Dakota

Wong Koi Tet
Shanna Tan (Translation)
Paperback, 260 pages
9789811892363

‘Dakota is about a place that has expired, about distant memories and forgotten things, but writing it enveloped me in a comforting intimacy. – Wong Koi Tet

Dakota by Wong Koi Tet, winner of the 2020 Singapore Literature Prize (Chinese Creative Non-fiction), meets readers in an English translation by Shanna Tan.

Dakota is a sharp and whimsical work of literary creative non-fiction about coming-of-age in the 1970-80s in an iconic Singapore neighbourhood lost to urban renewal named Dakota Crescent. The deeply personal vignettes stitch together a mosaic of Singapore’s urban history. Humorous with a touch of melancholy, Wong Koi Tet’s evocative writing makes us reflect on place as an anchor of history, heritage and home.