Since its inception, the Yale-NUS Writers’ Centre has recognised the pivotal role of creative writing at Yale-NUS College. The Writers’ Centre has created a space where students from across all majors can gather in the spirit of creativity, but more importantly, where new and exciting voices can thrive in an environment of experimentation and innovation.
Our programs and events have included a vibrant reading series of international and local authors, online and face-to-face generative writing workshops, and partnerships with college-wide events such as First Year Orientation, Diversity Week, and Residential College Speaker Series. Through dedicated and specially trained creative writing peer tutors, the Centre has also endeavoured to give peer tutor support not only to students majoring in Arts and Humanities, but also to students involved with creative writing projects in their different courses.
The Writers Centre has long provided support for student writing groups that have used the space and resources of the Centre to hold regular writing workshops, invite speakers, and publish writing. An intimate hang-out-space to have coffee in the morning with a writer, Begin the Days is brainstorming space where writers share work, receive feedback and have fun (assuming that they can wake up for it!). Begin the Days has been the birthing ground of numerous exciting projects which students have later on developed, produced, and published. This series is led by Senior Lecturer Lawrence Ypil. Notable partnerships and support include the yearly WIP: Works-in Progress Workshop organized by INK LIterary Collective which invites published authors to give feedback on student works in progress. INK has also published an annual anthology of student writings. The Writers Centre has also collaborated with other departments of the college for activities that involve the different colleges but also college wide events such as Diversity Week.
The Writers Centre has provided support for creative writing projects through student creative writing peer tutors. Geared primarily to support students developed projects in creative writing modules, these tutor sessions also provide student writers with access to feedback on projects that have a creative and interdisciplinary component. Peer tutors also given the opportunity to lead creative writing events and readings and be trained in the fundamentals of creative writing feedback and pedagogy.
Alumni who have been nurtured by the Writers Centre have gone on to publish award-winning books. Hamid Roslan’s parsetreeforestfire went on to become a finalist for the Singapore Literature Prize. Steven Sy has published a Science Fiction Novel, Steppes. And most recently Shawn Hoo won a chapbook prize for his poetry collection, Of the Florida. The Writers Centre strives to widen the network of student and alumni writers in Singapore and beyond.
Meet the Team
Lawrence Ypil
Writing Lecturer
Lawrence Lacambra Ypil is a poet and essayist from Cebu, Philippines. He received an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from the University of Iowa and an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Washington University in St. Louis on a Fulbright Scholarship. His first book of poems, The Highest Hiding Place, was given the Madrigal Gonzalez Best First Book Award. His work has received The Academy of American Poets Prize, the Philippines Free Press Awards, and the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards among others. His work explores the role of material culture in the construction of cultural identity and memory and dwells in the intersection of text and image, poetry and the essay. His latest manuscript is an investigation into early twentieth century postcolonial photography.
