Seven Questions with... Sarah Ang

This week we meet third-year English Literature student Sarah Ang, who is a poet and writer from Singapore. Here, Sarah chats to us about some of the international awards she's won for her writing and shares an amazing insider tip for fellow lovers of art and museums. What are you studying, why are you interested in this subject and what do you plan to do in the future?. I'm going into my third year studying English Literature! I've always been entranced by the worlds that literature has to offer - growing up, I constantly had my nose stuck in a book, wandering the lush woods of Tolkien's epic saga, getting into mischief with Scout and Jem Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird , or braving the elements with Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea . To me, the benefits of the discipline are manifold - the cultivation of empathy, the ability to examine issues from multiple perspectives, and sensitivity to nuances in arguments are all invaluable skills. Perhaps what amazes me most about literature, however, is how mere words strung together on a page can be woven into a compelling narrative that resonates with readers from vastly different backgrounds, even moving them to tears in some cases. The emotional impact that literature can have is something that I am captivated by, and try to inject into my own work - I think what I find most rewarding about writing is when I finish a story or poem, and people tell me that what I've written has moved them.