Little Things

By Loh Chin Ee, Angelia Poon & Esther Vincent

Catching crickets after school, waiting for class to end, playing with lanterns during
Mid-Autumn festival, watching the rain and the world go by—these are some of the
little things that the poems in this anthology explore.

Format: Paperback
Pages: 144

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In this updated and expanded edition of beloved poetry anthology Little Things, poets
look afresh at things mundane and universal, from birth to growing up and first love to
old age and death. This second edition also adds a new section “Our Earth”, with
poems that examine environmental themes. Readers will find, within a selection of
around a hundred poems from Singapore and around the world, works by established
and up-and-coming Singapore poets alongside well-known international poets and
previously unpublished poems.

Arranged in seven broad sections—“Little Things”, “Growing Up”, “People Around Us”,
“Going Places”, “Love and Loss”, “On Words” and “Our Earth”—this anthology will
appeal to readers both young and old with poems that are quirky, delightful, sad,
reflective and timely.

About the Editors
Loh Chin Ee is Associate Professor at the English Language and Literature Department
and Associate Dean (Partnerships) at the Office of Education Research at the National
Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. Her research focuses on
young people’s reading at the intersection of globalisation and technological changes
as well as the role of school libraries in fostering reading for pleasure and lifelong
learning. She is the author of The Space and Practice of Reading: A Case Study of
Reading and Social Class in Singapore (Routledge, 2017), co-editor of Literature
Education in the Asia-Pacific (Routledge, 2018), and editor of The Reading Lives of
Teens: Research and Practice. You can find out more about her research and work on
her website at https://www.lohchinee.com. She enjoys the little things in life such as
waking up to homemade coffee, reading a book without interruption, having time for
little sewing projects and walking in the park with her family.


Angelia Poon is Associate Professor of English Literature at the National Institute of
Education, Nanyang Technological University. Her research interests include
postcolonial theory and contemporary Anglophone literature with a focus on
Singapore and Southeast Asian writing. She is the author of Global City Dilemmas and
Anglophone Singapore Literature: Intersectional Politics and Cultural Negotiations in the
21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan 2024), co-editor of Singapore Literature and Culture:
Current Directions in Local and Global Contexts (Routledge, 2017) and one of the
editors of Writing Singapore: An Historical Anthology of Singapore Literature in
English (NUS Press, 2009). Her articles on Singapore literature and contemporary
fiction have appeared in Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Inquiry and Asian Studies Review. She also co-
edited Making Kin: Ecofeminist Essays from Singapore (Ethos Books, 2021). She enjoys the little things in life like coffee in the morning and the anticipation of a good book.

Esther Vincent Xueming is the editor-in-chief and founder of The Tiger Moth Review,
an ecojournal of art and literature based in Singapore. She is the author of two poetry
collections, womb song (Ethos Books, 2024) and Red Earth (Blue Cactus Press, 2021),
and co-editor of Here was Once the Sea: An Anthology of Southeast Asian Ecowriting
(University of Hawai'i Press, 2023), Making Kin: Ecofeminist Essays from Singapore
(Ethos Books, 2021) and Poetry Moves (Ethos Books, 2020). Esther has served as guest
editor for Mānoa Journal (35.2), University of Hawai’i Press (2023) and as guest
regional editor, Asia for a special eco-themed issue of The Global South (16.1),
University of Mississippi (2022). Her essays have been published in The Trumpeter,
EcoTheo Review, Sinking City Review and Quarterly Literary Review Singapore. A
literature educator by profession, she is passionate about the entanglements in art,
science, literature, spirituality and ecology. Besides teaching and writing, Esther is an
Usui Reiki Master and ANFT Forest Therapy Guide whose practice involves relating to
the more-than-human world in an embodied, heart-centred way. She enjoys the little
things in life like whisking herself an oat matcha latte, being in nature and breathing in
and out mindfully on and off the mat.