ISSUE 23
Thomas Morton Prize: Fiction Winner
Fiction
Thomas Morton Prize: Poetry Winner
Poetry
Interviews
Reviews
Departure
An award-winning journalist, Gary Singh has published hundreds of articles as either a staff writer or freelancer, including travel essays, art and music criticism, profiles, business journalism, lifestyle articles, short fiction and now poetry. In addition, for 450 straight weeks he’s also penned a creative newspaper column for Metro, San Jose’s alt-weekly newspaper, an offbeat glimpse into the frontiers of the human condition in Silicon Valley. Gary’s writing tends to merge the outer with the inner. He is an explorer of that which is hidden. Being half-eastern and half-western, Gary’s work, art and life often exemplify a combination of opposites. Operating between established realms—creatively, geographically or even psychically—Gary is a sucker for anything that fogs the opposites of native and exotic, luxury and the gutter, academe and the street.
(Tu Fu, the Tang Dynasty Poet of Suburban Wasteland America, Offers
a Farewell Poem to his Friends, Readers and Fans)
concrete expressways
spread their tentacles
cul-de-sacs, wool-coloured stripmalls,
tract-house subdivisions
seasonless weather
suggests the time is right
who wouldn’t lament
the end of an industry
obsolete columnist will not
devolve to the dark side of PR
legions of worthy readers
here in the neighbourhood
beautiful readers, you have held
me upright
now I am heading south
to a legitimate darker side
who’d give a dime, or even some tea
to this wandering columnist with a broken MacBook
An award-winning journalist, Gary Singh has published hundreds of articles as either a staff writer or freelancer, including travel essays, art and music criticism, profiles, business journalism, lifestyle articles, short fiction and now poetry. In addition, for 450 straight weeks he’s also penned a creative newspaper column for Metro, San Jose’s alt-weekly newspaper, an offbeat glimpse into the frontiers of the human condition in Silicon Valley. Gary’s writing tends to merge the outer with the inner. He is an explorer of that which is hidden. Being half-eastern and half-western, Gary’s work, art and life often exemplify a combination of opposites. Operating between established realms—creatively, geographically or even psychically—Gary is a sucker for anything that fogs the opposites of native and exotic, luxury and the gutter, academe and the street.