We are a student-run literary journal.
Margins was launched in 2013 by a group of NUS students to celebrate the works of the NUS literature community and foster a stronger sense of pride among literature majors and minors. Those were the aspirations of our seniors.
After a brief hiatus during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, wherein the editorial team took time to review and reimagine Margins, the journal is back with a vengeance, creative writing, and a brand new look to boot.
issue 10
Ryan is a second-year Literature
undergraduate student at NUS. His literary career peaked when he was ranked nationally in the Harry Potter Quizup category after PSLE, and since then he has just been chasing that glory. Nowadays, his literary interests lie in John Keats, the sci-fi/fantasy genres and the intricacies of unique power systems in fiction. However, most of his time is spent being chronically online, indulging in an array of eclectic passions. From musical theatre to the NFL, you can never be quite sure what he is busying himself with when staring down at his phone.
Ryan
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Vivian is over the cusp of graduating with
a major in English Literature. An enthusiast of Rome-born rock band Måneskin, she demonstrates a concerning reliance on music and playlist-making for productivity. When she is not being accosted by the rigours of academic posturing, she devotes her time to the oeuvres of Donna Tartt, Tamsyn Muir, and Leigh Bardugo.
Vivian
Creative Editor
Viola is a final-year student majoring in
English Literature and Philosophy. Other than being a fictional red flag connoisseur, she is in a codependent relationship with Early 20th Century Modernist Fiction and Postcritique. Her mental health for the week depends on how fast Car #63 drives round in funny-shaped circles and her favorite romantic comedy is NBC’s Hannibal.
Viola
Editor
Dylan is in his third year, majoring in
Sociology and Literature. His interests lie in feminist critical theory, particularly within the tradition of psychoanalysis and questions of sexual difference. He’s written a piece for the previous issue of mar/gins obliquely along those concerns. Since then, he has taken up the role of an editor for Issue 9.
Dylan
Editor
Yushan is a final-year Literature and
Sociology double-major at the National University of Singapore. After reading one of her poems during her literature class, she was approached by fellow aspiring writers to form a little creative writing circle, with whom she shares words, whims, and waffles. Her poems have been published in Kopi Break and Blue Marble Review. Other than writing, she loves trees, cats, words, music, admiring large bodies of water, being hopelessly cheesy, and the short story collection "The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God" by Israeli writer Etgar Keret.
Yushan
Advisor
Manus is a third-year English Literature
major with an Art History minor. His current literary interests include Singapore literature and twentieth-century modernist works—especially those by Virginia Woolf whom all of his friends would have had the (dis)pleasure of hearing him regularly talk about. Outside of his studies, he enjoys taking long pointless walks in nature with his earphones on, listening to no-longer-popular Mando and Canto music. He also writes poems for fun when he feels disillusioned after having abysmal ban mian for lunch.
Manus
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Benjamin is a final-year English
Literature major with a minor in Southeast Asian Studies. If he is not busying himself with questions of art, justice, and ethics, he can be found giving himself existential crises by reading Pessoa, Dostoyevsky and Osamu Dazai. All colours made him happy: even gray—the mystery which binds him still. He has measured out his life with coffee spoons. A sadder and (not) a wiser man, he must change his life.
Benjamin
Editor
Hong Jun is a second-year Philosophy
major with a minor in English Literature. Interestingly, he had never taken an interest in those subjects until just before University. He also enjoys learning about stuff in sociology and political science. His favourite texts are those which are plain and unassuming in style, but which still are numinous, perplexing, and allegorical. His favourite work is Kafka’s The Trial. For the most part he is a hermit, although he does enjoy going…outdoors. He is terrible at poetry.
Hong Jun
Editor
Xiong Ran is a fourth-year undergraduate
at NUS, studying literature and life sciences. She is fond of walking, exploring different parks, and getting excited about cute plants. Still, most of her time is spent in the quiet corner of her room, where she frequently indulges in fantasy novels and their lore. She’s always excited to hear your history book recommendations (but pray forgive her if she afflicts you with Horrible Histories song recommendations – a compulsion from childhood, it has become her love language.)
Xiong Ran
Editor
Genesis is a final-year Literature
student who minors in Physics. Their greatest accomplishment is a giant (semi-colour-coded) map of the messy relationships between various queer artists in the UK from around the 1890s to the 1930s, which was created when procrastinating studying for their ‘O’ Levels. Their hobby seems to be downloading hundreds of pdfs and never reading them, while their literary interests lie in queer literature, psychoanalysis, horror, and more. If their favourite contemporary poet does not publish a poetry book soon, they may very well take matters into their own hands and learn bookbinding.
Genesis
Website Editor
Yuan Hao is a final-year undergraduate
majoring in English Literature with a minor in Political Science. He enjoys reading contemporary literary fiction, particularly novels where the characters feel like the wrong thing, but also the only thing they know. He also loves watching sitcoms—or more accurately, rewatching sitcoms—for the sense of comfort they bring. His current research interests include ways of approaching literary criticism that extend beyond notions of critique: questions about how we read, what we read for, and what literature may offer us that theory cannot. Such concerns about what literary studies can do are probably not unrelated to the many queries he receives from his relatives about the point of his English degree.
Yuan Hao
Editor
Brandon is a third-year English Literature
major who minors in Philosophy. He is interested in issues of coloniality, queerness and power, and has a soft spot for gothic literature and horror films. He believes strongly in the moral imperative of art as the antidote to modern confusion, and his recent obsessions are short and intense character studies Sheila Heti’s Alphabetical Diaries or Minor Detail by Palestinian writer Adania Shibli. In his free time you can find him mostly writing stories and poems, making psychedelic art, and trying to decide whether or not he believes in God, but really what he wants most is a quiet hidden spot in this loud city where he can read, alone.
Brandon
Editor
Faith is a second-year Literature major.
Growing up, she had a long-held belief that prose was the only literary genre she could access. In Junior College, she made the pivot to poetry, where she became captivated by Surrealism, Imagism and Romanticism. She has published a pamphlet of five poems with Paper Jam, a Jalan Besar fellowship run by Tse Hao Guang. Going for ballet lessons, listening to French music, and making friends with stray cats are some of her favourite things.