State of Play

How do we think of ourselves as poets? How does our race, our home(s), and our cultural heritage, shape our sense of belonging, our ways of seeing or experiencing the world? How can we learn from and offer support to each other?

State of Play brings together conversations between an international line-up of poets, taking place over the course of a year. Edited by Eddie Tay, a Singapore-born, Hong Kong-based poet and literature professor and Jennifer Wong, a Hong Kong-born, British-based poet, this anthology offers rich insights into these questions and the ways a life lived in many places can invigorate one’s writing.

With themes ranging from the sense of home and racialised expectations, to community and language, as well as the process of writing poetry, these creative discussions delve into the complexities and diversity of identity in the days of global citizenship and cultural diaspora.

‘Deeply intimate and profoundly intellectual, the letters in State of Play have together kindled a new light for everyone of us who is searching between languages, cultures, and worlds. An essential book.’ —Yan Ge

Reminds us of the global reach of English-language poetry and poetics, whose production is not limited to the predominantly white Anglophone countries of the so-called West.' —Prof. Dorothy Wang

'Draws together a sparky and inspiring array of conversations... I wager that no reader interested in poetry will not find excitement in this vibrant anthology.’ —Prof. Elleke Boehmer

'This anthology offers rare and intimate insights into the creative challenges of writing poetry' —Prof. Susheila Nasta, Founder of Wasafiri

‘Multiple yet singular, the conversations here reveal the complexities of poetic language.' —Prof. Sandeep Parmar