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Award-winning translator Jeremy Tiang discusses his debut novel State of Emergency, winner of the Singapore Literature Prize.

Siew Li leaves her husband and young children to fight for freedom in the jungles of Malaya. Decades later, a Malaysian journalist returns to her homeland to uncover the truth of a massacre committed during the Emergency, while Siew Li’s son uncovers the truth of his family’s past. Informed by years of painstaking research, Jeremy Tiang’s debut novel dives into the tumultuous days of leftist movements and political detentions in Singapore and Malaysia. It follows an extended family from the 1940s to the present day as they navigate the choppy political currents of the region. State of Emergency questions whether we can grasp the truth after the fact. 

Jeremy Tiang won the Singapore Literature Prize for his novel State of Emergency, and was shortlisted for the same prize for his short story collection It Never Rains on National Day. He has translated over thirty books from Chinese, including Zhang Yueran's Cocoon for World Editions, which won the Singapore Literature Prize. Originally from Singapore, he now lives in New York City.

Sunisa Manning was born and raised in Bangkok by Thai and American parents. Her work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Rumpus, Mekong Review and other places. She's been honored with residencies at Hedgebrook and Hambidge Center for the Arts. A 2017 Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State and a 2018 Emerging Writer Fellow at the SF Writers Grotto, Sunisa lives in Philadelphia with her family. Her first novel, A Good True Thai, was a finalist for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize for Southeast Asian writers.