Boey Kim Cheng

Boey Kim Cheng (b. 1965, Singapore - ) is widely regarded as one of the most promising Singapore poets to emerge in the 1990s. Boey has published four collections of poems to date. Three of his works, Somewhere-bound, Another Place and Days of No Name have won awards. For his artistic achievement, Boey received the National Arts Council Young Artist Award in 1996.  Boey currently resides in Australia and teaches creative writing at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales.

Early Life
Boey Kim Cheng was born in Singapore in 1965. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Arts degrees in English Literature from the National University of Singapore. In 1993, he won a scholarship from the Goethe-Institut to pursue German Studies in Murnau. In the following year, he was sponsored by the United State Information Agency to attend the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Boey embarked on a doctoral programme with the National University of Singapore which he later discontinued. He entered the workforce and was employed by the Ministry of Community Development as a probation officer. Disillusioned with the state of literary and cultural politics in Singapore, Boey left for Sydney with his wife in 1996. While in Australia, Boey completed his Ph.D. studies with the University of Macquarie. Boey is currently an Australian citizen and teaches creative writing at the University of Newcastle.

Literary Career
In 1987, Boey won first prize at the National University of Singapore Poetry Competition while studying as an undergraduate. At age 24, he published his first collection of poetry. Somewhere-bound went on to win the National Book Development Councils (NBDCS) Book Award for Poetry in 1992. Two years later, his second volume of poems Another Place received the commendation award at the NBDCS Book Awards. In 1995, Days Of No Name, which was inspired by the people whom he met in the United States, was awarded a merit at the Singapore Literature Prize. In recognition of his artistic talent and contributions, Boey received the National Arts Council's Young Artist Award in 1996. After a long hiatus, Boey returned with his fourth volume of poetry in 2006. After the Fire deals primarily with the passing of his father in 2000. Boey's works have also appeared in anthologies like From Boys to Men: A Literary Anthology of National Service in Singapore, Rhythms: A Singaporean Millennial Anthology of Poetry and No Other City: The Ethos Anthology of Urban Poetry.

Boey's works are highly regarded by both the academic and writing communities in Singapore. Writer Shirley Lim remarked that he is the "best post-1965 English language poet in the Republic today". His own sense of restlessness about life in Singapore is reflected prevalently in his poems. According to him, Singapore's rapid growth and swift economic success are achieved at a cost. Feelings of displacement and disconnection with the past occurred precisely because places where one experienced his or her sense of belonging, through their childhood are fast disappearing.

Influences
Lee Tzu Pheng, his former lecturer, is often credited as his mentor. In terms of poetic direction and discipline, Boey attributes T.S. Eliot, Keats, Gerald Manley Hopkins, William Wordsworth, W.B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney as his major influences. His favourite authors are Camus, Keats, Dostoyevsky and Kazantzakis. He also enjoys the poetic works of Rainer Maria Rilke, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell and Pablo Neruda, and novelists Bruce Chatwin, Peter Matthiessen, Colin Thubron and Joan Didion. Besides the literary arts, Boey also enjoys the visual arts. In particular, he admires the works of Klee and Kandinsky, and films by Wim Wenders, Krzysztof Kieslowski, and Akira Kurosawa.

Awards
1992 : NBDCS Book Award for Poetry for Somewhere-bound
1994 : NBDCS Highly Commended Work for Poetry for Another Place
1995 : Merit Award Winner for the Singapore Literature Prize for Days of No Name
1996 : National Arts Council Young Artist Award for Literature
1999 : Third Annual Inner City Life Literary Competition, First Prize for Poetry (New South Wales, Australia)

Works
1989 : Somewhere-bound
1992 : Another Place
1996 : Days of No Name
2006 : After the Fire: New and Selected Poems



Author
Gracie Lee



References
Boey, K. C. (2004). Calling the poems home. In Cheong, F. (Ed.), Idea to ideal: 12 Singapore poets on the writing of their poems (pp. 60-67). Singapore: Firstfruits Publications.
(Call no.: RSING 821.009 IDE)

Davidson, V. (1992, September 5). Place of peace [Microfilm: NL 17777].  The Straits Times.

Benson, E., & Conolly, L. W. (2005). Encyclopedia of post-colonial literatures (Vol.1, p.130). London; New York: Routledge.
(Call no.: R 820.9900914 ENC)

Gwee, L. S. (2005.) Poetry and the Renaissance machine in Singapore. Harvard Asia Quarterly, IX (1 & 2).  Retrieved October 4, 2006, from http://www.asiaquarterly.com (then click on Archive > Volume IX, Nos. 1 & 2.  Winter/Spring 2005 >  Poetry and the Renaissance Machine in Singapore).

Koh, B. S. (1989, September 20). Army poems and social satire [Microfilm: NL 16757]. The Straits Times.

Koh, B. S. (1995, December 7). There's money in poetry, literature prize proves [Microfilm: NL 20078].  The Straits Times.

National Arts Council.  (2005). Young Artist Award. Retrieved October 4, 2006, from http://www.nac.gov.sg (then click on Arts Awards > Young Artist Award).

National Book Development Council.  (2002). Book prizes. Retrieved October 4, 2006, from http://www.bookcouncil.sg (then click on Book Awards > Singapore).

Patke, R. S. (2000). Poetry in Singapore. World Literature Today. 74(2), 293-299.  Retrieved from October 2, 2006, from Ebscohost database.

The University of Newcastle. Australia. (2003). Kim Cheng Boey. Retrieved October 4, 2006, from http://www.newcastle.edu.au (then click on Faculty of Education and Arts > School of Humanities and Social Science > Boey, Kim Cheng).

Singh, K. (Ed.) (1999). Interlogue: Studies in Singapore literature (Vol. 2: Poetry, pp. 17, 98, 152, 185, 188). Singapore: Ethos Books.
(Call no.: RSING 808.895957 INT)

Talib, Ismail. S. (1998). Singapore literature in English. In J.A. Foley (Ed.), English in new cultural contexts: Reflections from Singapore (pp. 270-286). Singapore: Singapore Institute of Management ; Oxford University Press, 1998. 
(Call no.: RSING 428.0095957 ENG)

Tan, G. (Ed.) (1994). Celebrations: Singapore creative writing in English: A bibliography (p. 44). Singapore: Reference Services Division, National Library.
(Call no.: RSING 016.808 SIN-[LIB]).

Tan, K. L. (1996, August 28). A poet bound to go somewhere. The New Straits Times.  Retrieved October 2, 2006, from Factiva database.

Tom, K. (2006, August 20). Back to beginnings. The Straits Times.  Retrieved October 2, 2006, from Factiva database.

Baydas, R. et al. (1994).  Influence and National Literatures. Retrieved March 6, 2007, from The University of Iowa, The Virtual Writing University Web site: http://at-lamp.its.uiowa.edu/virtualwu/ (then click on VWU Archive > International Writing Program Archive > Authors by last name > Riyad Baydas)


The information in this article is valid as at 2007 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.

Subject
Personalities>>Biographies>>Authors
Arts>>Literature>>English (Singapore) Literature>>Poetry
Boey, Kim Cheng--Biography
Poets--Biography
Award winners--Singapore--Biography
Language and literature>>Literatures>>East and Southeast Asian literature>>Singapore literature

Librarian Recommendations
>> Days of no name
>> Somewhere-bound


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