Conan Tan
About Me
Conan Tan is a Singaporean Chinese writer based between the UK and Singapore. Currently, he is an undergraduate reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford.
His poem “Prodigal” was the winner of Singapore's 2022 National Poetry Competition and his working manuscript was a finalist at Sing Lit Station's 2023 Poetry Manuscript Bootcamp. A Best of the Net nominee and the recipient of the 2024 Martin Starkie Prize, their poems have been published in Rattle, Alien, West Trade Review, HAD, The Lumiere Review, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, and elsewhere. He is a member of the writing collective zer0sleep.
“Because nothing brings family together / like intervention, I was graveside / by my mind, a vigilant memory”
— first published in Alien
"So I’ll replay / the lost reel in my head, forgetting, if only for / a second, about the real loss ten years is still sore / from carrying”
— first published in Rattle
“I feel the knotgrass phalanx the night salting your / skin I pull twist shovel bone out of me / and name it sacrifice”
— first published in West Trade Review