Robert Yeo

Robert Yeo (born Robert Yeo Cheng Chuan in 1940) is a Singaporean poet, playwright and novelist.

Robert Yeo
Yeo giving a talk in January 2014
BornRobert Yeo Cheng Chuan
1940 (age 80–81)
OccupationPoet, playwright and novelist
LanguageEnglish
NationalitySingaporean
Notable worksThe Adventures of Holden Heng (1986); Are You There, Singapore? (1974); One Year Back Home (1980); Changi (1996)
Notable awardsBBM (1991), S.E.A. Write Award (2011)
SpouseEsther Leong

Career

Yeo is a retired lecturer of the National Institute of Education and Nanyang Technological University. In 2011, he is a teacher of creative writing at the Singapore Management University[1] and mentors the Mentor Access Programme of the National Arts Council. In 1978, he attended the University of Iowa's International Writing Program and was a Fulbright Scholar in 1995.[2] For more than a decade, from 1977 onwards, he was chairman of the Drama Advisory Committee which helped develop theatre in Singapore, especially English-language theatre. For this work, he received the Bintang Bakti Masyarakat (Public Service Star) in 1991, and was awarded the S.E.A. Write Award in 2011.

He has published four poetry collections: Coming Home Baby (1971); And Napalm Does Not Help (1977), A Part of Three (1989) and Leaving Home, Mother (1999) and has been included in several anthologies, including Five Takes (1974).

His venture into novel writing resulted in a sole book: The Adventures of Holden Heng (1986) about the sexual education of its anti-hero.

Yeo has written six plays: Are You There, Singapore? (1974), One Year Back Home (1980), Second Chance (1988), The Eye of History (1991), Changi (1996) and Your Bed is Your Coffin. All the plays except the last have been staged in Singapore. Are You There, Singapore?, One Year Back Home and Changi are collectively known as "the Singapore trilogy".

Yeo has also edited collections of short fiction, plays and textbooks, a memoir, as well as the libretto for an opera, Fences (2012).

Works

Poetry collections
  • Coming Home Baby (1971, Federal Publications)
  • And Napalm Does Not Help (1977, Heinemann Educational Books (Asia))
  • A Part of Three (1989, Select Books) ISBN 9810010788
  • Leaving Home, Mother (1999, Angsana Books) ISBN 9813056312
  • The Best of Robert Yeo (2012, Epigram Books) ISBN 9789810718404

Novels
  • The Adventures of Holden Heng (1986, Heinemann Publishers Asia; 2011, Epigram Books) ISBN 9971640899 ISBN 9789810899349

Plays
  • Are You There, Singapore? (1974, National University of Singapore Society)
  • One Year Back Home (1980, National University of Singapore Society)
  • Second Chance (1988, 1992, TheatreWorks)
  • The Eye of History (1992)
  • Your Bed is Your Coffin (Unstaged)
  • Changi (1997, National University of Singapore Society)
  • The Singapore Trilogy (2001, Landmark Books) ISBN 9813065508

Libretto
  • Kannagi–The Ankle Bracelet (2009, 2014)
  • Fences (2012)

Non-fiction
  • Routes: A Singaporean Memoir, 1940-75 (2011, Ethos Books) ISBN 9789810875367

Anthologies
  • Gwee Li Sui, ed. Written Country: The History of Singapore through Literature (2016, Landmark Publications) ISBN 9789814189668

Personal life

Yeo is married to Esther Leong, who he met on the set of Are You There, Singapore? in 1974, when she played the character Hua after responding to an audition call in the newspapers.[3]

References
  1. "Charting his Routes" (PDF). Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  2. "Singapore Literature Book Club". Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  3. Tan, Corrie (1 October 2014). "Classic Singapore plays #2 - Are You There, Singapore?". Singapore Press Holdings. The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2014.

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