Topaz Winters (born September 25, 1999) is the pen name of Singaporean-American writer Priyanka Balasubramanian Aiyer.[1][2]
Early life and education
Winters was born in the United States and grew up in Singapore from the tiem she was seven.[1] She graduated from Princeton University in 2023 with a B.A. in English and certificates in Creative Writing, Visual Art, and Italian. There, she studied poetry and fiction under Danez Smith, Monica Youn, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, and Joyce Carol Oates.[3]
She is the author of the chapbook "Heaven or This" (2016) and the full-length poetry collections "poems for the sound of the sky before thunder" (Math Paper Press 2017),[5] "Portrait of My Body as a Crime I'm Still Committing" (2019),[3] and "So, Stranger" (Button Poetry 2022).[6] In 2024, Button Poetry issued a reprint of her second, self-published book "Portrait of My Body as a Crime I'm Still Committing" in a five year anniversary edition, with new poems and a foreword by Blythe Baird.[7]
She is the youngest author to be published by Math Paper Press, the youngest Singaporean nominee for the Pushcart Prize,[1] and the youngest visiting author at several MFA programs across the United States.[8]
Winters wrote and appeared in the 2017 short film "SUPERNOVA" (directed by Ishan Modi).[10] With Crispin Rodrigues, she is the co-curator of the 2020 Singapore Writers Festival digital art installation "Letters From Home to Home".[11] She embarked on a book tour across the East Coast in celebration of "So, Stranger" in 2022, performing with musicians and writers in New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.[12][13] In 2024 she embarked on a book tour across the Midwest in celebration of "Portrait of My Body as a Crime I'm Still Committing: 5 Year Anniversary Special Edition," performing with musicians and writers in Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.[14] She has performed her poetry at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Center for Fiction, and the Singapore Writers Festival.[15]
Her peer-reviewedscholarly paper "Queering Poetics: The Impact of Poetry on LGBT+ Identity in Singaporean Adolescents" was published in the Journal of Homosexuality when she was 19 years old. She is the youngest author to be published in this journal.[16]
"The Psychiatrist Said I Would Outgrow My Violences", "Unmasking Ceremony", "This Will Go Easier If You Can Think of Something to Believe In". Waxwing. 2024[18]
"I Start Crying During the Best Part of the Film". Rust+Moth. 2016[34]
Books
So, Stranger. Button Poetry. 2022. ISBN 9781638340249
Portrait of My Body as a Crime I'm Still Committing. Button Poetry. 2019 and 2024. ISBN 9781733881609
poems for the sound of the sky before thunder. Math Paper Press. 2017. ISBN 9789811137792
Scholarly papers
Queering Poetics: The Impact of Poetry on LGBT+ Identity in Singaporean Adolescents. Journal of Homosexuality, 67:2, 206-222. DOI 10.1080/00918369.2018.1536415[16]
Edited
Half Mystic Journal, Opus II, Issue I: Presto. Half Mystic Press. 2024[35]
You Make Yourself Another. Lucy Hannah Ryan. Half Mystic Press. 2023.[36] ISBN 9781948552158
Winters moved to New York City after graduating from Princeton University in 2023. She is single and uses she/they pronouns.[1] She owns a black cat named Volta.[51]
