2015—The best articles our contributors read this year

SOPHIE COLLINS (UK) http://twitter.com/hatefuldaughter

I mean, the articles are endless! This essay by Diana Hamilton sticks out: https://preludemag.com/issues/2/essay-on-bad-writing/

This interview with Elena Ferrante (translated by?): http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6370/art-of-fiction-no-228-elena-ferrante

Eunsong Kim and Maya Mackrandilal's 'ART WITHOUT ARTISTS': http://sixtyinchesfromcenter.org/magazine/art-without-artists-against-the-artist-ceo/ Three Percent's posts on literature in translation: http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/

STEPHEN O'TOOLE (UK) https://twitter.com/stephenotoole I got burned out on articles this year, the year of peak hot take probably. Now, I'm mainly just reading Clickhole headlines. I don't know. I liked that one about the Make A Wish who couldn't decide what he wanted so they just rolled him along the whole length of a deli counter. LYNETTE LIM (SG) https://twitter.com/milkblood article: (wasn't sure if academic but i lost my collection of favorite news/magazine articles :( ) i really enjoyed 'Film Bodies: Gender, Genre and Excess' by linda williams though

CRISPIN BEST (UK) http://twitter.com/crispinbest my recommended article is this wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He-gassen

NATHALIA KASMAN (SG) http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/nyregion/dying-alone-in-new-york-city.html

ONG SZU YOONG (SG) http://twitter.com/noctilucents Eyal Weizman, 'Violence at the Threshold of Detectability’, http://www.e-flux.com/journal/violence-at-the-threshold-of-detectability/ The pixel as a mask for state violence. LORA NOUK (US) http://twitter.com/shad0w_paws

Fav article: 'Jennifer Pan’s Revenge' by Karen K. Ho (http://torontolife.com/city/crime/jennifer-pan-revenge/, 2015) NATALIE CHIN (SG) http://twitter.com/herbonestrcture i mean, i agree with sophie - the article on bad writing and the elena ferrante interview were ones that i remembered/thought about. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6370/art-of-fiction-no-228-elena-ferrante.

also:

Men Explain Lolita To Me (Lit Hub) Emotional Labour - The Metafilter Thread Condensed

CYRIL WONG (SG) 3. My favourite article is a recent one I read online -- http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/maharashtras-sex-workers-survived-on-a-meal-per-day-to-contribute-1-lakh-rupees-towards-chennai-relief-fund/1/541205.html -- about Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district's sex workers giving up food to help deluge victims in Chennai. Why is it that it's so often the less fortunate who make sacrifices for others even less fortunate than them? This article briefly humbled me and reminded me to be more compassionate.

2015: Favourite films our contributors watched this year

LYNETTE LIM (SG) https://twitter.com/milkblood

fav film i watched this year: david lynch's blue velvet. i also renewed my love for spring breakers. 

SOPHIE COLLINS (UK)  http://twitter.com/hatefuldaughter

Movern Callar (released 2002, watched for first time this year), dir. Lynne Ramsay. Stars Samantha Morton and Kathleen McDermott. Adapted from the novel by Alan Warner by Ramsay and Liana Dognini. I really liked Warner's book... but the film – written, directed and led by women – is quite incredible. 

 Plot-wise (no spoilers), Morvern wakes up on Christmas day to find her boyfriend has committed suicide. He's left a note asking her to 'be brave', and also to print the manuscript of his book and send it out to publishers (he's provided a list). She hacks up his body and gets rid of it in the woods, telling people simply that 'he's gone'. She deletes his name on the title page of the ms and sends it out under her own. So it's kind of interesting to bring into a conversation about appropriation, and the film/novel is plugged on the basis of its hooky storyline, but it seems kind of beside the point to me, in the end. Samantha Morton is perfect as always.

Here is a clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z0lNch5qkQ

STEPHEN O'TOOLE (UK) https://twitter.com/stephenotoole

Eden/Mad Max: Fury Road/Phoenix 

LORA NOUK (US)  https://twitter.com/shad0w_paws

Fav film: 'Song of the Sea' (2015), a european folklore animation about complex loss and complex mourning of a mute seal-person and her mother. 

GREGORY NG (SG) http://twitter.com/gregalvang

7 Letters – I watched this on a flight back home after several gross months in school, so I was in the perfect state of mind to really, really love this series of 7 short films about Singapore. Each short is totally gorgeous in its specificity, but the collection also works as a meandering rumination on loss – so acutely sensed, in so many ways, in the Singaporean national consciousness.

NATALIE CHIN (SG) http://twitter.com/herbonestrcture

began watching Chinese films without english subtitles / in chinese subtitles this year and enjoyed these a lot: 活着 (To Live, 1994) &/or 大红灯笼高高挂 (Raise The Red Lantern, 1991)

DILYS NG (SG) http://twitter.com/saltbreakers

Both Carol and Tangerine are my tops

CRISPIN BEST (UK)  http://twitter.com/crispinbest

my recommended film is citizenfour (it came out at the end of last year but i saw it this year)

NATHALIA KASMAN (SG)

whiplash

CYRIL WONG (SG) // https://cyrilwong.wordpress.com/

 My favourite film was the Pixar animated film, Inside Out, because it made me think (and thus making me mournful) about what I've sacrificed, repressed or murderously silenced (alternative voices, mental bystanders, purelight guardian-angels, wise clowns, etc.) within myself in order to grow up.

ONG SZU YOONG (SG) http://twitter.com/noctilucents

88:88 (dir. Isiah Medina)

2015: Favourite books our contributors read this year

LYNETTE LIM (SG) https://twitter.com/milkblood

fav book(s): seasons of migration to the north by tayeb salih; the body in pain by elaine scarry; ragtime by e.l. doctorow; what the dog knows by cat warren (it's a book about cadaver dogs!) 

SOPHIE COLLINS (UK)  http://twitter.com/hatefuldaughter

Published 2015:

Deborah Smith's translation of Han Kang's novel The Vegetarian (Portobello). Also Trans: A Memoir (Verso) by Juliette Jacques & Holly Pester's go to reception and ask for Sara in red felt tip (Book Works)— a collection of stories, fan fic, poems and fragments made through interaction with the Women's Art Library at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Other favourites read this year:

Lucy Ives' Orange Roses (Ahsahta Press, 2013) & Don Mee Choi's The Morning News Is Exciting (Action Books, 2010) are both inspiring.

STEPHEN O'TOOLE (UK)  https://twitter.com/stephenotoole

Elena Ferrante, just like everyone else, which is proper and as it should be, she is my hero.

LORA NOUK (US)  https://twitter.com/shad0w_paws

Fav book: 'The Sad Passions' by Veronica Gonzalez Peña  (Semiotext(e) / Native Agents, 2013)

DILYS NG (SG)  http://twitter.com/saltbreakers

I Love Dick by Chris Kraus

GREGORY NG (SG) http://twitter.com/gregalvang

None of the books that I read this year came out this year, but the closest I got was Nguyen Tan Hoang’s scholarly yet completely accessible A View from the Bottom: Asian American Masculinity and Sexual Representation (published in 2014). A tightly (lol) constructed and intelligently presented argument for the importance of deconstructing value systems which centre around white, cis masculinity.

NATALIE CHIN (SG) http://twitter.com/herbonestrcture

felt most affected by the neapolitan novels by elena ferrante (2012-2015, europa editions, trans. ann goldstein) this year, kept thinking and talking about them for weeks after. preparation for the next life by atticus lish (2014, tyrant books) is a strong contender tho, as is autobiography of red by anne carson (alfred a. knopf, 1998)

CRISPIN BEST (UK) 

http://twitter.com/crispinbest

my recommended book of the year is beauty/beauty by rebecca perry

NATHALIA KASMAN (SG)

Fav book of the year - unclean jobs for women and girls by Alissa nutting

ONG SZU YOONG (SG) http://twitter.com/noctilucents

François Laruelle, General Theory of Victims  (trans. Alex Dubilet and Jessie Hock)

CYRIL WONG (SG) 

My favourite book is Linda Pastan's Insomnia (W. W. Norton, 2015), a collection of poems about growing old, death, and the resilience of coming to terms with change through beauty and the poet's enlightening gaze.

Galavant Evenings, BooksActually 2nd January 2016, 5pm Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1134526866572502/

ISSUE NO.3—ARTIST ROSTER

GALAVANT MAGAZINE ISSUE NO. 3—CRACK (Video credit to Willy and music by Gema / Echoprince) 

LAUNCHES 14 NOV 2014 AT THE SINGAPORE ART BOOK FAIR. 

On sale at all major bookstores in Singapore the week after and McNally Jackson in New York in December OR buy it directly through us at info@galavantmag.com after 14 Nov. (We ship worldwide!)

Happy Holidays from all of us at Galavant! 

Galavant Magazine Issue No.3—CRACK

OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Download full brief here: http://bit.ly/1kXoPEr

Issue No.2—Believers 117 pages SGD28 

Edition of 600

Issue No.2 will be available at most bookstores in Singapore and at McNally Jackson (New York) starting 20th September 2013. 

Online orders can be made immediately and are priced as, Local—SGD30 (inclusive of shipping) International—SGD38 (inclusive of shipping)

Please direct all online orders to info@galavantmag.com with your name, address and quantity and we will get back to you within two working days. 

For enquiries, please contact us at info@galavantmag.com

Issue No.1

Local (Singapore) $25.00 SGD* International $30.00 SGD* 

*Inclusive of shipping

Please direct all sales to info@galavantmag.com. 

—————

We would like to thank everyone who has submitted, we enjoyed reading your entries. All acceptance emails have been sent out and we are very excited for all of you to see it. 

We are also still looking for artists to create new work with us. Please email info@galavantmag.com with your portfolio for consideration. 

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In the mean time, please forward any inquiries to info@galavantmag.com

Thank you! 

Galavant is now taking submissions for our second issue, 'Believers'.