The Hidden Papyrus of Hen-taui

"To take a neophyte Egyptian priestess and invest her with the power of myth in all its richness and antiquity as structure, requires a special poetry equal to desire. That Wong undoubtedly has. The result is a word journey that helps us enhance our own, and that, memorably." This is how Professor Edwin Thumboo of the National University of Singapore appreciates Wong Phui Nam’s latest work, a major sequence of 32 sonnets.

"Wong Phui Nam has long been a giant of Malaysian literature. His latest collection, The Hidden Papyrus of Hen-taui, confirms this status, investigating the divine mystery and dissolution of the flesh in an elegantly textured sonnet sequence that channels ancient Egypt while grappling with the timeless pleasures and paradoxes of human mortality. In his masterful hands, ‘a chrysalis of words from human voices begin to form and flicker slowly into awareness,’ singing by turns about darkness, love, and the redemptive power of language, even in the face of a devouring nothingness. Here is a poet at the height of his powers, summoning spirits from the floating world, startling us into epiphany."
- Ravi Shankar, Poet and Founding Editor of Drunken Boat, an international online journal of the arts.