When Worlds Collide: The Role of Speculative Fiction as Texts of Resistance

About the Programme: 

Speculative Fiction texts are often used as mediums of resistance, to rewrite boundaries, and to reclaim narratives in literary works. But why do these genres lend themselves to such purposes, and how effective can they be?

This talk explores the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of resistance in literature (both regional and global!) and examines the functions of Speculative Fiction works from the perspectives of both readers and writers. We will investigate how these works create new frameworks for interacting with the real world and imagine new social structures and outcomes. Additionally, we will explore common themes in Speculative Fiction, such as rebellions, transgenerational violence, alternate histories, and dystopias, as they are tested in new, terrible, or fantastical world orders that are often not too dissimilar from our own realities.

In the end, perhaps Speculative Fiction works have the power to change what we cannot, as their best examples continue to exist in conversation with real life.

About the Speakers:

Jason Erik Lundberg was born in New York, grew up in North Carolina, and has lived in Singapore since 2007. He is the author and anthologist of twenty-nine books, including A Fickle and Restless Weapon (2020), Most Excellent and Lamentable (2019), Diary of One Who Disappeared (2019), Carol the Coral (2016), Strange Mammals (2013), Embracing the Strange (2013), The Alchemy of Happiness (2012), Fish Eats Lion (2012) and Fish Eats Lion Redux (2022), Red Dot Irreal (2011), the six-book Bo Bo and Cha Cha children’s picture book series (2012–2015), and the biennial Best New Singaporean Short Stories anthology series (est. 2013). He served as Fiction Editor at Epigram Books for nearly twelve years (where the books he edited have won multiple awards, and made various year’s best lists), as well as the founding editor of LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction (2012–2018). His writing has been anthologised widely, shortlisted for multiple awards, honourably mentioned twice in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and translated into half a dozen languages. He currently lectures in the Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Publishing programme at Nanyang Technological University.

Gina Chew is a story-teller based in Singapore with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in English Literature from the National University of Singapore. A full-time writer for film, her short film series has been featured in various film festivals around the world, including the Busan International Short Film Festival and Series Mania.

Other than film, Gina has written for theatre and print. She launched her debut graphic novel, Afterlife, with Difference Engine at the 2023 Asian Festival of Children’s Content and was invited to be a panelist at the 2023 Singapore Writers Festival. This Writer’s Lab marks her first foray into long-form prose writing.

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