Jee Leong Koh is a poet, publisher, and the founder/organizer of Singapore Unbound. [1] He is Editor-In-Chief of Gaudy Boy, a press associated with Singapore Unbound and poetry editor of The Evergreen Review. He was raised in Singapore and currently lives in New York. [2]
Koh's work "uses the rigidity of form to contain poetry that otherwise knows no bounds: love, sex and selfhood are all exposed, and equally explored." [3]
Steep Tea was named a Best Book of the Year in 2015 by UK’s Financial Times. [4] It was also a finalist for the 28th Lambda Literary Awards in the Gay Poetry category. [5] The book engages with canonical female writers like Elizabeth Bishop and Eavan Boland while exploring "how being in a new place renders him critical of his past but also awakens his true identity." [6]
Sections from The Pillow Book, a collection of zuihitsu, have been anthologized in Starry Island: New Writing from Singapore. [7] The Pillow Book was also shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize. [8]