Who: Raymus Chang Jin Yuan, 26, an assistant producer in a film company, self-published his debut book, Shadows From Here, earlier this year. It is a collection of eight supernatural short stories that are set in Singapore.
The arts management graduate from Lasalle College of the Arts is working on a new collection of horror stories, Ill Intent.
What are you reading?
A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Connor, which is recommended by a friend. I've grown to like her work.
I'm reading it slowly to appreciate the way she blends life with allegory, channelling ideas into flesh and bone. Her views on life and religion fall into strange narratives that work. They are unnerving and they really bring out the Southern setting in the United States.
Another book I am reading - just to be in touch with the modern pulse of horror - is Burnt Black Suns by Simon Strantzas. I've read other modern horror authors, but I find him to be the most unnerving. He also has a good command of various strains of weird fiction. I only hope to one day possess that.
What books would you save from a burning house?
The Collected Poems Of W.B. Yeats or at least the version that I carry. Its cover is fairy-blue and it was expensive.
Besides being a pleasure to read, it is a worthwhile investment as it is rare and out of print. I could sell this book for survival if my house really burnt down.
But Yeats is also my favourite poet. He's the best. I know he's often pillaged by academics and schools, but you can't deny his pristine diction. He has inspired generations of writers. And there is so much to learn about how he puts things plainly.
Burnt Black Suns by Simon Strantzas
• Shadows From Here by Raymus Chang (2016, self- published, $19.26), A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Connor (2016, Faber & Faber, $19.36) and The Collected Poems Of W.B. Yeats by W.B. Yeats and Richard J. Finneran (1996, Scribner, $38.27) are available at Books Kinokuniya, while Burnt Black Suns by Simon Strantzas (2014, Hippocampus Press, $34.08) is available at Amazon.com.
