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When the Barbarians Arrive is a selected works from Singaporean poet Alvin Pang's five previous collections, including Testing the Silence (1997) and City of Rain (2003). Wry, sensitive and intelligent throughout, the selection ranges from unsentimental love poems to sharply satirical writing. They mock, celebrate and unsettle, at once recognisably national and international in reach, offering a fresh edge and energy to the wave of urban poetry emerging from Singapore.

Alvin Pang was born in Singapore in 1972. A Fellow of Iowa University's International Writing program, his poetry has been translated into more than fifteen languages, and he has appeared at major festivals and in anthologies worldwide. He has edited the anthologies No Other City (2000); Over There: Poems from Singapore and Australia (with John Kinsella, 2008), and Tumasik: Contemporary Writing from Singapore (2009). Pang was named the 2005 Young Artist of the Year for Literature by Singapore's National Arts Council, and was received the Singapore Youth Award (Arts and Culture) in 2007.