Write and Burn & Catharsis Reading

The Catharsis poetry reading provides a space for writers to process and transcend challenges through verse. The featured poets use poetry as a means of finding release and restoration from life's struggles. They also offer comfort and hope to anyone undergoing their own trials.

This poetry performance competition is organised by Poetry Festival Singapore for students at upper secondary levels, junior colleges or equivalent levels at centralised institutes, polytechnics or international schools in Singapore. 

Yuu Shane is a bilingual poet currently studying at Eunoia Junior College. Her work has achieved a number of accolades, including awards in the National Poetry Competition and National Translation Competition (Singapore). Apart from writing, she is a lover of art galleries, cats and Spotify playlists.

Ernest is a graduate of NUS High School, a Write & Burn! finalist, and does not consider himself a poet. He treats poetry as a series of interesting experiments with words, and is honored that his experiments have allowed him to perform here tonight. Unfortunately, he is incredibly susceptible to stage fright. He hopes that his poems can leave lasting images of emotions, and in his free time, he likes reading and listening to J-Pop.

Wee Zen is a student from NUS High School who enjoys the sweet comfort that writing poetry provides him.

Ashlynn is a student at ACJC. She has gained plenty of experience in various fields not only through school and through her job, but also through volunteering at various places. She is highly involved in The Grit Project and Tiong Bahru Youth Network activities, and is also a member of the Eagles Interact Club. She enjoys volunteering and is especially passionate about serving people with mental illnesses, people with disabilities, the elderly and young children within her community.

Passionate about all things art—from literary to visual, Jaslyn is a first-year student currently studying at Hwa Chong Institution. She draws inspiration from her life experiences and social issues she feels strongly about, channeling them into her works, as seen in Eye on the World, Catharsis, Write & Burn!, Between the Lines, and more. She is dedicated to honing and developing her writing skills, and hopes to contribute and give back to the local writing community in the future.

Corum is the editor of ACJC's writing CCA and its triannual publication. He studies History and Linguistics and loves reading about historical fiction, contemporary politics, family drama, and psychological horror.

Jonathan is a writer and editor. Born in New York to a Malaysian father and South Korean mother, he was raised in Singapore and educated at Cambridge and Yale universities. He is the author of the poetry collection going home (Landmark, 2022), named a 2022 Best Book of the Year by SUSPECT Journal. He serves as a Managing Editor of poetry.sg, Poetry Reader at New York-based journal The Plentitudes, and Poetry, Essays, and Creative Nonfiction Editor at the Journal of Practice, Research, & Tangential Activities (PR&TA).

Chrisdale Allison Tay is a writer, actor and educator from Singapore. She is a graduate of the Asia Creative Writing Programme, having been taught by international writers such as Claire Keegan and Alice Pung. She is a regular spoken word poetry performer and has clinched first place in several spoken word competitions. She is also a mental health advocate and is currently involved in a mental health collective, discussing issues on self-stigma and trauma. Her play, Emily Tan is Not Invisible, was chosen to be part of Centre 42’s New Scripts Residency. She strongly believes that words can change the world.

Isabelle is currently a Year 4 English Literature and Art History Undergraduate at NTU. She has participated in the 2018 and 2019 Catharsis readings before. An aspiring poet who loves cats, crystals and tea lattes, she also enjoys tutoring and is passionate about educating students. Anything floral and artsy will definitely catch her eye! Themes that she frequently writes about are feminism, mental illness and environmentalism. Her many poetry pieces can be found @incandescentillusions on Instagram.  

Sher Ting is a 2021 Writeability Fellow with Writers Victoria and a 2023 Kenyon Review Winter Workshop participant with work published/forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, Salt Hill and elsewhere. Her debut chapbook, Bodies of Separation, is published with Cathexis Northwest Press (USA) and second chapbook, The Long-Lasting Grief of Foxes, is forthcoming with Mouthfeel Press (USA). She tweets at @sherttt and writes at sherting.carrd.co. 

Sarah Mak is a Singaporean writer, and a member of Sing Lit Station writing collective zer0sleep. She is currently studying Communication Studies at Nanyang Technological University, writing poetry and code, or learning to sleep. 

Calvin is a literature teacher who spends his free time singing in a choir and attempting to write creatively across different genres. A strong believer of ‘writing what you know’, he is fascinated by the beauty of the quotidian and how it can be viewed through different lenses and perspectives. He is also enchanted by the power of language to convey complex thoughts and emotions, and he hopes to share with others the little moments and observations in life that may otherwise go ignored and unrecorded. 

Nicholas (he/him) works in a hospital by day, and by night, he is a member of the literary collective zer0sleep. Some of his works have appeared in Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Eunoia Review, CONTOUR (Poetry Festival Singapore), and Anima Methodi / Seven Hundred Lines (Squircle Line Press). Every morning, he relearns how to comfort always. 

Low Kian Seh has a chemical engineering degree but is an artist to a larger degree. He is a chemistry teacher by occupation but has poetry as preoccupation. For work-life balance, he makes time to write, despite being a busy civil servant and a father of three. His works have been published in SingPoWriMo anthologies, A Luxury We Cannot Afford, A Luxury We Must Afford, Twin Cities, Anima Methodi, Contour, and other publications. He won first prize in Singapore’s National Poetry Competition 2019 with some of his poems going viral. He has taken over as host of Catharsis, an annual event of Singapore Poetry Festival, since 2022.