Topaz Winters

Topaz Winters (born September 25, 1999) is the pen name of Singaporean writer Priyanka Balasubramanian Aiyer.[1][2]

Topaz Winters
Born (1999-09-25) September 25, 1999
United States
OccupationWriter
NationalitySingaporean
Alma materPrinceton University
Period2013–present
GenrePoetry, essays
Website
topazwinters.com

Biography

Winters was born in the United States and has lived in Singapore since she was seven years old.[1] She graduated from Princeton University in 2023 with a B.A. in English and certificates in Creative Writing, Visual Art, and Italian. There, she studied poetry and fiction under Danez Smith, Monica Youn, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, and Joyce Carol Oates.[3] She writes on illnesses such as depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, dissociative amnesia and hyperacusis, as well as her experiences of being a queer and disabled woman of color and an immigrant.[4]

She is the author of the chapbook "Heaven or This" (2016) and the full-length poetry collections "poems for the sound of the sky before thunder" (2017)[5] and "Portrait of My Body as a Crime I'm Still Committing" (2019).[3] Her third poetry collection "So, Stranger" was released with Button Poetry in 2022.[6] She is the youngest author to be published by Math Paper Press, the youngest Singaporean nominee for the Pushcart Prize,[1] and the youngest visiting author at several MFA programs across the United States.[7]

She is the editor-in-chief at the publishing house and literary journal Half Mystic.[2] In 2023 she founded the online literary magazine Kopi Break with Max Pasakorn and Kendrick Loo, publishing new voices in Singaporean poetry.[8]

Winters wrote and appeared in the 2017 short film SUPERNOVA (directed by Ishan Modi).[9] With Crispin Rodrigues, she is the co-curator of the 2020 Singapore Writers Festival digital installation Letters From Home to Home.[10] She embarked on a book tour across the East Coast in celebration of "So, Stranger" in 2022, performing with musicians and writers in New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.[11][12]

Her peer-reviewed scholarly paper "Queering Poetics: The Impact of Poetry on LGBT+ Identity in Singaporean Adolescents" was published in the Journal of Homosexuality when she was 19 years old. She is the youngest author to be published in this journal.[13]

References

  1. hermesauto (2019-04-29). "The 'rebel girls' of Singapore poetry: Young, outspoken and pushing boundaries". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  2. "Topaz Winters: On Music, Tech And Writing". Lifestyle Guide. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  3. "Topaz Winters, student and artist, makes meaning out of suffering". The Princetonian. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
  4. "'Worthy of taking up space': Jennifer Lee '23 founds nonprofit to support Asian Americans with disabilities". The Princetonian. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
  5. "poems for the sound of the sky before thunder". BooksActually. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  6. "So, Stranger (Button Poetry)". Button Poetry. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  7. Parker, Annamarie. "Visiting poet Topaz Winters reflects on her writing journey". The North Wind. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  8. "About". Kopi Break. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
  9. TAN, MEGAN (2018-08-11). "A new chapter for SingLit". The Business Times. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  10. "Singapore Writers Festival - Letters from Home to Home". Singapore Writers Festival. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
  11. lincolnvillagesun (2022-08-18). "Poet Topaz Winters curates a soulful night of music and verse at 'So, Stranger' launch". The Village Sun. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
  12. "Arts Briefs". The Provincetown Independent. 2022-08-17. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
  13. Aiyer, Priyanka (2020-01-28). "Queering Poetics: The Impact of Poetry on LGBT+ Identity in Singaporean Adolescents". Journal of Homosexuality. 67 (2): 206–222. doi:10.1080/00918369.2018.1536415. ISSN 0091-8369. PMID 30407889. S2CID 53236989.


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