Frederick Pohl once said that Science Fiction wasn’t about technology but rather its human and societal implications – in other words, it wasn’t about cars but about traffic jams. This idea of using science fiction to describe and explore the implications of futuristic technologies and the social structures enabled by them was behind the project Cntrl+Alt+Delete by Nanyang Technological University, the Singapore government, and four speculative fiction writers (myself, Sarah Ang, Wen-yi Lee and Nuraliah Norasid).
Yesterday we got to talk about our SF stories and the cutting-edge technologies we wrote about at the Synergy Art x Tech Fringe Festival at the Figma Clubhouse organized by #Tusitala and #BeFantastic. Poet, technology enthusiast and civil servant Tse Hao Guang facilitated.
I had written 3 short stories: these include (1) a puppy love romance between two teens trapped in locked-in syndrome, involving AI, EEGs and Virtual reality technologies, (2) an extraordinary Singaporean triathlete and his obsession with enhancing his sports performance at any cost, involving advance prosthetics, and gene therapy, and lastly (3) a slightly gonzo tale about an alien invasion in Bukit Batok, with exploding birds, interdimensional travel, an autonomous vehicle full of hapless retirees in the most low-speed death ride ever. All three will become part of my second short story collection which I plan to finish by the end of this year.
If you are going going to the 2024 AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) Conference & Bookfair in Kansas City, Missouri this February 7–10, don’t forget to get a copy of my book, The Infinite Library and Other Stories, as well as all these other great books by outstanding Asian authors!
The AWP Conference & Bookfair is the annual destination for writers, teachers, students, editors, and publishers of contemporary creative writing. It includes thousands of attendees, hundreds of events and bookfair exhibitors, and four days of essential literary conversation and celebration. The AWP Conference & Bookfair has always been a place of connection, reunion, and joy, and we are excited to see the writing community come together again in Kansas City, Missouri in 2024.
Nothing tests the strength of acceptance and belonging more than speculative universes where characters of no relation come together. Add unexpected life-changing adventures in stories, and you get a mishmash of misfits and reluctant heroes, forging unbreakable bonds. Three science fiction and fantasy writers muse on found families, unconventional relationships, and how we can find human connection in the most unlikely corners of existence.
Steampunk and cyberpunk have been the OGs of their sci-fi subgenre, but it looks like there are some new kids in town! Taking a look at young ‘punks’ like dieselpunk, biopunk, and even… oceanpunk(?!), we unpack the ‘punk’ suffix and why it has spawned so many variations. Is it a fetishising of technology or a commentary on technocracies out of control? What kind of tensions do they invite with our past and future? What ties all these punks together and what new punks are being born?
This workshop is for writers passionate about Asian science fiction and working towards publication in the genre. After a brief survey of SF written by Asians in Asia and the diaspora, I’ll discuss the nuts and bolts of craft including pacing, structure, and revision, as well as diving into topics of particular importance to science fiction authors, such as how to do research for authenticity, worldbuilding, incorporating scientific concepts and advanced technology and how to do revisions. Lastly, I’ll talk about the publishing process and the current science fiction market for short, medium, and long form fiction. The goal is for you to leave the workshop energized with a plan for writing and submitting your work.
Reading and Writing Asian Science Fiction by Victor Fernando R. Ocampo, in partnership with the Singapore Book Council Date: 14 October 2023 Time: 10am to 1pm Place: SBC Training Room 90 Goodman Road BLK E, #03-32 Cost: SGD$60; Register here
Science Fiction written by Asians living in Asia or in the diaspora, are enjoying a renaissance with authors like Cixin Liu, Hao Jingfang, R.F. Kuang and Yoon Ha Lee (among many others)frequently on the top of many best seller lists. As a writer passionate about speculative fiction, how do you create fiction that doeesn’t fall back on the tropes of exocticism and techno-orientalism? This workshop is an introduction to the exiting world of Science Fiction written in Asia. It also aims to help you develop stories that utilize your own lived experience to build your own vision of the future instead of being the futuristic “other” for Western (White/CIShet) audiences.
Objectives:
Understand what exactly is Science Fiction and what makes up the genre.
Learn the elements of what makes a good short story
Thank you to everyone who came to the very well-attended 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋, organized by Migrant Writers of Singapore and generously supported by Sing Lit Station and National Library Board, Singapore last Sunday 30, July 2023.
Thank you also to Jane Lyn Dupingay and the MWS team for inviting me to read my flash fiction piece “Buhay ay Langit sa Piling Mo” (“Life is Heaven in your Arms”) and its lovely companion piece “Beginning of Autumn” by the Chinese poet and migrant worker Zhang Haitao. The paired pieces were part of the second volume of Call and Response 2: A Singapore Migrant Anthology(Math Paper Press, 2021), edited by Zakir Hossain Khoran, Bhing Navato, Poh Yong Han and Joshua Ip.
Postscript: Thank you to Kirsten Han and Alysha Chandra for inviting me to speak on the panel “The Uses if Storytelling” with playwright Alfian Sa’at and Kelly Leow, who co-produced the AWARE podcast saga at Singapore’s first ever Independent Media Fair. Thank you also to my publisher Jee Leong Koh of Gaudy Boy press for hosting the well-attended event. The fair was organized by Singapore Unbound, a New York City-based literary arts organization that promotes freedom of expression and equal rights, with Sydney-based literary magazine Mekong Review
The original post:
What is the role of storytelling in journalism? In what ways are art and propaganda the same or different? Please join us at the Projector X: Picturehouse for an author reading and discussion, titled ‘The Uses of Storytelling’, to be held from 4.30 – 6.00pm at the Singapore Independent Media Fair on 1 July 2023. Admission is free! Register here – https://lnkd.in/gYwgHZpJ
Remember that a free, independent media allows the public to make informed decisions, hold leaders accountable and hear a diversity of opinions free of corporate and government influence.
Brought to you by Mekong Review and Singapore Unbound
Event Details:
How is storytelling related to journalism and other media products? Is there any difference between art and propaganda? What kind of stories make the most impact on their readers/listeners?
Panelists: Alfian Sa’at (Playwright, Poet, and Writer), Kelly Leow (Co-Writer and Co-Producer, Saga, the AWARE Podcast), and Victor Fernando R. Ocampo (Speculative Fiction Author)
Thank you so much to London-based Malaysian editor, writer, and theatre practitioner Zhui Ning Chang for inviting me to be a guest speaker at Birkbeck, University of London’s Arts Week 2023 yesterday. We had a great conversation about the themes of liminality, displacement and death in my book The Infinite Library and Other Stories, as well as my writing process, and the state of speculative fiction in Southeast Asia today. Thank you also to the very lively audience for all the thoughtful questions.
As requested, here are the links to where it’s available in the UK – Bookshop.org and Amazon UK
It was a privilege and a pleasure to run two storytelling workshops last 26 February and 26 March for the Migrant Writers of Singapore with SingLit Station. These folks are among the most talented writers I have ever met and are absolutely unmatched in heart.
We Filipinos are natural storytellers. It’s our way of sharing and building our communities, our faith and deepening our connections with one another. Salamat sa inyong lahat!
Thank you to the UST Faculty of Arts & Letters and the UST MaKatha Circle for inviting me to share my writing journey at their ” Roots & Refractions: Bridging MaKatha Traditions” event last 27 February. I really enjoyed interacting with so many young writers.
Keep reading what makes your heart sing. Fill yourself up with all the beauty that life throws your way. And keep writing — because young creatives like you are our best defense against all the terrible and ugly things darkening our reality. Once you realize what this world is worth, you will fight to defend it.
Write a new world for all of us…
#MaKaATIN
Up next, meet Victor Fernando R. Ocampo, a Filipino author of speculative and experimental fiction stories!
A fellow at the Milford Science Fiction Writers’ Conference in the UK and the Cinemalaya Ricky Lee Film Script Writing Workshop in the Philippines, he currently resides in Singapore where he was also a writer-in-residence at the Jalan Besar at Sing Lit Station. His works have been shortlisted for the International Rubery Book Award in 2018, and he won the Romeo Forbes Children’s Story Award in 2012.
Victor’s most recognized stories include:
THE INFINITE LIBRARY AND OTHER STORIES. Three Filipino siblings fighting an enemy that uses words as weapons, sigbin monsters in space, a banned children’s book hiding a secret that could save a doomed generation ship, a slow-motion disaster turning people into living math equations,?! Name it and this book surely has it. Grab this collection of stories that goes beyond what our mind deems possible and be carried away by all its mystical twists and turns.
Grab a copy:
HERE BE DRAGONS. Ever wished to have a map that would make life easier? Well,
Isabella met the perfect guy that makes a map of just about anything! Would she take the risk
“An Excerpt from the Philippine Journal of Archaeology (04 October, 1916)”, a Lovecraftian metafiction story told in footnotes, first appeared in Likhaan Journal 8 by the U.P. Institute of Creative Writing in December 2014. – https://journals.upd.edu.ph/index.php/lik/article/viewFile/5072/4577
“The Easiest Way to Solve a Problem” is a short story about adding the consciousness of expat Filipino PMET workers to a massive corporate AI in Singapore. It appeared last April, 2022 in the book Get Luckier: An Anthology of Philippine and Singapore Writings (Singapore: Squircle Line Press, 2022), edited by Migs Bravo Dutt, Claire Betita de Guzman, Aaron Lee Soon Yong, and Eric Tinsay Valles. – https://www.get-luckier-anthology.com/victor-fernando-r-ocampo
“I m d 1 in 10” , his experimental story inspired by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius’ De Consolatione Philosophiae, first appeared in the July 2014 issue of The Future Fire (Editor: Djibril al-Ayad). It was written with Latin, L337, IM and SMS speak, emoticons and a Filipino argot called Jejemon. – http://futurefire.net/2014.30/fiction/imd1in10.html
Immerse yourselves in Victor Ocampo’s works with this playlist!
#MakaATIN
#MKC2223
#MakaTraditions
#GrowWithMKC
: Anjellyca Villamayor, and Roanne Aludino
: Chrystal Cariño, Lauren Ainella Tagle, and Sophia Mendoza
Most Filipinos don’t know that the Philippine’s national hero Jose Rizal had quite a few connections to Singapore. In fact in 1896, Rizal’s friends urged him to save himself by remaining here, but sadly, it was not to be…
Thank you to the Philippine Embassy in Singapore and Penguin Random House Southeast Asia for hosting today’s celebration of Jose Rizal’s life, writing and his connection to Singapore. Chargé d’ Affaires (and author) Dr. Emmanuel R. Fernandez, his wife Alice and Penguin authors Noelle De Jesus, Migs Bravo Dutt, Mookie Katigbak Lacuesta and Sarge Lacuesta, as well as yours truly, read excerpts from our national hero’s poetry, letters and novels
Afterwards, I moderated a lively panel that discussed Rizal’s influence on Filipino writers, writing from the diaspora versus from the homeland, speculations about a hypothetical third novel, and other interesting topics. If host and cultural attaché Rosellie L. Bantay had not gently reminded us of the time, we would have probably talked for the whole afternoon.
Thanks to Patricia Mulles for the photos below.
Special thanks to Penguin publisher Nora Nazarene Abu Bakar for inviting me! Have a meaningful Rizal Day!
Name it and this book surely has it. Grab this collection of stories that goes beyond what our mind deems possible and be carried away by all its mystical twists and turns.
Well,
: Anjellyca Villamayor, and Roanne Aludino
: Chrystal Cariño, Lauren Ainella Tagle, and Sophia Mendoza
The Infinite Library and Other Stories 