Kirpal Singh, a famous poet, literary and cultural critic and a university lecturer in English language and
literature at Singapore, was born in 1949 at Singapore. His father was of Sikh decent, but his mother was a
Jew, later on divorced his father and went away from Kirpal Singh’s life. He was brought up by his paterenal
grandmother and as he grew young, he stayed at Singapore for his education. He wanted to join the army,
but as his School Principal noted his literary aptitude, he encouraged him for his hobby of writing poems.
He had started writing poetry in 1958 when he wrote a poem about his school teacher. In 1967 he published
his first book Singapore Pot-pourri. This was a collection of poems, essays, plays and short stories by a group
of local writers, which Singh put together. He then completed his Post Graduation in English literature from
the University of Singapore. In 1972 he published his first anthology of poems called ‘Articulation’. He got
his Ph.D. from University of Adelaide, Australia on a public service commission scholarship. During his
teaching career in which he taught at the Universities of Singapore and Adelaide and also South Australian
Institute of Technology (1976-78) and then remaind Head of the Department Nanyang Technology
University (NTU) and ultimately reached the post of Director Weev Kim Weev Center SMU. Along with
teaching, he held many other prestigious positions like Advisor, Arts Resource Panel, National Art Council,
Coordinator, Communication skills programmes, Member PSB Academy Board, Director American Creativity Association and Board Member Singapore Film Festival. He has written poetry, non-fiction, short
stories and a number of editorials. Whereas his poetic compositions are available in ‘The Best of Kirpal
Singh’ (2012), his essays on South East Asian and Australian Literature are valuable prose compositions.
Some of his poems are autobiographical in nature for example ‘Moving Out’ is a poem about his memories
of childhood. The Merilone and Hibiscus is a collection of contemporary short stories from Singapore
and Malaysia. He has authored or edited over thirty books, one hundred scholarly articles, four volumes of
poetry, and two collections of short fiction. The Best of Kirpal Singh, is part of the Singapore Pioneer Poets
Series from Epigram Books. He has also been a Board Member of the Singapore International Film Festival.
He was one of 10 Singaporean poets who was featured in the international anthology by American publisher
W. W. Norton, well-known among academics for its anthologies. Singh is currently an associate Professor of
English Literature and a Director at the Wee Kim Wee Centre at SMU. A Sikh considered as one of the most
intellectual persons and a great poet of a country other than India is a matter of pride for all the Indians,
particularly Sikhs for whom he emerges as a great role model.
