EDMUND WEE

Publisher and CEO of Epigram Books

In 2011, a good decade or so after bookstores started closing down, e-readers started becoming mainstream and newspapers started scrambling to put themselves online, Edmund Wee boldly ventured into a crumbling industry everyone else was deserting. He founded Epigram Books, a print publishing firm dedicated to promoting literature by local authors.

While his contemporaries in the industry are struggling to survive, Wee seems to have found a sweet spot that proves that print, if handled right, is far from dead.

Indeed, print has been his livelihood since 1991, when he founded Epigram, the communications design firm that would become the predecessor of Epigram Books. In 2008, he cemented his reputation as a visionary figure in the industry when he was named Designer of the Year in the prestigious President’s Design Award.

Because his work for Epigram revolved around creating commissioned print materials, Wee regularly came into contact with local writers who wanted their work published, but could not find traditional publishers willing to help them with it. Thus, the idea to start a book publishing arm was born.

It was a big turnaround for a man who has confessed to not being a big reader in his early life. Wee’s interest in literature was only awakened in his first year at university, when The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand was assigned as compulsory reading for his psychology course. He thought the divisive novel to be misogynistic.

Nevertheless, he found himself immersed in the story and experienced the moving power of long-form writing for the first time.

Today, Epigram Books is best known locally for the annual Epigram Books Fiction Prize (EBFP), an award it established in 2015 with the aim to, in the company’s own words on its website, “uncover the next great Singaporean novel”. Since 2020, EBFP has been open to writers from Southeast Asia.

On the international stage, it has made its name with Eisner awardwinning graphic novel, The Art of

Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew, and Singapore Literature Prize winner Ministry of Moral Panic by Amanda Lee Koe.

In recent years, expanding the firm’s footprint and influence has been top of mind for Wee. Read more about his plans on p.28.