Reginald Kent

Age: 29
Ethnicity: Singaporean Chinese and White
Occupation and/or Company: MFA Candidate (Creative Writing-Prose) and Graduate Student Instructor at the University of Washington
Years of experience: 3 years in graduate writing programs, a little with more dabbling in craft before that.

Personal & professional philosophy:
The writing wants to become something, and it’s not necessarily what you want it to become.

Upcoming performances/ project:
Just working hard on my creative and critical thesis, a collection of gay diasporic short stories and an academic article.

What is the highlight of your work?
My work is primarily a love letter to my queer communities back in Singapore and where I’m settling, Seattle Washington. It focuses on diaspora, queer forms, and the gay experience.

Future goals:
Publishing said collection and a transpacific novella in the works!

Project brief / teaser:
In Babi Pongteh, a brother and a sister arrange to sell their departed mother’s house. The two fight over what their mother meant to them and over a frozen block of Babi Pongteh that she left behind before she passed on. The meal reaches across a familial history and a history of empire to serve as a point of intersection in the story for intergenerational trauma, whilst also providing a bridge towards reconciliation.