Pounding beneath rib/cage is a visceral struggle for selfhood and belonging. These poems shatter through the suffocating grip of silence and constraint. These are words carved into verse as sharp as bone—voiced into the stillness of night.
Within the pages of our first ALLTHETIME folio lies a collection spanning five decades. This chorus of voices across time confront unyielding questions about alienation and autonomy, reminding us that the fight remains as fierce as ever. Let these lines take root in your breath; we dare you to recite them with your whole damn chest.
“Contradictory, paradoxical, unflinching and haunted by unbridled feeling… rib/cage isn’t simply the start of AFTERIMAGE’s slate of poetic offerings. This book is a crucial reminder that poets are still writing and thriving in this country, baring themselves to the bone.”
—Cyril Wong, in his critical introduction to rib/cage
“We need to dare talk about the poetry of Rosaly Puthucheary. They are shards on the manicured skin of Singapore’s history and literature, recording different orders of pain.”
—Gwee Li Sui, poet and critic
“A tremendous ode to the body as a site of both vulnerability and resistance… three voices come together in love and anger, joy and sorrow, tenderness and ferocity.”
—Cheryl Julia Lee, poet and academic
Rosaly Puthucheary (b. 1936), a Singaporean with roots in Johor Bahru, taught English Literature in Anglo-Chinese Junior College from 1984 to 2001. She was conferred a Doctorate of Philosophy from the National University of Singapore in 2006.
Rosaly writes widely across poetry and prose, including volumes of memoir and criticism. Her major publications include Pillow Your Dreams (1978), The Fragmented Ego (1978), Dance On His Doorsteps (1992), Footfalls in the Rain (2008), Mirrored Mirages (2008), Different Voices (2009), In the Wake of Terror (2012) and My Burning Hill (2012).
ArunDtiha (b. 1988) is a goddess-worshipping performance artist, writer and facilitator working between poetry, sound and the dramatic arts. She has performed poetry, music and experimental dramatic work locally and at festivals worldwide.
ArunDitha has been resident writer/artist at Literarisches Colloquium Berlin, The Watermill Center NY, The Marpha Foundation Nepal. Her co-creations have been commissioned by the The Esplanade, the Goethe-Institut and the Barcelona International Poetry Festival. She currently sings/loops with Mantravine, and co-organises at Opens, a para-academic forum. Her work has been published by Penguin Random House, The Straits Times and Ethos Books, to name a few.
Zeha (b. 2000) is a multi-disciplinary artist whose performance work centres around the relationships between family, queerness, ethnicity, familiarity and reconciliation. They enjoy the malleability of language and construct / deconstruct the Malay and English languages to paint soundscapes and conjure microscopic imagery. rib/cage marks their debut in print.
