Desmond Kon

• Name — Desmond Kon • Birth Name — Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé • Born — 1971 • Occupation — Poet, journalist (former) • Website — https: www.desmondkon.com/ • Education — National University of Singapore, Harvard University (thM), University of Notre Dame (MFA)

Born in 1971, Desmond studied sociology and mass communication at the National University of Singapore in 1995. He went on to receive his theology masters (world religions) from Harvard University in 2006 and fine arts masters (creative writing) from the University of Notre Dame in 2009. He was trained in book publishing at Stanford University in 2001.

In 2014, he won the Poetry World Cup while representing Singapore. He is the curator of the "eye feel write" ekphrastic collaboration between the Singapore Writers Festival, the Singapore Arts Museum and the National Gallery Singapore. He is also a mentor for the National Arts Council's Mentor Access Project. In 2016, he co-won the Singapore Literature Prize for English Poetry for his poetry collection, "I Didn't Know Mani Was a Conceptualist", published with Math Paper Press. Desmond Kon’s writing has appeared in over 200 literary publications, including AGNI, Ambit, Asymptote, Harvard Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Jacket2, New Orleans Review, Notre Dame Review, QLRS, Seneca Review, The Massachusetts Review, The New Guard, Versal, and Voice & Verse. His other honours include the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Gold Award (Poetry), two Illumination Christian Book Gold Awards (Digital Media in consecutive years), and the PEN American Center Shorts Prize, among other accolades. Desmond Kon is cited as the inventor of several poetic forms, including the asingbol, the anima methodi, and the found fount sonnet.

• Singular Acts of Endearment: A Novel. 2014. USA: Grey Sparrow Press; Singapore: Squircle Line Press.

• Top Ten TCS Stars. 1995. Singapore: Caldecott Publishing. • The Good Day I Died: The Near-Death Experience of a Harvard Divinity Student [A Quasi-Memoir]. 2019. Singapore: Penguin Random House South-east Asia.

• Hermitage of Dreamers: Lyric Essays. 2018. USA: Glass Lyre Press; Singapore: Squircle Line Press. • Found Texts of the AAI Anon, Circa 3119: Eight Lyric Essays. 2020. Photos. Karen Kon. Singapore: Ethos Books.