of the other awards which have been accorded to Felix include the National Arts Council’s Young Artist of the Year Award in 2000 and first prize in the Hong Kong Literary Festival Poetry Slam. He is also the recipient of numerous grants, including the Singapore International Foundation Grant and the National Arts Council’s Creation Grant.
His works have been featured in various anthologies such as Love Gathers All: a Philippine-Singaporean Anthology of Love Poetry, The Best Singapore Short Stories, A Luxury We Cannot Afford: An Anthology of Singapore Poetry, Singathology: 50 New Works by Celebrated Singapore Writers and Unfree Verse. He is also the editor of a number of anthologies, including Idea to Ideal : 12 Singapore Writers on the Writing of Their Poetry.
Additionally, his poetry and short stories have been featured in TV movies, on an MRT billboard and in books used as O-level literature texts. One of his stories, True Singapore Ghost Story, went on to be adapted for stage in 2018 by Toy Factory.
As a testament to his active role in the local literary scene, Felix has participated in numerous literary festivals, both local and abroad. Some of these include the Singapore Writers Festival, Edinburgh International Literary Festival, Asia-Pacific Writers and Translators Conference and Words Go Round Festival. He has also organised itineraries for writers’ visits, sat on arts-related panels, been a mentor for arts programmes and served as a judge for a number of competitions, most notably for the NUS Literary Society’s Poetry Writing Competition and the 2016 Singapore Literature Prize (English Non-fiction category), for which he served as Chief Judge.
Presently, Felix is keen on collaborations with other artists. In 2017, he formed the art collective, Osmosis, with musicians Mervin Wong and Natalie Ng. He is concurrently working with two other musicians, Beverly Morata Lim and Ting Si Hao, for three half-hour gigs titled Same Worlds, Different Songs, which is set to be staged at the Esplanade’s Concourse in March 2019. He also wishes to explore different musical styles with artists of varying backgrounds.
Author Biography © Felix Cheong. Author Photo © Ethos Books. All rights reserved.
