Sing Lit in 2026: New books, anthologies, and more

SINGAPORE – The first book to be released in 2026 is a surprising candidate: the English translation of Chinese-language author Yeng Pway Ngon’s final novel, The Colour Of Twilight, published by City Book Room.

The well-known poet, novelist and critic in the Chinese community died in 2021. In this work translated by Jeremy Tiang and set for release on Yeng’s death anniversary on Jan 10, an ageing Chinese-language writer who has devoted his life to literature questions his place in English-dominated, capitalist Singapore.

London-based literary agency New River Literary has already acquired translation rights for Yeng’s book outside Singapore, with the hope it will be given a new life with international readers.

Ethos Books has a robust slate of releases in 2026.

In February, writer-artist Diana Rahim promises to enlarge readers’ sense of the possible with her debut We Saw Mountains. Nine stories journeying from the desert to an oasis feature such non-human actors as a grieving elephant, while fully formed mountains appear overnight for this corrective to the current bleak times.

On Ethos Books’ book catalogue are also poet Theophilus Kwek’s meditation on the many lives of 331 North Bridge Road – movie theatre, post-war cabaret, rubber factory – titled Odeon, released in August; and A People Of Salt And Light, O Thiam Chin’s four-hander romance set in 1915 Singapore, due out in October.

There is another translation: Chinese-language author and Cultural Medallion recipient Chia Joo Ming’s three works on the migration of Chinese into Nanyang and how this shaped Singapore and the region. These are no straightforward essays, but a curious blend of imagination and fact. They are compiled under the title Reimagining Nanyang, slated for June, with translation work by Jack Hargreaves.

For more socially critical fare, Nanyang Technological University associate professor Teo You Yenn – whose This Is What Inequality Looks Like (2018) remains a defining text – turns her rapier-like eyes on the Singaporean family in Unease. On bookshelves in March, it is the result of her interviews to understand how kiasu parents are made and why work-life balance remains elusive here despite pro-family rhetoric and policies.

Former Straits Times cultural critic Clarissa Oon reflects on the importance of the professional arts critic in an age where everyone has a platform in The Critic As… The last Ethos Books publication in 2026 is as well a love letter to theatre, which the now head of digital and content marketing at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay has been enamoured with since her student years.

The second half of 2026 will also see the publication of the all-women shortlist of the Epigram Books Fiction Prize 2026.

It is the first time the four books – details still to be made known but which span speculative fiction, family saga, dark comedy and literary realism – will be simultaneously released in five other South-east Asian countries under

a new book deal.

The authors are Singapore’s Jaclyn Lim and Ratna Damayanti Mohamed Taha, Malaysia’s Kwan Ann Tan and Myanmar’s May Thanakhar.

Comics publisher Difference Engine’s highly anticipated Free To Play: A Video Games Anthology, exploring creative takes on the video game industry, should also create some ripples in May.

With guest contributions by sci-fi maestro Ken Liu and poet Alvin Pang, this is the result of an open call in 2025 voracious about genre – embracing fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, comics, visual art pieces and even multimedia works.

A team of avid gamers and writers comprising Adan Jimenez, Daryl Lim Wei Jie, Joses Ho and Natalie Wang curate.

An altogether stranger offering by Difference Engine in September is Xocolatl: Language In An Alien Spacetime by Jimenez and illustrated by Josephine Tan. Pitched at adults, this bolsters questions about the ways language shape identities with aliens and intergalactic travel, with Dani as the intrepid and unwitting protagonist.

As for poetry, Sing Lit Station poetry press Afterimage’s first title in February is blood/work: ALLTHETIME 02, which puts three poets of different generations in conversation. Blood and its implications of kinship, sacrifice and persistence is a binding motif. The poets are Bani Haykal, David Wong Hsien Ming and Izyanti Asa’ari.

April sees the release of Kimberley Chia Qin’s debut collection Hot Girls Have Stomach Issues, which seeks to distil some of the messiness of girls coming into their womanhood.

There should also be some reprints to bring back older classics. Ethos Books, for example, is re-issuing Alfian Sa’at’s touchstone second collection A History Of Amnesia, originally published in 2001, in July.

After a crop of biographies from pioneer public servants and compiled tributes to first-generation leaders in 2025, the relegation of SG60 to the rear window should slow that output somewhat.

But Nutgraf Books, which has found a niche in telling the story of integral national institutions such as in its best-selling The Price Of Being Fair: The FairPrice Group Story (2023), now has DBS and Thian Hock Keng temple in its sights.

The titles for both books are as yet unconfirmed. The one on Thian Hock Keng temple will be the publisher’s first foray into graphic novels, targeting young adults.

ISEAS Publishing’s titles in the first quarter of 2026 include a volume of essays on Malaysia’s 2022 General Election, the closest in its history and the first to produce a hung Parliament, Malaysia’s 2022 General Election: Crafting Power In A Crowded Arena; an examination of the connections between the military and money flow in Thailand, Plundering Security? The Economic Power Of Thailand’s Military; and a study of China’s culture in South-east Asia, Rising China, Chinese Culture And Its Transformation In Southeast Asia.

World Scientific will also publish eminent historian Wang Gungwu’s memoir No Borders: Journeys Across Islands and Continents, drawing on a life lived across Malaya, London, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.