2023 marks the 60th year since the formation of the Federation of Malaysia, comprising the Federation of Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak – and Singapore. For Malaysians, 1963 is of profound national significance. For Singaporeans, the more memorable year might be 1965, the year of separation and subsequent independence. Yet for two fateful years, the destinies of the two countries were conjoined. The kinship, affinity – and tensions – are still keenly felt today. This collection brings together writers from both countries to reflect creatively and critically upon this sense of entwinement – to celebrate, to reflect, and to rue, in the tradition of volumes such as The Second Tongue (ed. Edwin Thumboo, 1976). Featured writers include: Anitha Devi Pillai, Anna Onni, Arjun Sai Krishnan, Benedict Lim, Brandon Liew, Clara Chow, Clarissa Oon, Daryl Li, Elaine Chiew, Heng Jia Min, Ho Kin Yunn, ila, Jocelyn Marcia Ng, Jonathan Chan, Joshua Ip, Kevin Martens Wong, Malachi Edwin Vethamani, Mohamed Shaker, Ng Yi-Sheng, Noor Iskandar, Paul Augustin, Rachel Fung, Sharmini Aphrodite, Sheena Gurbakhash, Sofia Mariah Ma, Sreedhevi Iyer, Sumitra Selvaraj, Tse Hao Guang, Yu Kai Tan, Zhang Ruihe

Daryl Lim Wei Jie is a poet, translator and literary critic from Singapore. His poetry collection, Anything but Human, was shortlisted for the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize. He won the Golden Point Award for English Poetry in 2015. Daryl co-edited Food Republic: A Singapore Literary Banquet, an anthology of literary food writing from Singapore, which received a Special Award at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2023. Hamid Roslan is the author of parsetreeforestfire, a finalist for the Singapore Literature Prize 2020. His prose and poetry have been published in Violent Phenomena: 21 Essays on Translation, New Singapore Poetries, and numerous literary journals. Melizarani T. Selva is a Malaysian writer and spoken word poet. Her first book, Taboo, is a poetic interrogation of the Malaysian Indian identity. She co-published an anthology of 100 poems by 61 poets from Malaysia titled When I Say Spoken, You Say Word! Her play Kudumbam was staged as part of the 24-Hour Playwriting Competition 2021 winners’ showcase. William Tham is a researcher and academic editor with a background in English from Universiti Malaya. He has been published in NANG, PR&TA, The Best of World SF: Volume 2, and the Southeast Asian Review of English.