Can a life weave along through the same notes and yet come to play forth different sounds? The Sound of SCH (pronounced S-C-H) is the true story of a journey with mental illness, beautifully told by Danielle Lim from a time when she grew up witnessing her uncle's untold struggle with a crippling mental and social disease, and her mother's difficult role as caregiver. The story takes place between 1961 and 1994, backdropped by a fast-globalising Singapore where stigmatisation of persons afflicted with mental illness nevertheless remains deep-seated. Unflinchingly raw and honest in its portrayal of living with schizophrenia, The Sound of Sch is a moving account of human resiliency and sacrifice in the face of brokenness. Winner of the Singapore Literature Prize (Non-Fiction 2016)
Grace Hwang battles alongside fellow healthcare workers in Singapore when the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus strikes in 2003. She looks back at her years in Trafalgar Home, a leper colony where she lived from 1961 to 1968. Alice, a friend from Trafalgar, is dying of cancer when SARS strikes. Alice had a baby while in Trafalgar Home, who had to be given up for adoption. Now, in the thick of SARS, Grace attempts to reunite Alice with her daughter before Alice dies, and seeks to discover who found the cure to leprosy. SARS is woven together with the leprosy plotline, another frightening illness that led to its sufferers being quarantined. Although the characters in the novel are fictional, the backdrop of events and places — SARS, Trafalgar Home, leprosy and its cure — are real and an important part of Singapore’s history. Formerly known as the Singapore Leper Asylum, Trafalgar Home was a state-sanctioned asylum to detain leprosy sufferers indefinitely. The Leprosy Act was repealed in Singapore in 1976. Now, the story of Trafalgar Home is told to the many Singaporeans who have never heard of it or have forgotten it. This moving, thought-provoking story will strike at the hearts of many Singaporeans across a range of age groups, as it centres on the SARS outbreak of 2003. This event in our recent history is still remembered by many Singaporeans. In Singapore, 33 people died and 238 were infected, many who were healthcare workers who made tremendous sacrifices.
Tell me again where home is, where inhabit all the holy hours, where someday you will find me. - from "Time Lapse" Coastlands is Aaron Lee's third collection of poetry. Whether in a small town or frenetic city, the poet has never lived far from the sea. This book documents his life experience as a pilgrim still finding his place in the wider world. In these fifty poems he recollects, explores, embraces and anticipates what is lost and found in each of the places he calls home: Malaysia, Singapore and Hawaii. Everywhere, natural and urban landscapes anchor and influence his identity and connect him to humanity. In ancient writings "coastlands" means the far reaches of the earth--places accessible only by crossing oceans of unknown magnitude. Truly, life is a voyage from which the traveller never returns. "Coastlands is shaped and driven by an esemplastic power and a persuasive, lyrical flow. These poems possess a notable immediacy, profound resonance and imaginative unity. By sharing the poet's meditative and philosophical explorations, the reader is enriched in the best possible way." - Edwin Thumboo
This collection explores the creative space of poetry as a means to unravel feelings evoked by the violence of war or by everyday traumatic events. One may come to terms with uncomfortable, including unspeakable, feelings by describing them with imagery from nature and one’s immediate environment. By participating in grieving, the self can better face any lingering effects of trauma. In this creative space, dramatic speakers retell stories and give vent to contradictory feelings through silences and free play. Their accounts attest to the dappled beauty of the human condition even if the full nature, scope and effects of traumatic memories are always beyond their grasp.
Be warned, mothers should not read these stories to their children, even though they might contain a lonely elf, a talking moon, a butterfly that wants to be a rabbit, or a boy who was born with a flower as an unfortunate appendage. Hovering within the realm of fables, myths and fairy tales, here are unlikely bedtime stories that are best read on a dark, stormy night, and at the risk of wounding the soul. The first edition of Let Me Tell You Something About That Night: Strange Tales by Cyril Wong was first published by Transit Lounge (Australia) in 2009. Reader Reviews: “Wong takes fairytales and works them into a surreal lustre…the heart of these stories gestures to a time before fairytales were saccharine fantasies. Their magic springs from the fact that they incorporate—within realms crammed with elves and water spirits and weird metamorphoses—an unvarnished sense of life’s desolations…A vivid collection that will enchant and disturb.” — The Age “Cyril Wong’s first prose collection focus on the individual and his moments of despair and epiphany, cutting swiftly to the emotional quick. These fairy tales provide the pleasure of being transported into fantasy realms, yet they also offer the sharp bite of contemporary issues and themes that appeals to a more mature audience than the folkish narratives would suggest.” — The Straits Times, Life! “[Cyril’s] work expands beyond simple sexuality… to embrace themes of love, alienation and human relationships of all kinds.” — TIME (Asia) "Reading Wong's tales is a mind-blowing experience. It is a literary journey as well as a philosophical quest. Conveyed in accessible language is a strong sense of defiance, interrogating many of our established beliefs instilled by (popular versions of) traditional fairy tales regarding sexuality, desire, life and death, etc.” - Aaron Chan, Cha, Asian Literary Journal "These are fairy tales that provide readers with the simple pleasure of being transported into fantasy realms, yet they also offer the sharp bite of contemporary issues and themes that appeals to a more mature audience than the folkish narratives would initially suggest." — Gerund, Goodreads reviewer
Uncompromising yet accessible, the six sequences in Changes and Chances explore love, sorrow, time, nature, and humanity. By turns passionate, hermetic, and heartbreaking, they simultaneously endure and celebrate all the imperfections of the world. Leonard Ng blends free verse with adaptations of both Western and Asian forms to create a musical poetry grounded in the traditions of both East and West. A purchase of the book comes with a complimentary Changes and Chances postcard (while stocks last)!
In this collection of short stories, Singapore Literature Prize-winner Danielle Lim probes the unseen changes which take place in the human psyche and their impact on the textures of life. Weaving through pain and healing, beauty and darkness, these silent crossings of the human heart and mind are deep and formidable. They often go unnoticed due to their quiet and subtle nature. From a man struggling to bridge the distance between him and his dying father, to the changes in the human psyche when people are pit competitively against one another, these stories seek to draw out the emotional and psychological threads which form the tapestry of lived experience. With its portraits of love and loss, loneliness and heartache, hope and healing, And Softly Go the Crossings challenges the reader to encounter human connection through soft, yet powerful, inner rhythms.
This is a personal and philosophical account of schizophrenia that aims to raise awareness of mental health issues. The personal aspect of the book reveals the gritty reality of what it is like to have schizophrenia, and explores issues faced by those with mental illness, such as secrecy and recovery. The philosophical aspect of the book raises questions concerning the nature of mental illness, such as whether or not mental illness is ultimately physical or mental. Referencing contemporary debates, such as whether madness is a disease or a culturally- determined label, this book is relevant not only to persons with an interest in a true story of psychosis, but also to those with an interest in the relationship between philosophy and madness. Reader Reviews “Through this book, I hope it challenges the public’s perception of mental health as being an ‘all-or-none’ phenomenon; it is, in actual fact, a spectrum on which all of us oscillate back and forth throughout various times in our lives. Not only should we learn to appreciate mental health, we should also accept that those who suffer from mental illness can recover and lead satisfying lives with the appropriate help.” — A/Prof Swapna Verma, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist and Chief, Early Psychosis Intervention Programme, Institute of Mental Health | Project Director, Community Health Assessment Team | Associate Professor, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School “I can relate to the book as a person who has experienced discrimination as a person who has been diagnosed and she portrays this very clearly. In addition, as a philosopher, she asks pertinent questions on whether the disease is a mental or physical problem. [...] I'd encourage anyone who has a friend or loved one who is mentally ill to read it to understand them better. Also, I'd recommend that every person who is diagnosed or is about to be diagnosed to read it. She helps one understand the tremendous difficulty of how one accepts one's diagnosis.” — Rachel, online book reviewer
“I have had nothing bad happen to me except my own doing. I have let this cowardice envelop me, and I can’t shake it off. I will commit the worst thing you can ever do to someone who loves you: killing yourself. The scary thing is, I’m okay with that.” —Victoria McLeod, Singapore, March 30, 2014 Loss Adjustment is a mother’s recount of her 17-year-old daughter’s suicide. In the wake of Victoria McLeod’s passing, she left behind a remarkable journal in her laptop of the final four months of her life. Linda Collins, her mother, has woven these into her memoir, which is at once cohesive, yet fragmented, reflecting a survivor's state of mind after devastating loss. Loss Adjustment involves the endless whys, the journey of Linda Collins and her husband in honouring Victoria, and the impossible question of what drove their daughter to this irretrievable act. A stunningly intimate portrait of loss and grief, Loss Adjustment is a breaking of silence—a book whose face society cannot turn away from.
Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.
