ONCE – S$25.00

About the book

OLIVER SEET’S COLLECTION is a veritable tome of more than 200 poems, ranging from his writings in his early student days at the University of Malaya to his elegies for significant people in his life. Lee Kuan Yew, Dr Ruth Wong, SR Nathan all figured in this collection.

A keen traveller-photographer, more than 50 of Oliver’s poems cover his journeys to various lands, from China to Nepal, Bavaria, and nearer home to Indonesia and Thailand. In terms of literary output, the section “Green Meadows” is the largest, with nearly 60 poems on various biblical characters and references.

From the Preface by Prof Edwin Thumboo

Oliver Seet’s Once is an unusual volume. Remarkably, it is his first book of poems, gathering what he wishes to retain of work composed, published – but left uncollected – over more than 60 years. He is the last of those who were at the University of Malaya in the 1950s to join Ee Tiang Hong, Edwin Thumboo, Wong Phui Nam and Lloyd Fernando, who are remembered for encouraging the growth of literatures in English in Singapore and Malaysia….

About the author

Dr Oliver Seet Beng Hean received his early education at Raffles Institution. He went on to study at the University of Malaya in Singapore, Wellington University in New Zealand, and Essex University in UK; he obtained a Ph D from NUS where he did his doctoral studies in Applied Linguistics.

Before his retirement, he worked as an Associate Professor of English at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. He has been a teacher educator for the greater part of his life. His poems have been published in many anthologies, magazines, newspapers and periodicals.