[AWP offsite] Meet Gaudy Boy: An Indie Press from New York

Gaudy Boy, the publishing arm of the NYC-based literary non-profit Singapore Unbound, publishes poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction by Asian authors residing in the United States and across the world. Notable recent titles include Amanat: Women’s Writing from Kazakhstan and Picking Off New Shoots Will Not Stop the Spring: Witness Poems and Essays from Burma/Mynamar 1988-2021. At this special event in Folio, publisher Jee Leong Koh will speak about the mission of the press to amplify minoritized voices. Visiting writers Lawrence Lacambra Ypil (Philippines/Singapore) and Jim Pascual Agustin (Philippines/South Africa) will read from their Gaudy Boy Poetry Prize winning books.

Lawrence Lacambra Ypil is an award-winning poet and essayist whose work explores the intersection of text and image, and the role of material culture in the construction of cultural identity. Winner of the inaugural Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize, The Experiment of the Tropics was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Awards and longlisted for The Believer Book Awards. Born and raised in the Philippines, Ypil teaches creative writing at Yale-NUS College, Singapore.

Jim Pascual Agustin grew up in the Philippines under the Marcos dictatorship. He has lived in Cape Town, South Africa, since 1994. His books have been published in the Philippines, the UK, and South Africa. His forthcoming book, Waking Up to the Pattern Left by a Snail Overnight, is due to be launched in Seattle and New York in 2023.

Jee Leong Koh is the publisher of the NYC-based literary press Gaudy Boy. He is also the author of Steep Tea (Carcanet), named a Best Book of the Year by UK’s Financial Times and a Finalist by Lambda Literary in the US. His second Carcanet collection is Inspector Inspector (2022). He is the winner of the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize in English fiction.