A new Canterbury Tales for our time, Sample and Loop tells the story of the migration of Singaporeans to the United States of America, rendering the surprising trajectory of lived experience in musical verse.
Based on personal interviews, these poems together tell a part of the story of the migration of Singaporeans to the United States of America. A new Canterbury Tales for our time, Sample and Loop traces the nonlinear, multidimensional, and surprising trajectory of lived experience in musical verse. Here are the Ceramicist, the Pediatrician, the Scenic Designer, the Chef, the Porn Star, and a host of other migrant-pilgrims sharing the tales of their lives even as they continue to make those lives in a country not of their birth. By narrating their discoveries, troubles, hopes, and sorrows, they refract a powerful beam of light on both countries and compose a wayward music for the road.
"A tour de force, a globalized Singapore imaginary that dazzles." -Judges' citation of Snow at 5 PM, winner of the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize in English fiction
"Brilliant and brilliantly grounded." -Jericho Brown of Connor & Seal (Sibling Rivalry, 2020)
"A marvel of elegiac limpidity." -Jaya Savige of Inspector Inspector (Carcanet, 2022) in the TLS