This year marks the 29th edition for the Singapore Writers Festival.
The festival's theme for this year is: Hidden in Plain Sight.
The Singapore Writers Festival runs from 13 to 22 November 2026 across locations islandwide.
This year’s Singapore Writers Festival features over 300 writers bringing plenty of mystery, myths, and murder for its 29th edition.
Stories can tell us so much. Whether it’s a murder mystery that delves into life’s darkest corners, or a story about supernatural occurrences that leaves you wondering if that noise in the dark is something nefarious, this year’s Singapore Writers Festival (SWF) is back to feed your imagination from 13 to 22 November 2026. With the theme Hidden in Plain Sight, the 29th edition of SWF will feature over 300 writers and moderators at more than 200 programmes.
The Arts House Group is the organiser behind the festival, and crime and mystery take centre stage for this year’s programming. But the festival offers more than a dark theme. The wider conversation surrounding Singapore Writers Festival 2026 also includes discussions on families, myths, and technology, as well as how we perceive our reality today. There are also literature walks that will allow participants to uncover more about Singapore’s history, plenty to involve younger audiences, and book launches too.
So, if picking apart the mind of a murderer or finding out more about hidden corners in Singapore’s neighbourhoods sounds thought-provoking, then do note to add Singapore Writers Festival to the calendar. Below are our picks of the highlights to look forward to.
Writing Between the Real and Unreal
What happens when the line between fact and fiction becomes almost impossible to establish? Mexican-Canadian author Silvia Moreno-Garcia, best known for her gothic horror bestseller Mexican Gothic, will tackle precisely that question at the upcoming SWF. Her keynote address, Writing Between the Real and Unreal, examines the relationship between truth, deception and artificiality in an era where fabricated information can be manufactured and circulated with alarming ease.
Where: Victoria Theatre, Empress Place, Raffles City, Singapore
When: Saturday, 21 November 2026 from 1:30pm to 2:30pm
Contact: singaporewritersfestival.com
The Making of a Serial Killer
The Making of a Serial Killer brings together South Korean crime novelist Seo Mi-ae with Singaporean writers Rueben Dass and Jocelyn Suarez for a conversation about creating convincing killers on the page. Seo Mi-ae is particularly well placed to lead the discussion, having spent decades researching real-life offenders. Alongside Dass and Suarez, she will explore the research and creative decisions involved in constructing believable antagonists, from their motivations and psychological complexity to the unsettling details that make a fictional villain feel disturbingly plausible.
The conversation also raises a fascinating question about crime fiction itself: how much should a writer reveal about a killer before the mystery loses its grip? After all, the most compelling villains are often those whose motivations remain just beyond our understanding.
Where: Victoria Theatre, Empress Place, Raffles City, Singapore
When: Saturday, 14 November 2026 from 3:30pm to 4:30pm
Contact: singaporewritersfestival.com
Spirits, Serpents, and Sacred Fears: Mystical Belief in Fiction
Jointly presented by Caris Avendaño Cruz, Ng Yi-Sheng, and Joyce Chng, Spirits, Serpents, and Sacred Fears: Mystical Belief in Fiction suggests an intriguing exploration of the relationship between folklore, spirituality and the human imagination. Across cultures, supernatural beings and sacred creatures have served as vessels for anxieties, moral lessons and explanations for phenomena that resist rational reasoning. In fiction, these beliefs can become much more than atmospheric decoration — they help establish the rules of imagined worlds, shape characters’ decisions and give physical form to fears that might otherwise remain abstract.
Serpents, for instance, occupy a particularly fascinating place in mythology. Depending on the tradition, they can represent danger, wisdom, transformation or the sacred. Spirits, meanwhile, frequently blur the boundaries between the living and the dead, allowing writers to explore grief, memory, guilt and the consequences of unresolved histories.
The most absorbing supernatural stories are often those in which the question of whether something is real becomes less important than what the belief itself reveals about the people involved. For readers who enjoy their fiction with a healthy dose of the uncanny, this promises to be an opportunity to examine the cultural and emotional machinery behind the things that go bump in the night.
Where: The Arts House at the Old Parliament, Parliament Lane, Raffles City, Singapore
When: Saturday, 14 November 2026, from 8pm to 9pm
Contact: singaporewritersfestival.com
What The Family Doesn’t Say
If the previous sessions deal with fictional killers and supernatural presences, What the Family Doesn’t Say turns to something decidedly more familiar: the secrets, expectations, and emotional baggage that come with being related to people. Featuring celebrated Indian author alongside Singaporean novelists Jemimah Wei and Balli Kaur Jaswal, this conversation examines the silences, sacrifices, and inherited histories that shape family relationships across generations.
The subject feels particularly resonant in a region where family identity, migration, cultural heritage, and personal ambition often intersect in complicated ways. The stories passed between generations are rarely straightforward. Some are embellished, others conveniently forgotten, while certain subjects remain so firmly off-limits that merely bringing them up can change the temperature of an entire dinner table.
Ghosh, whose literary works frequently explore migration, colonial histories, and the movement of people across borders, brings a historical dimension to the discussion. Meanwhile, Wei’s debut novel The Original Daughter examines sisterhood, family expectations and the complicated bonds between daughters growing up in Singapore. Jaswal’s fiction similarly explores personal identity and the tensions that emerge between individual desires and familial obligations. Together, their perspectives invite a closer examination of what families choose to preserve, what they leave unsaid and how those omissions can influence the lives of subsequent generations.
Where: Victoria Theatre, Empress Place, Raffles City, Singapore
When: Sunday, 15 November 2026, from 3:30pm to 4:30pm
Contact: singaporewritersfestival.com
Literary Walks
For those who prefer their literary experiences with a little fresh air, SWF’s literary walks offer an opportunity to discover Singapore through its landscapes, architecture and overlooked histories.
Among the highlights are Islands of Memories: Stories from the Southern Sea, a coastal walk at West Coast Park exploring the histories and lived experiences of Singapore’s seafaring Orang Laut and Orang Pulau communities. Led by Firdaus Sani of Orang Laut SG, the experience combines storytelling, a walk along the coast and a shared meal, bringing maritime heritage into focus through the voices and memories of the communities themselves.
There’s also Cinema Paradiso, which takes participants on a bilingual journey through Singapore’s lost cinemas, tracing the city’s cinematic history from the Bugis neighbourhood to Capitol Theatre, and Echoes in Art and Ink, exploring Little India’s murals and hidden stories, concluding with a conversation at the Indian Heritage Centre.
Contact: singaporewritersfestival.com
Youth Programme
The festival’s younger audiences aren’t being left to entertain themselves with the family iPad, either. For instance, the SWF Playground at Singapore Writers Festival, designed for children aged 12 and under, brings together children’s and young adult authors for activities that encourage young readers to explore storytelling beyond the printed page.
One of the youth programmes to look out for is Girls Who Don’t Follow the Rules, featuring authors Robin Stevens and Jessica Townsend in a conversation about rebellious heroines and the appeal of characters who refuse to behave as expected. And for families looking to combine storytelling with a little cultural exploration, Treasure Hunting in Dunhuang, presented with the Asian Civilisations Museum, offers a parent-child activity inspired by the historical and artistic heritage of China’s ancient Dunhuang city.
Contact: singaporewritersfestival.com