Marylyn Tan

Marylyn was born in 1993. She is an artist and poet. She studied linguistics and has performed at the Singapore Biennale, Singapore Writers Festival, and SPEAK since 2014.

Tan’s practice explores conditions of alienation and the marginalization of bodies. In her debut »Gaze Back« (2018), she questions heteronormativity and presents new ideas of the female ideal: women who escape male control, who put their pleasure first, and empower themselves through witchcraft. The poems contain explicit sexual and erotic allusions. They are revealing, direct and challenging. »Gaze back is eloquent confrontation – it challenges the ways in which society polices gender, and the boundaries by which many define poetry…«, says author Tania De Rozario.

With »Gaze Back«, Tan was the first woman to win the Singapore Literature Prize 2020 for poetry. The poetry collection was also nominated for the 31st Lambda Literary Award. Tan’s works have been published in various anthologies such as »New Singapore Poetries«, »Divining Dante«, and »State of Play: Poets of East Southeast Asian Heritage in Conversation«.

The author lives in Singapore.

Status: June 2024

GAZE BACK
ethos books
Singapur, 2018