Alfian Sa'at Explained

Alfian bin Sa'at
Birth Name:Alfian bin Sa'at
Birth Date:1977 7, df=yes
Birth Place:Singapore
Occupation:Playwright, Poet, Writer
Nationality:Singaporean

Alfian bin Sa'at (born 18 July 1977), best known as Alfian Sa'at, is a Singaporean playwright, poet, and writer.[1] He is known for penning a body of plays, poems, and prose such as race, sexuality, and politics.[2] Alfian has received a number of national literature awards, such as the 2001 Young Artist Award and three Life! Theatre Awards for Best Original Script. Alfian is the resident playwright of theatre group W!LD RICE.

Biography

Early life

Born in Singapore,[3] An alumnus of Tampines Primary School, Raffles Institution, and Raffles Junior College, Alfian was the chairman of the drama societies, both known as Raffles Players, in both RI and RJC. He also took part in the Creative Arts Programme twice – once at fifteen, and a second time at seventeen – both times under the mentorship of Haresh Sharma. He has since returned to the programme as an occasional mentor.[4] [5] During his two years at RJC, Alfian received the Kripalani Award for Outstanding Contribution to Creative Arts.[6] Alfian attended medical classes at the National University of Singapore but did not graduate.

Career

In 1998, Alfian published his first collection of poetry, One Fierce Hour at the age of twenty-one. The book was acclaimed as "truly a landmark for poetry [in Singapore]" by The Straits Times, and Alfian himself was described by Malaysia's New Straits Times as "one of the most acclaimed poets in his country... a prankish provocateur, libertarian hipster".[3] A year later, Alfian published his first collection of short stories, Corridor, which won the Singapore Literature Prize Commendation Award. Seven of the short stories from the collection have since been adapted for television. In 2001, he published his second collection of poetry, A History of Amnesia, which was hailed by The Straits Times as "one of the most powerful collections by a Singaporean" in addition to being shortlisted for a Kiriyama Asia-Pacific Book Prize. Alfian won both the inaugural National Arts Council-Singapore Press Holdings Golden Point Award for Poetry in the same year, as well as the National Arts Council's Young Artist Award for Literature.[7]

Alfian's plays, written in both English and Malay, have received broad attention in both Singapore and Malaysia. They have also been translated into German and Swedish, and have been read and performed in London, Zurich, Stockholm, Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. His first play was produced when he was 19, and he has had a long association as a playwright with theatre group The Necessary Stage as well as with Teater Ekamatra, a Malay theatre group known for articulating minority concerns in Chinese-majority Singapore.

Alfian is currently the resident playwright of theatre group W!LD RICE.[8]

In 2015, Nadirah was selected by The Business Times as one of the "finest plays in 50 years" alongside productions by Goh Poh Seng, Michael Chiang and Haresh Sharma and others.[9]

In 2016, it was reported that sex.violence.blood.gore, a play he co-wrote, and his short story collection Malay Sketches is on the reading list of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, while the University of York has his poem "Singapore You Are Not My Country" and West Virginia University his selected poems on their reading lists. In particular, the University of York's Dr Claire Chambers noted that this was because Alfian "introduces non-Anglophone words and concepts, and puts together words in an expressive portmanteau style".[10]

Works

Plays

English
Malay
Mandarin

Prose

English
Malay

Poetry

Awards

External links

Notes and References

  1. Bahrawi. Nazry. October 2016. An interview with Alfian Sa'at. Asymptote Journal.
  2. Web site: A Moment with… Playwright Alfian Sa'at. Lifestyle Asia. 29 September 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141030232619/http://www.lifestyleasia.com/sg/en/culture/feature/a-moment-with-playwright-alfian-saat-10651/. 30 October 2014. dead. dmy-all.
  3. Web site: Alfian Bin Sa'at. 2004. Olaf. Schenk. Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin.
  4. Web site: NUS Knowledge Enterprise . Dissecting Poetry . . August 2001 . 19 November 2006 . https://web.archive.org/web/20061114213443/http://newshub.nus.edu.sg/ke/0102/articles/alfian_saat.htm . 14 November 2006 . dead . dmy .
  5. Web site: Lim . Audrey . Deny Thy Country, Young Man: An Interview with Alfian Sa'at . oddrummer's home page . 19 November 2006 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080215205714/http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Studio/6728/alfian.htm . 15 February 2008 . dead . dmy .
  6. Web site: Gwee. Li Sui. Alfian Bin Sa'at: Biography and Brief Introduction. The Literature, Culture, and Society of Singapore. Postcolonial and Postimperial Literature in English. 19 November 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20061211214146/http://www.postcolonialweb.org/singapore/literature/poetry/saat/bio1.html. 11 December 2006 . live.
  7. Web site: Alfian Sa'at / Bio . 2023-02-07 . poetry.sg . en-US.
  8. Web site: W!LD RICE :: About. W!LD RICE. https://web.archive.org/web/20050508234027/http://www.wildrice.com.sg/contactus.html. dead. 8 May 2005. 26 November 2006.
  9. Web site: Yusof. Helmi. The finest plays in 50 years. The Business Times. Singapore Press Holdings. 5 January 2015.
  10. News: Sin. Yuen. Who's afraid of 'chao ah beng'? Overseas universities use Singaporean literature to teach. 15 February 2016. The Straits Times. Singapore Press Holdings. 15 February 2016.

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