SINGAPORE – New York Times best-selling author Chloe Gong and a cyberpunk panel were hits at the Singapore Writers Festival’s opening weekend, while two panels on historical fiction and relationships with cities meandered and lost audience attention.

Gong saw a full house at The Arts House on Saturday, where she shared how she balanced university and writing, as well as familial influences in her books. “Writing, to me, has always been this reprieve from studying, from life in general. It is this thing that gives me a lot of joy, that in a day where I’m really tired, writing makes me less tired.”