Published Date:
As part of London Writers Centre’s 30th Anniversary celebrations, we commissioned three London-based LGBTQI+ emerging writers to create a short original piece of work. The commissions were open to London-based LGBTQI+ writers aged 18+, writing poetry, fiction or narrative non-fiction.
Seascape with Capsized Boats (1) by Conan Tan
(1) In November 2021, a small boat carrying migrants capsized while trying to cross the English Channel, resulting in
at least thirty avoidable deaths.
The poem also can be read here: Seascape with Capsized Boat_Conan Tan
Windermere
This poem can be found here:
About Conan Tan
Conan Tan is a queer poet. He is the winner of the 2024 Martin Starkie Prize, Singapore’s 2022 National Poetry Competition, and a finalist in the 2024 Oxford Poetry Prize and the 2025 Frontier Poetry Hurt and Healing Prize. He has received support from various organisations including Sing Lit Station, Poetry Translation Centre UK, the Transylvania County Library Foundation, and the Barbican Centre as a 2025 Barbican Young Poet. His poems appear in Oxford Poetry, Cincinnati Review, Rattle, Passages North, Salt Hill, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. conantan.com.
Conan said:
“I’m really honoured to be selected for this commission. A large part of my writing centres on the intersectional politics of queerness and race, and how queerness itself, like water, is fluid yet intrinsic to my identity, so I’m excited to receive professional support to expand on these ideas in my writing. Since moving here for my undergraduate studies, I’ve also become part of a lovely community of friends and writers who are creative, fun, and fiercely supportive of one another, and I’m grateful to be afforded this opportunity from London Writers Centre to become more connected with the poetry scene in London.”
All work (C) Conan Tan 2026
