Banking on a heartache
> Young writer Charissa Ong is back with her second book, Daylight Dialogues
than one side], and then diminishing poetry, it’s the one that goes from one sentence, all the way down to one word.
“The second [book] actually has more self-actualisation themes, where I basically probe the mind of my readers and what they think about life and how they could navigate through it better.”
You started Penwings publishing after you got turned down by publishers for being too young. How different was the publishing process this time around? “It’s definitely easier because now we’ve established more connections.
The first time my mum and I, we didn’t have any connections at all.
“My company is just the both of us, so I still pay her a monthly salary to help me out with my taxes, invoices, quotations, purchase orders, and all that kind of serious stuff while I manage the book stuff and the publishing side of it.”
Which was harder: starting your own publishing company or
What is it about poetry that appeals to you? “I like the oldest style of poetry where stuff has to rhyme, and they follow [a] rhythm. Just like [songwriting], cause music is quite a big part of my life. Right now, poetry is very subjective, cause there’s a lot of styles – like [that of] Rupi Kaur, Lang Leav, and all that.
“But I try to make it my own. I try to follow like the olden style of rhyming, cause I feel like there’s something very mystical and fantastical about that. How nursery rhymes and how Disney songs always seem to rhyme. Everything feels like it has a purpose that is there.”