{"id":424,"date":"2012-06-15T19:34:55","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T19:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.ryerson.ca\/asianheritage\/authors\/goh-poh-seng\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T16:48:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:48:04","slug":"goh","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/authors\/goh\/","title":{"rendered":"Goh Poh Seng"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Goh Poh Seng was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya in 1936. He studied medicine at the University College in Dublin then moved to Singapore in the early 1960s where he worked as a medical doctor for many years. He moved to Canada in 1986 and worked as a doctor in Newfoundland and Labrador for about a decade. He passed away in Vancouver in January 2010.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Poetry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As Though the Gods Love Us<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Roberts Creek, B.C.: Nightwood Editions, 2000.
PS8563 .O822 A97 2000<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This collection … covers recent work written since his emigration to North America as well as earlier, unpublished poems. From Vancouver neighbourhoods to the Alaskan wilderness and Mexico, Goh’s sensibility touches both people and landscapes, ranging in tone from the epic and political to the intimate and personal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Poetry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bird with One Wing: A Sequence of Poems<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Singapore: Island Press, 1982.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Poetry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Eyewitness<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Singapore: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia), 1976.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Poetry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Girl From Ermita & Selected Poems 1961-1998<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Gibsons, B.C.: Nightwood Editions, 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (from it’s website)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This collection by the award-winning writer Goh Poh Seng is the first volume of his poetry published in North America. It spans more than thirty-five years of his work and traverses cultures as well as continents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goh’s settings range from the wharfs at Singapore’s harbour to a backwater bar in Papeete, Tahiti, from a park in Halifax to the streets of Vancouver.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Poetry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lines From the Batu Ferringhi<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Fiction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A Dance of Moths<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Singapore: Select Books, 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (from Harbour Publishing website)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In his third novel, A Dance of Moths<\/em>, Goh explores the complex lives and human relationships of two men in modern Singapore.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Fiction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dance With White Clouds: A Fable for Grown-ups<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong: Asia 2000, 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (from it’s website)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

[This] is the story of a man who, on his birthday, is able to reflect on the preceding 60 years with complete satisfaction. He has everything a man could want, wealth, position, family, so, of course, he is dissatisfied and does the only thing a man in his position could do. He runs away. A comic fable about the paradoxes of life as the hero attempts to remake his life again \u2013 and again?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Fiction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If We Dream Too Long<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Singapore: Island Press, 1972.
Singapore: NUS Press, 2010.
PS8563 .O822 I4 2010<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awards and Honours<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

National Book Development Council of Singapore’s Fiction Book Award (Winner)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Fiction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Immolation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Singapore: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia), 1977.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Drama<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Elder Brother<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Drama<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Moon is Less Bright<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Drama<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When Smiles are Done<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Non-fiction (Memoir)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tall Tales and Misadventures of a Young Wog<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Singapore: NUS Press, 2015.
e-book<\/a> (Access restricted to members of the university community.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Selected Criticism and Interpretation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ribic, Peter. “”We Come too Late to the Scene”: Goh Poh Seng, Developmental Time, and the Singapore Story.” Ch. in The Postcolonial Bildungsroman: Narratives of Youth, Representational Politics, and Aesthetic Reinventions<\/em>, edited by Arnab Dutta Roy and Paul Ugor. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2025, p. 227-250?
e-book<\/a> (Access restricted to members of the university community.)
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Links<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Publisher Harbour Publishing<\/a> (Distributor of Nightwood Editions)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher Asia 2000<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Goh Poh Seng was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya in 1936. He studied medicine at the University College in Dublin then moved to Singapore in the early 1960s where he worked as a medical doctor for many years. He moved … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":16,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-424","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21452,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/424\/revisions\/21452"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}