ST Christmas poems: If We Can Have It by Theophilus Kwek
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
ST ILLUSTRATION: MANUEL FRANCISCO
Who: Theophilus Kwek, 31, has published five full-length collections of poetry, most recently Commonwealth (2025). His Circle Line (2013) and Giving Ground (2016) were both shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize. In 2023, he was the youngest writer and the first Singaporean to be awarded the Cikada Prize by the Swedish Institute, given to an East Asian poet for poetry that “defends the inviolability of life”.
