Elangovan

Elangovan (b. 1957) is a versatile bilingual Singapore poet and playwright recognised for exploring contentious themes and the darker facets of society. He is one of the first poets in Singapore to adopt the free verse style in Tamil. In addition to serving as the Artistic Director of the theatre company Agni Kootthu, his diverse roles include those of a teacher, arts administrator, freelance journalist, screenwriter, translator, and literary editor.

Educated in Raffles Institution, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Directing from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 1996. He later pursued a Master's in Theatre Directing from Middlesex University, England. 

Elangovan’s published works are many and noteworthy. Unlike most Tamil writers, he wrote in English as well as in Tamil. He is known for transcreating - rather than directly translating - his own works and those of others across both languages. His debut publication was a collection of Tamil poems, titled Vizhichannalkalin Pinnalirunthu (1979). Subsequently, he has published more than a dozen books of plays as well as poetry. His poems have appeared in national anthologies such as The Poetry of Singapore (1985).

While most of Elangovan's works have been critically acclaimed, a few plays have been banned by the government for alleged undesirable content. These include Talaq (1998), perhaps his best-known play. He contested these decisions, and they also drew criticism from some leading artists. 

Elangovan served as an arts administrator in the National Arts Council (NAC) from 1987 to 2000. During that period, he served as co-editor and translator for significant publications such as The Fiction of Singapore (1990) and Words for the 25th: Readings by Singapore Writers (1990). He has also served as a literary editor of Singa, a local literary and arts journal in all four official languages. For the Tamil community, his selection of leading Tamil Nadu writers such as Sundara Ramasamy as guest writers of NAC made a major impact on Tamil literary developments in Singapore. After leaving NAC, he taught theatre at the Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts and later contributed to the literary arts team at the Centre for the Arts at the National University of Singapore as an associate. 

His contributions – as writer, director and arts administrator – have helped shape Singapore’s arts landscape. Elangovan was honoured with the SEA Write Award in 1997. His plays, Flush, Oodaadi, and 1915, each earned the prestigious Singapore International Award from the Singapore International Foundation in 2002, 2003, and 2005, respectively.



For more information
Chua, Alvin. “Elangovan,” Singapore Infopedia. Accessed 1 August 2025. https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/article-detail?cmsuuid=f562b0bf-b684-46b9-900e-fb4bee5ccc81. 
“Elangovan,” AP Writers. Accessed 1 August 2025. https://www.apwriters.org/author/ag0ni3ko6ot9ht5hu7/. 
Kootthu, Agni. “Elangovan,” Centre-42. Accessed 1 August 2025. https://www.centre42.sg/archive/profiles/1435/elangovan/. 

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The information in this article is valid as of August 2025 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. If you have any feedback on this article, please submit here.