We Make Do with English

What does linguistic belonging look like in Singapore, a place shaped by global anglophone dominance and migratory movement? Join Shivram Gopinath (Dey) and Samuel Caleb Wee (https://everything.is) for a conversation interspersed with performance. Moderated by Mok Zining (The Orchid Folios), they’ll speak about the joys and difficulties of writing in what Dohra Ahmad has called "rotten Englishes". Expect linguistic acrobatics, passionate commentaries on language policy, rapid-fire code-switching and general chaos.

About the speakers:

Shivram Gopinath is a poet born in Chennai, India, who has called Singapore a home for more than two decades, picking up a disdain for the typical, and a never-ending appetite for Thosai along the way. His work has been heard at literary festivals, dingy bars and living rooms across the Asia Pacific. He often teaches workshops structured around poetic identity. Shivram is a twice-winning Singapore National Poetry Slam champion. Dey is his debut collection.

Samuel Caleb Wee writes, researches, and plays music. He is currently Assistant Professor of English at Nanyang Technological University, and previously co-edited this is how you walk on the moon (Ethos Books, 2016), an anthology of experimental short fiction. His first book of poetry, https://everything.is, was published and translated into Vietnamese in 2024 by AJAR Press.

Mok Zining is obsessed with random things: orchids, arabesques, sand. Her work has appeared in The Cincinnati Review, The Rumpus and Witness Magazine, among others. The Orchid Folios will be her first published book. Currently, she is working towards an MFA at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where she teaches creative writing. She spends most of her free time dancing.