Kopi Break Poets: A Debut Reading

Enjoyed the Kopi Break poems with sips of delicious coffee over the years?

You’re invited to hear some beautiful poems live and in-person with Kopi Break’s FIRST ever poetry reading – featuring our Kopi Break poets Cheng Him, Eneida P Alcalde and Chrystal Ho reading from their freshly published debut collections!

From poems brewed in Singlish, with grief or around nature, these poets are here to tickle your taste buds and wake you right up with their beautifully crafted words – and books!

After their reading, there’ll be a short Q&A moderated by Kopi Break co-editor Max Pasakorn. Max will put these poets and their books in conversation, drawing out themes that cut across and juxtapose their works – to demonstrate the incredible diversity in the poetry published in Singapore today.

Poets' Bios

Eneida P. Alcalde (she/her/ella) immigrated to the United States as a child, transplanting her Chilean-Puerto Rican roots into Pennsylvanian soil. A Pushcart Prize-nominated writer and finalist for The Robert Phillips Chapbook Prize, she is the poetry editor for Oyster River Pages and a reader for Epiphany. Her work has recently appeared in literary outlets such as Poet Lore, Pirene’s Fountain, TAB Journal, and The Best American Poetry series. A past fellow at the Macondo Writers Workshop, she holds an MA in Creative Writing & Literature from Harvard University Extension School. Eneida draws inspiration from her migrant family and ancestors, her young daughter, and the places she has called home—from Valparaíso and Cochabamba to Washington, DC, and Singapore. Her debut chapbook, The Wealth We Surrendered, is published by Ethel. Learn more at www.eneidaescribe.com and follow her on Instagram @eneidaescribe. 

Chrystal Ho is a writer from Singapore who works with poetry and non-fiction. Her writing has been published in Portside Review, PR&TA, and Sine Theta Mag, among others. Keenly interested in exploring the interconnections between myth, language, and the environment, she is a former recipient of the NYU Shanghai Writing & Speaking Fellowship, as well as the National Library Creative Residency (Singapore). The manuscript of Elsewhere, the Cosmos Cracks was a finalist for the 2024 Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize, and is her debut collection of poetry.

Cheng Him is from Singapore, and is the author of BOH BEH ZHAO. 

Max Pasakorn (he/she/they, in no particular order) is a writer of creative nonfiction and poetry, whose works revolve around food, queerness and popular culture. Their creative nonfiction chapbook A Study in Our Selves was published by Neon Hemlock in 2023.

Max is a founding co-editor of Kopi Break, a poetry magazine-newsletter which aims to platform voices from Singapore and the Singaporean diaspora, and the creative nonfiction editor of Perks of Being Dumped, an anthology of local heartbreak writing, published by Marshall Cavendish in 2024. Max also currently serves as a Poetry Reader at Split Lip Magazine.