Ovidia Yu

Last updated

Ovidia Yu (born 1961) is a writer from Singapore who has published award-winning plays and short stories. She has won several awards, including the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Singapore Foundation Culture Award (1996), the National Arts Council (NAC) Young Artist Award (1996) and the Singapore Youth Award (1997). [1] She has had more than thirty of her plays produced and is considered one of the most well-known writers in Singapore, according to HarperCollins Publishers. [2]

Contents

Early life

Yu was born in 1961 to a middle-class family in Singapore. Her father was a doctor and her mother was a teacher. She attended Methodist Girls' School, where her mother taught, and developed a love for reading and writing at an early age. She became particularly interested in the characters that she read about and would continue their stories in her own 'sequels' to the books. She was writing her own short stories by the time she was ten years old. [1]

Despite her interest in liberal arts, she was pressured into becoming a doctor by her parents and friends at school. She originally attended the National University of Singapore in pursuit of a medical degree, but soon dropped out to pursue literature instead. Before publishing any books, she had earned a living by writing scripts for corporate training videos and translating manuals for machinery. [3]

Personal life

Ovidia Yu lives in and sets her plays, books and stories primarily in Singapore, although she deals with many issues especially trying to examine the lives of women and LGBTQ in Singapore. [4] Yu also suffers from epilepsy and carries notebooks around with her to counter memory lapses. These notebooks are also used for writing, as she gets many of her ideas for stories and plays by observing people in their everyday lives. [1] When she is not writing, she practices yoga daily and volunteers at the SPCA weekly. [5]

Writing

Ovidia Yu is known for using humour and unique characters throughout her writing to explore changing roles and identities throughout society, especially for women. She is considered one of Singapore's first feminist writers and continues to write thought-provoking plays and novels. [3]

Yu has mentioned that she enjoys writing about complex female characters. She believes that writing female characters with complexities and agency will communicate her message across cultures and nationalities. [5]

Yu’s historical “Crown Colony” mystery series has been optioned for TV by Poisson Rouge Pictures. [6]

Plays

Her plays include: [1]

  • 1987 : Dead on Cue
  • 1988 : Round and Round the Dining Table
  • 1988 : Face Values
  • 1989 : Family Affairs
  • 1990 : Mistress
  • 1990 : Cupboards
  • 1991 : Imagine
  • 1991 : Ja
  • 1992 : Three Fat Virgins
  • 1992 : Wife and Mother
  • 1993 : Be the Food of Love
  • 1994 : Six Lonely Oysters
  • 1995 : Three Fat Virgins Unassembled
  • 1995 : The Land of a Thousand Dreams
  • 1995 : Hokkien Mee
  • 1996 : Playing Mothers
  • 1996 : Every Day Brings its Miracles
  • 1997 : Breast Issues
  • 1999 : Viva Viagra
  • 1999 : Life Choices
  • 1999 : Haunted
  • 2001 : Love Bytes
  • 2002 : Love Bytes II (Love in a time of recession and newater)
  • 2007 : Hitting (on) Women
  • 2011 : Eight Plays

Fiction

Her works of fiction include: [1]

  • 1989 : Miss Moorthy Investigates
  • 1990 : Mistress and Other Creative Takeoffs
  • 1993 : The Mouse Marathon
  • 2012 : The Mudskipper
  • 2013 : Aunty Lee's Delights: A Singaporean Mystery
  • 2014 : Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials: A Singaporean Mystery
  • 2016 : Aunty Lee's Chilled Revenge: A Singaporean Mystery
  • 2017 : Meddling and Murder: An Aunty Lee Mystery
  • 2017 : The Frangipani Tree Mystery
  • 2018 : The Betel Nut Tree Mystery
  • 2019 : The Paper Bark Tree Mystery
  • 2020 : The Mimosa Tree Mystery
  • 2021 : The Cannonball Tree Mystery
  • 2022 : The Mushroom Tree Mystery
  • 2023 : The Yellow Rambutan Tree Mystery
  • 2024 : The Angsana Tree Mystery

Non-fiction

Her works of non-fiction include: [1]

Awards

She has received the following awards: [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Allan Collins</span> American mystery writer

Max Allan Collins is an American mystery writer, noted for his graphic novels. His work has been published in several formats and his Road to Perdition series was the basis for a film of the same name. He wrote the Dick Tracy newspaper strip for many years and has produced numerous novels featuring the character as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Rendell</span> English writer (1930–2015)

Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries.

Catherine Lim Poh Imm is a Singaporean fiction author known for writing about Singapore society and of themes of traditional Chinese culture. Hailed as the "doyenne of Singapore writers", Lim has published nine collections of short stories, five novels, two poetry collections, and numerous political commentaries to date. Her social commentary in 1994, titled The PAP and the people - A Great Affective Divide and published in The Straits Times, criticised the ruling political party's agendas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan Heng</span>

Ivan Heng is a Singaporean actor and theatre director of Peranakan descent. He is the founding artistic director of W!LD RICE, a theatre company in Singapore, and an outspoken advocate for respect for diversity and freedom of expression.

This article deals with writing that deals with LGBT themes in a Singapore context. It covers literary works of fiction, such as novels, short stories, plays and poems. It also includes non-fiction works, both scholarly and targeted at the general reader, such as dissertations, journal or magazine articles, books and even web-based content. Although Singapore lacks a dedicated gay book publisher or gay bookshop, it does have at least one dedicated gay library, Pelangi Pride Centre, which is open weekly to the public. Many of the works cited here may be found both in Pelangi Pride Centre, as well as the National Library or other academic libraries in Singapore, as well as in some commercial bookshops under 'gender studies' sections.

The literature of Singapore comprises a collection of literary works by Singaporeans. It is written chiefly in the country's four official languages: English, Malay, Standard Mandarin and Tamil.

Aaron Lee Soon Yong is a Singaporean prize-winning poet who writes in English. He was born in Malaysia but received his education in Singapore and became a Singaporean in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Dean Myers</span> American childrens book author (1937–2014)

Walter Dean Myers was an American writer of children's books best known for young adult literature. He was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, but was raised in Harlem, New York City. A tough childhood led him to writing and his school teachers would encourage him in this habit as a way to express himself. He wrote more than one hundred books including picture books and nonfiction. He won the Coretta Scott King Award for African-American authors five times. His 1988 novel Fallen Angels is one of the books most frequently challenged in the U.S. because of its adult language and its realistic depiction of the Vietnam War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Lee (writer)</span> Australian writer (born 1947)

Jim Aitchison, better known by his pen name James Lee, is an Australian writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aileen Fisher</span> American writer (1906-2002)

Aileen Lucia Fisher was an American writer of more than a hundred children's books, including poetry, picture books in verse, prose about nature and America, biographies, Bible-themed books, plays, and articles for magazines and journals. Her poems have been anthologized many times and are frequently used in textbooks. In 1978 she was awarded the second National Council of Teachers of English Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. Born in Michigan, Fisher moved to Colorado as an adult and lived there for the rest of her life.

The Singapore Writers Festival is a literary event organised by the National Arts Council. Inaugurated in 1986, the festival serves a dual function of promoting new and emerging Singaporean and Asian writing to an international audience, as well as presenting foreign writers to Singaporeans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janice Koh</span> Singaporean politician

Janice Koh is a Singaporean actress and a former Nominated Member of Parliament in Singapore.

Grace Chia is a Singaporean writer, poet, journalist and editor.

Desmond Sim Kim Jin is a Singaporean playwright, poet, short story writer, screenwriter and painter. His work, Places Where I've Been, won a Merit Prize in the 1993 Singapore Literature Prize for Poetry.

Balli Kaur Jaswal is a Singaporean novelist, having family roots in Punjab. Her first novel Inheritance won the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian Novelist Award in 2014, and was adapted for a film presented at the 2017 Singapore International Festival of the Arts. Her second novel Sugarbread was a finalist for the 2015 inaugural Epigram Books Fiction Prize. Her third novel, Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows was released in 2017, and garnered her a wider international following, driven in part by being picked as a selection for Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine online book club. Movie rights for Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows have been sold to Scott Free Productions and Film4. In 2019, the Business Times described Jaswal as "the most internationally well-known Singapore novelist after Crazy Rich Asians’ Kevin Kwan."

<i>Aunty Lees Delights</i>

Aunty Lee's Delights: A Singaporean Mystery is the first detective fiction novel in the Aunty Lee Series by Ovidia Yu. It was published in September 2013 by William Morrow and Company.

Jeremy Tiang is a Singaporean writer, translator and playwright based in New York City. Tiang won the 2018 Singapore Literature Prize for English fiction for his debut novel, State of Emergency, published in 2017.

<i>The Frangipani Tree Mystery</i> 2017 novel by Ovidia Yu

The Frangipani Tree Mystery is a 2017 novel by Ovidia Yu, published by Constable.

Heng Siok Tian is a Singaporean poet and educator. She has published five volumes of poetry: Crossing the Chopsticks and Other Poems (1993), My City, My Canvas (1999), Contouring (2004), Is My Body a Myth (2011) and Mixing Tongues (2011).

Irene Lim Kay Han is a Singaporean radiologist and amateur actress.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Ovidia Yu." Singapore Infopaedia. National Library Board Singapore, 1 January 2004. Web. 30 September 2014.
  2. "Ovidia Yu." HarperCollins Publishers. HarperCollins US. Web. 30 September 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Singapore Writer Ovidia Yu Inks a New Life." Archived 29 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine The Straits Times Communities. 7 October 2013. Web. 30 September 2014.
  4. Yi-Sheng, Ng. "Hitting on Ovidia Yu." Fridae. 8 August 2007. Web. 30 September 2014.
  5. 1 2 Yi-Sheng, Ng. "Hitting on Ovidia Yu."
  6. Auto, Hermes (2 October 2021). "Singaporean writer Ovidia Yu's historical murder mysteries headed for TV | The Straits Times". www.straitstimes.com. Retrieved 8 April 2022.