January 27, 2010 Goh Poh Seng

This week on a special edition of Wax Poetic we celebrate the life of local dramatist, novelist and poet, Goh Poh Seng, with an interview and reading of his works by his sons, Kagan and Kajin Goh.

Goh Poh Seng was born in Malaya in 1936. He received his medical degree from University College Dublin, and practised medicine in Singapore for twenty-five years. In his time living in Singapore, Dr Goh held many honorary positions including the Chairman of the National Theatre Trust Board between 1967 and 1972. He was committed to the development of Art and cultural policies of post-independent Singapore, as well as the development of cultural institutions such as the Singapore National Symphony, the Chinese Orchestra and the Singapore Dance Company.^[1]

Goh's first novel, If We Dream Too Long won the National Book Development Council of Singapore's Fiction Award in 1976 and has been translated into Russian and Tagalog. His other books include The Immolation, Dance of Moths, Eyewitness, Lines from Batu FerringhiBird With One Wing. His most recent works are his Collections of Poems, As Though the Gods Love Us and The Girl from Ermita. His work also appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies around the world. Goh lived in Canada to which he emigrated in 1986. He died on 10 January 2010 in Vancouver. 

From Wikipedia

Photos

Left. At home in Singapore – circa 1970s

Right: With Professor Dennis Enright, poet and Professor of English at the University of Singapore - Early 1960s