In this sharing, Chandran Nair takes a slightly askance look at Singapore from 1952 (when he first arrived aged 7 from India) to the present via his recollections and reactions to colonisation, legislative elections and self government, Malaysia and independence.
He also spoke about his poems from his book "Reaching for Stones: Collected Poems (1963 - 2009)". More details about this poetry collection here: [ Ссылка ]
*** About the Poet ***
Chandran Nair (1945- ) was educated at Raffles Institution, Singapore and the University of Singapore (MSc, Marine Biology).
He is the author of "Once the Horsemen and Other Poems" (1972) and "After the Hard Hours This Rain" (1975), "Poems and Lyrics of the Last Lord Li" (with Koh Ho Ping,1975) as well as "Reaching for Stones" (collected poems, 2010).
He won the New Nation short story prize in 1973 with "Leta", was founder/President of the Society of Singapore Writers (1976-81), and edited Commentary (1968-72), Singapore Writing (1977) and Short Stories from Asia and Africa (1977).
His poems have also been included in many anthologies including "Calling of the Kindred" (Cambridge Universities Press, 1993), and he has been featured in "Reworlding" :an anthology reviewing the writing of expatriate Indians, edited by Emmanuel S Nelson (Greenwood Press, New York, 1992). He is also included in "Idea to Ideal, - 12 Singapore poets on the writing of their poems"( FirstFruits, Singapore 2004) and in "Journeys : An Anthology of Singapore Poetry" edited by Edwin Thumboo, 1995. In 2012.he read at the Poetry Festival at San Sulpice in Paris.
He is a signatory for Singapore of the Asean Writers Declaration which states the objectives, rights and responsibilities of writers in the national and ASEAN contexts.
After a career as a publisher in Singapore, he joined UNESCO in 1981 as a book development expert based first in Karachi, Pakistan (1981-1985) and then in Paris (1985-2004) and has worked in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Europe.
