SYNOPSIS

…At the very start of us, I foresaw
every possible ending.

Professions is a poet’s directory of heartbreak. The backbone of this collection is a cycle of fractured relationships, where professional preoccupations tear lovers apart as distrust and incomprehension brew. Set against this are glimpses of indestructible intimacy—between a mother, a granddaughter, and a friend.

Shortlisted for the 2018 Singapore Literature Prize, Amanda Chong’s poems observe the doomed practice of the heart: solitary experiences, never fully nor mutually understood until too late.

The manuscript for Professions was selected for and developed under Sing Lit Station’s inaugural Manuscript Bootcamp in 2014.

READ

“Love Letters”

“Notes from a Colonialist, 2065”

& two poems not found in Professions:

“Lamentations”

“Sunny”

PRAISE

2018 SINGAPORE LITERATURE PRIZE (POETRY IN ENGLISH) SHORTLIST

“Chong’s language plays off the sublime against the quotidian, presenting a psychedelic, kaleidoscopic vision of frolicking cells illuminated by the speaker’s own imagination.” — Cha: An Asian Literary Journal

“In her poems, Chong captures the brutality of emotions through her imagery, but also writes about the potent moments in her life with clarity that is to be envied.” — ReadNUS

“Amanda Chong’s remarkable poems range from tender to the exuberant. Steadfast, thoughtful and powerfully feminine, her lyrical voice couldn’t arrive at a more opportune time, when glass ceilings are still in the midst of shattering, and the country’s poetry is teeming with diverse passions and insights into previously unacknowledged histories.” — Cyril Wong

“Amanda Chong’s images are flecks of precise sunlight filtered through the curtains of a meticulous mind. These poems are modern female musings. Soft and sharp, longing and restrained all at once.” — Pooja Nansi