The Next Generation: Youths Making a Literary Scene
PanelPriyanshi Mohanty, Sophia Magistrado, Wu Liangyu | Moderator: Crispin Rodrigues
Festival Pass| Festival Talk Pass
With social media and digital tools, youths themselves are more involved than ever in shaping the literary scene as they enter it, not just as readers but as creators, organisers, and recommenders of books to their own peers. With this panel of youths whose experiences span literary festival moderating, bookstagramming, youth literary magazines, youth podcasts and more, we explore how teens these days are discovering and shaping their own literary tastes, and how they can make the scene their own.
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Priyanshi Mohanty (Singapore)
Priyanshi is a 17-year old student currently studying Literary Arts at SOTA. She enjoys going out for meals with her friends, participating in Model UN, and watching cute animal videos when trying to procrastinate on her work. She has recently started a podcast with her friends to talk about youth issues and experiences (Let’s Face It on Youtube and Spotify), and is also a writer in The Aegis Collective, a digital newsletter which aims to highlight community organisations and social issues. She has also been a youth moderator and reader at the Singapore Writers’ Festival.
Sophia Magistrado (Singapore)
Sophia is a Singapore-based teen Bookstagrammer and the creator behind @thechattychapter, where she focuses on YA literature, reader reflections, and thoughtful book recommendations. She began her Bookstagram in 2025 as a personal learning challenge, using social media to share her love for books. Through her work, Sophia has discovered how digital platforms enable youths to shape their own reading cultures, amplify diverse voices, and influence book discovery among teens. Her experience reflects how Bookstagram can be more than a creative outlet: it can be a space for youth expression, confidence-building, skill development, and active participation in today’s literary scene.
Wu Liangyu (Singapore)
Wu Liangyu is a teenage artist and poet. Her work has been exhibited at Singapore Art Week, Science Centre Singapore, the School of the Arts (SOTA), and the Visual Arts Centre. In 2024, she founded Project InkLink, a youth-led organisation dedicated to forging connections through literature. Her works have appeared, or are forthcoming, in anthologies such as Eunoia Review, OF ZOOS magazine, This Is Southeast Asia, and Sine Theta Magazine. She also occasionally competes in debate.
Crispin Rodrigues (Singapore)
Crispin Rodrigues is the author of 4 collections of poetry, the latest being dragon.paper.wind. (Pagesetters, 2024). He is also the co-editor of Crazy Little Pyromaniacs, an anthology of young Singapore poets. His work has been featured in several online and print journals. He is currently working on a new poetry collection.
Programme dates and times are subject to change.