Category Archives: The Mental Life of Cities

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Eddie Tay reads at Kubrick, Sunday 26 December 2010

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From the Kubrick Poetry website:

時間 Time：2010/12/26 (Sun) 5:00pm-6:00pm

地點 Venue: 油麻地 Kubrick (next to Broadway Cinemathèque, 3 Public Square St.)

主持 Moderators：Polly Ho, Adam Cheung, Florence Ng, Wong Wai Yim

詩人來賓 Guest Poet：Eddie Tay

Born in Singapore, Eddie Tay is a long time resident of Hong Kong. He is an assistant professor at the Department of English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he teaches courses on creative writing, children literature and poetry. Tay is the reviews editor at Cha: An Asian Literary Journal.

Recently, he published his third poetry collection, The Mental Life of Cities. The collection is “a meditation on the modern city and creative life” and the poems are inspired by “the ways in which the English and the Chinese languages intertwine and take root in the Asian cities of Hong Kong and Singapore”. He has authored two collections of poetry: Remnants and A Lover’s Soliloquy.

You are welcome to bring your own work to share, as always.

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Lantern Review reviews Eddie Tay’s The Mental Life of Cities

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Henry W. Leung, reviewer for Lantern Review, has written a review of Eddie Tay’s latest collection of poetry The Mental Life of Cities. You can read the review here. Henry also wrote a review of the current edition of Cha (Issue #12). 
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You might also be interested in the following discussions of works from Eddie’s book:
  • A Cup of Fine Tea: Eddie Tay’s “Night Thoughts” [Link].
  • A Cup of Fine Tea: Eddie Tay’s “Country” [Link].
  • A Cup of Fine Tea: Eddie Tay’s “Cities’  [Link].

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Launch of Eddie Tay’s The Mental Life of Cities at Poetry OutLoud

Venue: Fringe Club
Date: 3 Nov 2010 (Wed)
Time: 8pm
Akin Jeje will MC – if you’d like to read in the open mic section, please email us at poetryoutloud@gmail.com

About The Mental Life of Cities
This collection is a meditation on the modern city and the creative life. The bilingual poems featured here are inspired by the ways in which the English and the Chinese languages intertwine and take root in the Asian cities of Hong Kong and Singapore.
Such a thick forest of words
we’re passing through –
is it possible to read from cover to cover?
The leaves are trembling in these hands,
waiting for a city to happen.
Born in Singapore, Eddie Tay is a long time resident of Hong Kong. He is an assistant professor at the Department of English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he teaches courses on creative writing and poetry. He is also the reviews editor of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, an online journal based in Hong Kong. This is his third collection of poetry.
Praise for Tay’s previous work:
“One finds … many powerful and surprising effects …”
—Wong Phui Nam in The Straits Times, Singapore
“… his poems are economical, full of evocative detail, and both ironic
and impassioned at one and the same time. I read them over and over
again.” —Bradley Winterton in The Taipei Times
“… a balance of definition and lyricism.”
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2011 Pushcart Nominations – Cha: An Asian Literary Journal

We are very pleased to announce Cha‘s nominations for the Pushcart Prize 2011. The sixth nominee was selected based on readers’ voting through email and on this blog. 

1) Eddie Tay, “Night Thoughts” Read an analysis of this poem. (Issue #12, September 2010)
2) Phill Provance, “St. Petersburg Has Many Churches” Read an analysis of this poem. (Issue #12, September 2010)
3) Rosanna Oh, “Etude” (issue #11, May 2010)
4) Anuradha Vijayakrishnan, “Suicide Note” Read an analysis of this poem. (issue #10, February 2010)
5) Papa Osumbal, “A Bum’s Demise” Read an analysis of this poem. (issue #10, February 2010)
6) Rumjhum Biswas, “Bones“ Read an analysis of this poem. (issue #12, September 2010)
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Also see our Best of the Web, Best of the Net and Micro Award nominations this year.
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Congratulations to all the nominees. We wish you the best of luck and thank you for letting us publish your wonderful work.
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    Eddie Tay’s The Mental Life of Cities

    This post was originally posted on 22nd October, 2010. 

    click image to enlarge
    We are very pleased and proud to announce that our Reviews Editor Eddie Tay, who is also a professor teaching creative writing and poetry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has just published his third full-length collection of poetry, The Mental Life of Cities (Chameleon Press). The collection is “a meditation on the modern city and creative life” and the poems are inspired by “the ways in which the English and the Chinese languages intertwine and take root in the Asian cities of Hong Kong and Singapore”.  
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    Four poems from the collection: “Night Thoughts”, “Country”, “White Pages” and “Cities” appear in the current issue of Cha; “Night Thoughts” has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize 2010.

    If you would like to receive a review copy of The Mental Life of Cities, please also write to Tammy.

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    A FREE AND SIGNED COPY OF EDDIE TAY’S THE MENTAL LIFE OF CITIES — FOR YOU.


    Eddie has very generously agreed to give away ONE SIGNED COPY of The Mental Life of Cities to a Cha reader. To get this special copy, please:
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    1) Send an email to Tammy Ho [t@asiancha.com] with the subject line “The Mental Life of Cities”.
    2) In the body of the email, answer the following question: Cha is which city’s first online English literary journal?

    As simple as that! We will randomly choose someone from the pool of people who have written us. Deadline is Sunday 7 November, 2010. The selected reader will receive an email from us on the following day.

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    Meet Eddie Tay

    Eddie Tay is the Reviews Editor of Cha and has previously contributed poetry (“Whose Woods These Are”) and reviews to the journal. In the September 2010 issue, we are very delighted to have the opportunity to feature four poems from his third poetry collection, Mental Life of Cities, forthcoming in late 2010 or early 2011. You will like these poems: the play of light and memory in “Night Thoughts”; the merging of book, body, and longing in “White Pages”; the intense and vulnerable revelations of the persona in “Country”; and the haunting meditation on city life in “Cities”.
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    Bio: Born in Singapore, Eddie Tay is a long time resident of Hong Kong. He is an assistant professor at the Department of English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he teaches courses on creative writing and poetry.
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