Sample and Loop: A Simple History of Singaporeans in America

A new Canterbury Tales for our time, Sample and Loop tells the story of the migration of Singaporeans to the United States of America, rendering the surprising trajectory of lived experience in musical verse. Based on personal interviews, these poems together tell a part of the story of the migration of Singaporeans to the United States of America. A new Canterbury Tales for our time, Sample and Loop traces the nonlinear, multidimensional, and surprising trajectory of lived experience in musical verse. Here are the Ceramicist, the Pediatrician, the Scenic Designer, the Chef, the Porn Star, and a host of other migrant-pilgrims sharing the tales of their lives even as they continue to make those lives in a country not of their birth. By narrating their discoveries, troubles, hopes, and sorrows, they refract a powerful beam of light on both countries and compose a wayward music for the road.

About the Author :
Jee Leong Koh is a Singaporean writer, editor, and publisher living in New York City. His hybrid work Snow at 5 PM: Translations of an Insignificant Japanese Poet won the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize in English fiction. His book of poems Steep Tea (Carcanet) was named a Best Book of the Year by the Financial Times in the UK and a Finalist by Lambda Literary in the US. Other honors include being shortlisted twice for the Singapore Literature Prize in English poetry for The Pillow Book and Connor & Seal. His book reviews have appeared in the TLS, PN Review, and elsewhere.

Review :
"One has to admire the simultaneous scope of ambition and lack of hesitation in Sample and Loop, both hallmarks of Koh's work. . . . Many of the volumes Koh has since published are driven by the same deep, methodical exploration of form, using a collection not to brandish mastery of a familiar form, but as an opportunity to plumb the depths of a new one. Writing in free verse in Sample and Loop, Koh assigns himself a challenge not so much rooted in technical exploration, but in testing the limits of the documentary poem to capture the essence of its subject. In that regard, the poems are a remarkable success." -Kristina Tom, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore Praise for Jee Leong Koh "A tour de force, a globalized Singapore imaginary that dazzles." -Judges' citation of Snow at 5 PM, winner of the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize in English fiction "Brilliant and brilliantly grounded." -Jericho Brown of Connor & Seal (Sibling Rivalry, 2020) "A marvel of elegiac limpidity." -Jaya Savige of Inspector Inspector (Carcanet, 2022) in the TLS