Testing the silence: Poems

by Alvin Pang

Genres: Poetry

83 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Alvin PANG is a poet, writer, editor, anthologist, and translator. Writing primarily in English, his poetry has been translated into more than 20 languages, and he has appeared in major festivals and anthologies worldwide.

A Fellow of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program (2002), his publications include Testing the Silence (1997), City of Rain (2003), What Gives Us Our Names (2011). The anthologies he has curated include No Other City: The Ethos Anthology of Urban Poetry (2000); Over There: Poems from Singapore and Australia (co-edited with John Kinsella, 2008), and Tumasik: Contemporary Writing from Singapore (Autumn Hill: USA, 2009). His most recent volumes of poetry, OTHER THINGS AND OTHER POEMS (Brutal:Croatia), Teorija strun ["String Theory"] (JKSD:Slovenia) and WHEN THE BARBARIANS ARRIVE (Arc Publications,UK), were published in 2012.

His latest book is WHAT HAPPENED: Poems 1997-2017.

Listed in the Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry in English (2nd Edition), Pang is a founding director of The Literary Centre – a non-profit initiative promoting interdisciplinary capacity, multilingual communication, and positive social change. Among other public engagements, he is on the board of the International Poetry Studies Institute, and the editor-in-chief of an internationally circulated public policy journal. Pang was named the 2005 Young Artist of the Year for Literature by Singapore’s National Arts Council, and was conferred the Singapore Youth Award (Arts and Culture) in 2007.

Reviews

[Hao Guang Tse]

Here, poetry is a sounding board, a cry into the darkness, a wait for the echo. Words about words and sounds. Fishing, rain, space. Would be 5 stars if trimmed down, for silence dissolves with a whisper.

[AM]

Alvin's poetry dives into our souls while connecting to the everyday. Loved this collection.