laura jane lee
poet, teacher, voiceover artist and children's authorfeatured in The Straits Times and Tatler Asia
"flinch & air" available at Kinokuniya Singapore
who
Photo Credit: Marcus Poon (@parc.moon)
full bio
Laura Jane Lee is a poet, teacher, voiceover artist and children's author based in Singapore, via Hong Kong and the UK.She is an alumni of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, a Brooklyn Poets Fellow, and was awarded the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize under her birth name. She was also shortlisted for the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize.Her work has been featured in The Straits Times, Poetry London, Ambit, QLRS, bath magg, and Bellingham Review, among others. She has also read at festivals in Rotterdam, Berlin, Brisbane, Melbourne and Singapore.Laura Jane has previously edited poetry.sg, a national poetry repository dedicated to the work of local poets; and the literary magazine SPLOOSH!, a youth grassroots literature initiative.Her most recent pamphlet "flinch & air" was published with Out-Spoken Press in 2021.Her work has been supported by the Asia Creative Writing Programme and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.Much of her writing and poetic practice is informed by the work of Mary Oliver and Naomi Shihab Nye.Laura Jane's first work for children, "What Makes You Brave?: Orangu and the Tutu Kueh", is forthcoming with Armour Publishing in 2026.
short bio (100 words)
Laura Jane Lee is a poet, teacher, voiceover artist and children's author based in Singapore, via Hong Kong and Scotland. She is a Bread Loaf alum and a Brooklyn Poets Fellow, an awardee of the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize, and was shortlisted for the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize. Her work has been featured in festivals in Rotterdam, Berlin, Brisbane and Singapore, as well as in Poetry London, Ambit, and Bellingham Review, among others. Recent works include "flinch & air" (Out-Spoken Press, 2021), and the children's book, "What Makes You Brave?: Orangu and the Tutu Kueh" (Armour Publishing, 2026).
praise for flinch & air
"The poetry has an uncanny lightness and ease of movement. It is sharp, funny and deeply seeing. It woke me up. I can’t recommend it highly enough" - Mark Waldron
"This is a vociferous volume: not as in noisy or brash, but as in voice-carrying." - Michael Freeman
"Flinch & air crosses linguistic, cultural, temporal, and stylistic, borders professionally. There is a global aesthetic, a sense of post-nation, pan-national, a multi-culturalism that’s permanent and timeless." - David Morgan O'Connor
what
books (2021 - present)
- flinch & air @ kinokuniya SG
- buy flinch & air from the Poetry Book Society
- buy flinch & air from the press
- buy flinch & air from bookdepo
awards, reviews & features (2021 - present)
2024
- 5 poetry books to read this ESEA Heritage Month | Bella Caledonia
- Stephen Spender Prize 2024 | Commendation (2 Poems)
2023
- Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2023 | Shortlist
- ‘We are a floating island’: 102 Hong Kong poets across continents write the city’s new chapter in Where Else | The Straits Times
2022
- the days of the dog | The 52nd Poetry International Festival Rotterdam
- flinch & air | The Straits Times Singapore Shelf
- flinch & air | Poetry London- Poetry at the Precipice of the World
- flinch & air | Cultural Expression in the Chinese Diaspora module for MLitt Chinese Cultural Studies- University of St Andrews
- flinch & air | Dundee University Review of the Arts
- flinch & air | Mekong Review
- flinch & air | RHINO Poetry
2021
- flinch & air | Asian Books Blog
- flinch & air | Kitaab
- flinch & air | Singapore Unbound My Book of the Year 2021
academic citations (2021 - present)
2024
- The Oxford Handbook of Southeast Asian Englishes | Chapter 21 “English-language literature of Hong Kong”
- Mother Tongues and Other Tongues Creating and Translating Sinophone Poetry | Chapter 3 “It Can’t Be All in One Language”
2023
- Identity, Home and Writing Elsewhere in Contemporary Chinese Diaspora Poetry (by Jennifer Wong) | Chapter 7 "Anglophone-Chinese diaspora poetry in the UK: A new generation"
- The Hong Kong Moment: A Diasporic Poetics within the British Poetics (by Antony Huen) | PN Review
- Cosmopolitan Hybridity, Cultural Memory and Curation in Hong Kong Poetry | Writing Chinese A Journal of Contemporary Sinophone Literature
editorships & community work
past
- poetry.sg | Marketing Editor
- SPLOOSH Magazine | Editor-in-Chief
- Asia Creative Writing Programme | Student Assistant
fellowships
workshops
publications (2021 - present)
2024
- Two poems by Laura Jane Lee | The HongKonger
- miss you. would like to have strawberries in the car with you. | QLRS Vol. 23 No. 3 3 Jul 2024
- on this earth we have no abiding home | 2023 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize
- then you did the unthinkable, | Bellingham Review Issue 87
- my body was always supposing | bath magg Issue 13
2023
- WHERE ELSE: An International Hong Kong Poetry Anthology (Verve Poetry Press, 2023)
- State of Play: Poets of East & Southeast Asian Heritage in Conversation (Out-Spoken Press, 2023)
2022
2021
literary criticism
2024
- "Please, Read the Epigraph" - How to gain quick access to the soul of the work | QLRS Vol. 23 No. 3 3 Jul 2024
- "A Poetic Statement – and a Linguistic One" - a Review of Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan | QLRS Vol. 23 No. 1 Jan 2024
2023
2022
when
in the future
2025
- VERSE 2025 | Singapore’s first multidisciplinary literary festival
- Esplanade Presents | Foreword 2025 | Poems from a Girlhood Archive
- Raffles Institution Creative Writing Festival 2025
- MOE Creative Arts Programme 2025 | Poetry Lecture
- Listen, Darling: Jazz, Songs & Poems of Love & Longing | No Spoilers Bar, The Projector
- DELTA // A Night of New Poetry | Moderator
- Brisbane Writers Festival 2025 | Great Expectations
- The Wheeler Centre | The Next Big Thing: Stories from Singapore
- Singapore Writers Festival 2025 | Moderator | Beyond the Page: Imagining Future Forms
2024
- Bread Loaf Writers' Conference 2024
- 25th poesiefestival berlin
- Singapore Writers Festival 2024 | Featured Presenter | We Are Here: Embarking on Inherited Journeys
- Raffles Institution Literature Festival 2024 | Speaker | Non-Singaporean Singapore Stories
- NUS Literary Society Evening of Poetry and Music 2024
2023
- Singapore Writers Festival 2023 | Moderator | (Re)visiting Sing Lit
- Raffles Institution Creative Writing Festival 2023
- NTU Arts Festival 2023 | Poetry Workshops
- NUS Literary Society Evening of Poetry and Music 2023
2022
- Spoke & Bird presents: Joel Tan, Laura Jane Lee, Max Pasakorn
- The 52nd Poetry International Festival Rotterdam
- Sing Lit Station: We'll Tell You Everything
2021
where
find me on the internet at these places: