Unapologetic, unafraid and unyielding, Alfian’s second collection of verse delves in greater depth the concerns in his first volume and moves into reclaiming our collective history and memory.

In mining our psyche, he casts light where whispers and shadows lurk. He draws inspiration from censored histories, subsumed myths and invokes imagined voices from the exiled, demanding of the reader to witness the ubiquitous ideological fictions that surround us.

This is one of the most dissonant and penetrating voices in Singapore poetry.

• A History of Amnesia is listed in the notable books list by the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Award (administered by University of San Francisco).

• A History of Amnesia is also shortlisted for Singapore Literature Prize in 2004.