Bookseller Session with Tomi Wibisono and Ibrahim Tahir

In the wake of Singapore's inaugural Indie Bookshop Day (on 3 October 2026) and Jakal Bookshop Festival in August 2026, Indonesia's first bookshop festival in Yogyakarta, join in on a conversation between Tomi Wibisono, founder of Buku Akik, Yogyakarta, and Ibrahim Tahir, founder of Wardah Books, Singapore. Yulianna Frederika, founder of Lepak Conversations, will facilitate the conversation. The session will be bilingual, with the conversation flowing between Bahasa Indonesia and Singapore English.

Tomi and Ibrahim will share their experiences about their involvement in their respective country's bookshop festivals, as well as have a discussion about the enduring relevance of physical bookshops in societies today.

Purchase tickets at https://wardahbooks.com/products/bookseller-session-with-tomi-wibisono-and-ibrahim-tahir.

Ways of Seeing (John Berger, 1972) — A gallery beyond literature, wonder into the world of arts and music. Grassroots Book Room breaks down its literary walls and transforms into a visual arts museum, a sound scape, a room of beyond literary beauty. See for yourself, before speaking or believing. “Seeing comes before words.”

$35/ticket, purchase at https://forms.gle/ouo2JQQLM4vXF69D8 .

Join author Kasan Goh at Woods in the Books for a special conversation about his semi-autobiographical first novel, Billy, Seetoh & Co.

A story of immigrants — forced and voluntary — seeking home and belonging, Billy, Seetoh & Co moves between places, lives and experiences, raising an intriguing question along the way: what’s fact, and what’s fiction?

Moderated by Goh Eck Kheng, the conversation will delve into the stories behind the novel, Kasan’s writing and the experiences that found their way onto the page.

Free with registration, register at https://witb20261002.peatix.com/.

Join us at bommoi for an interactive Korean picture book storytelling performance led by Inya Kang. A veteran performer and drama educator trained at Evolve Arts Academy with over 15 years of stage experience, Inya brings characters and tales vividly to life. Recommended for children aged 5–9 years old. Free admission.

Free entry.

THERE’S ANOTHER SINGAPORE BENEATH THE SURFACE - ONE OF CLOWNFISH, HAWKSBILL TURTLES, NUDIBRANCHES AND 8000-YEAR-OLD CORAL REEFS.

Come hear all about Singapore’s reefs from author, marine biologist and National Geographic Explorer, Dr Debby Ng.

Debby is the author of Marvellous Mammals: A Wild A to Z of Southeast Asia and has made more than 2500 dives at Pulau Hantu and across Singapore’s Southern Islands. She will share stories and pictures and is ready for your kiddo to ask her anything.

Bring your care and curiosity to this AMA session specially tailored for 6 to 60-year-olds. The session is free but we highly encourage making a comfortable donation to pulauhantu.sg.

Free entry, donation to http://pulauhantu.sg/ encouraged.

Wormhole pulls out all the stops with a PowerPoint Party double bill weekend. On Sunday, come for PowerPoint Party: Behind The Book with eight presenters, including International Booker Prize-winning translator Deepa Bhasthi, a veteran book salesperson, an editor, a literary prize judge, a librarian, and more! They will each deliver a special presentation to take you behind the scenes, through the role they play in the literary ecosystem, and give you a deeper appreciation of the magic (and the hard work) behind all your favourite books. Deepa Bhasthi's appearance is made possible by Asia Creative Writing Programme.

Purchase tickets at https://wormhole.com.sg/products/wormhole-dreams-powerpoint-parties

Explore the shelves of Maha Yu Yi and take on five fun book-hunting challenges!

Participants will receive a card containing five clues. Find a book that matches each clue and take a photograph of it. After completing all five challenges, show the five photographs to our staff.

To complete the hunt, share one of your photographs on social media and tag Maha Yu Yi and SGIBD26. Every successful Book Hunter will receive a “Certified Book Hunter” sticker and a $5 book voucher.

Come discover new books, explore our bookstore and see if you have what it takes to become a Certified Book Hunter!

Free entry.

Join us at bommoi for an interactive Korean picture book storytelling performance led by Inya Kang. A veteran performer and drama educator trained at Evolve Arts Academy with over 15 years of stage experience, Inya brings characters and tales vividly to life. Recommended for children aged 5–9 years old. Free admission.

Free entry.

Poetry has the power to heal and to recalibrate. This consultation is conducted by a poet and clients are encouraged to share their stories in the casual setting of the bookshop. Clients may choose to share specific memories, give prompts or bring up something they've been carrying with them for a while. They'll be asked follow-up questions. The poet will respond by prescribing a custom typewritten poem as 'medicine' that the client can take with them as a physical, analogue keepsake and reminder. Each consultation usually takes around 30 minutes, and is charged at $15 per poem.

Madi is a poet who has performed across Nusantara and has had his writings published in Kembara Nusa. He is the founder and program curator for S.U.R. — a community that works closely with Nusantara poets and writers, hosting poetry events across this region.

$15/Poem

Kaka the unhurried capybara and Shui-Shui the very hurried otter are best friends with completely opposite speeds. When Uncle Benney Bear's bakery opens, they rush in to help, and chaos follows. A Chinese reading session with Beverly, in natural, fluent Chinese written for lower-primary readers.

Free with registration, register at https://natventure-sgibd.peatix.com/.

Online bookstore Wormhole lives their dream of running a bookshop in person with a full-weekend pop-up at Dakota Dreams! Come browse their selection of books and merch, and challenge your friends (or yourself!) in a series of literary minigames.

Plus, illustrators Doodnll and HAFI join in on the fun with a live drawing challenge: tell them a book title and take home their interpretation of it on a limited-edition bookmark!

Free entry.

This session explores the diverse range of warangka (keris sheaths) and their distinct forms across the Nusantara.The team from Nur Pusaka SG will introduce visitors to the different regional styles of warangka, alongside key keris terms such as pamor, dhapur and warangan. Visitors can also stamp a pre-cut bookmark with their choice of Nusantaran warangka design for $2 each. 

Nur Pusaka SG was founded by Nidhar, a Javanese keris enthusiast and collector. Still early in his journey, he joins us to share his insights and passion for the keris and its traditions. Session will run from 12PM to 6PM.

Free, bookmarks at $2 each.

Natventure invites you on a bookish adventure over the weekend at BreadTalk IHQ. Explore picture books and children's stories that spark curiosity and wonder, and transport yourself into different worlds waiting to be discovered. Join us as we celebrate stories that ignite the explorer in every reader.

Free entry, next to entrance of mall.

With Linda Yew, author.

Lily's neighbourhood is magical, but only Lily can see it. A sleepy monitor lizard is a fire-breathing dragon; red saga seeds are sparkling rubies, all collected in the pockets her Popo sews for her. Meet Linda, Singaporean author-illustrator, for the story behind her debut picture book, and the craft pages at the end.

Free with registration, register at https://natventure-sgibd.peatix.com/.

Join our handwriting showcase at bommoi! Across the festive days, our bookstore keeper will hand-pick one Korean sentence and one English sentence from our shelves. Pick up a pen, write out either sentence in your own style, and display your card on our community wall. Browse the gallery, vote for your favorites, and see who takes home a special bookstore gift!

Free entry.

Every reader has a bookshop memory. A rainy afternoon. A cover that stopped you mid-aisle. A title pressed into your hands by a stranger.

In celebration of Singapore Independent Bookshop Day, we're collecting yours. Drop by, pick up a pen, and add your story to our community wall — no ticket, no registration, just a moment to pause and remember why you love books.

The wall will be up all day. Come anytime.

Free entry.

A book display from 3 October to 3 November 2026, featuring 10 book recommendations from President Tharman, and why he thinks they are worth reading. The owners of Book Bar will be around from 10AM to 5PM on 3 Oct, so if you have any questions drop by and we'll be happy to answer them!

Free entry.

Fairy tales are old technology. Long before they were written down, they did one particular job. They carried a child to a threshold: the edge of the forest, the door left open — and let them face what was on the other side, from inside the safety of a family's arms.

A safe flight simulator for the world outside.

Fairy tales survive because each generation retells them. To mark Singapore's first Independent Bookshop Day, Eliko wants to see what stories today's children make, when they're given their own threshold to stand at.

The story prompts they'll be working with are new. Eliko recently ran an open call — Threshold — inviting Singapore illustrators to make images built at exactly that edge between the known and the unknown. Those images will become the starting point for a group of children building a fairy tale of their own — and performing it as an improvised puppet show.

On October 3rd, Threshold comes to Chinatown Complex.

The puppet show will screen on a closed shop shutter in the market corridor. Alongside it, a guerrilla takeover of the same corridor — the selected illustrators' work, framed and hung directly on the market windows, each piece beside the source image it answers.

Come and see what a threshold looks like, held open by a market corridor, a puppet show, and a child's idea of the unknown.

Free with registration, register at http://luma.com/eliko.sgibd

Wormhole pulls out all the stops with a PowerPoint Party double bill weekend. On Saturday, unwind at the end of the day as your fellow readers give bite-size presentations on the books they love, hate, and everything in between! Queer horror, the science behind Project Hail Mary, historical gems hidden in Amanda Lee Koe's work, The Lord of the Rings and AI — it's a treasure trove of revelations and insights as we learn from each other in the Bookworm Edition of Wormhole's PowerPoint Party.

Purchase tickets at https://wormhole.com.sg/products/wormhole-dreams-powerpoint-parties

From life's hardships to a writer's exile ——

After publishing their debut book, Lin Yijun and Phoon Jing Ying travelled together to the UK to pursue a Master's degree in Creative Writing. Between their first book and studying abroad, have they found where their words belong?

Join us at City Book Room on 3rd of October. The talk will be moderated by Wong Koi Tet.

Free with registration, register at https://forms.gle/qhqeYQgBB8qZRHR47.

Creative nonfiction is a genre that has brought together the unlikeliest of fellow travellers. Join poets-turned-essayists Mok Zining and Theophilus Kwek, arts writer Akanksha Raja, urban planner Samantha Chia (of the UNIT project) and playwright Nabilah Said as they share their latest projects and obsessions!

Free entry.

AFTERIMAGE presents the relaunch of Alfian Sa’at’s The Invisible Manuscript, a collection first composed and circulated privately when the poet was 22. Now in print once again, these poems and provocative texts confront desire, memory, identity and belonging with candour. This gathering celebrates a work that remains an uncompromising contribution from one of Singapore’s most distinctive literary voices.

Location: Woods in the Books East Coast/Katong

Free with registration, register at https://woodsinthebooks.peatix.com.

Join us at bommoi during designated hours for a special live portrait session! Buy 3 or more books and receive a complimentary hand-drawn portrait by art teacher and passionate urban sketcher Sangmi Lee (@elyssaart). Drop by, pick out your favorite reads, and take home a lovely sketched memory!

Free with any purchase of 3 or more titles.

This is a book sharing of SQ21: Singapore Queer Families in the 21st Century. The panelists are Shania and Daniel. Moderated by Arif Woozeer (aka Wooz), the sharing promises to shed light on a side of Singapore society that is seldom public.

Free entry.

Catch the East Side Buzz on Singapore Independent Bookshop Day! Get ready for the inaugural SGIBD! We are bringing huge energy to Chin Mee Chin Confectionery with "The Easties Book & Craft Market” on 2 & 3 October. Shop from amazing homegrown creatives, grab your favourite CMC buns and toasts, and meet author Alfian Sa'at at the relaunch of “The Invisible Manuscript". Don't miss out on the ultimate Sing Lit celebration!📚✨

(Relaunch of “The Invisible Manuscript” by Alfian Sa’at is at 5PM on 3 October and requires registration, through https://woodsinthebooks.peatix.com.)

Free entry.

Join us at Books Ahoy! FORUM for a magical storytime featuring Ai & Aiko and The Dinosaur Hug—a heartwarming tale that's sure to delight young readers.

After the reading, stay for an exciting, interactive drawing activity. Perfect for creative little hands! Bring the family along for an afternoon of stories, imagination, and dinosaur-sized fun! 💚

Free with registration, register at https://woodsinthebooks.peatix.com.

Join us at bommoi for an exclusive hybrid author talk with Ryujin Jang, one of contemporary Korean literature’s most vital voices and author of the newly translated novel To the Moon. Acclaimed novelist Jung Yi-hyun remarked on her work: “If one were to build a time capsule that explains today’s Korean society, this is a book you could never leave out.”

Connect with fellow book lovers in-store as the author joins us live from Korea for an interactive afternoon of reading, conversation, and real-time dialogue. Every book purchase includes an authentic signed edition, shipped straight from Korea to bommoi following the event.

Purchase tickets at https://bommoi.com/index.php/store/sgibd-bommoi-virtual-author-visit-soseolga-jangryujin. Ticket includes copy of book.

Blind Book Swap – Indie Edition! Bring an underrated book you’re dying to recommend, wrap it up, and write some clues on the outside: why you loved it and why it deserves a second reader. We’ll put the books on the table, everyone picks one, then we unwrap our swapped books and talk about what we brought! Refreshments provided.

Free with registration, register at https://indieblindbookswap.peatix.com

Join us for an exclusive conversation with Beatrix Leow, author of Point of Information, as we dive into her latest BL novel and uncover the stories, characters, and ideas behind the pages. Whether you're a longtime BL fan or simply curious about the genre, come meet the author, hear what inspired the story, and discover what happens when old feelings, complicated relationships, and a high-stakes debate competition collide.

About Point of Information Pierre Tan returns to his former secondary school, Zitan High, years after competing in a debate competition there, only to find himself tasked with preparing a team of four very different students for the same competition.

Although eager to guide them, Pierre is reluctant to work closely with his boss, Chen Kai Wen, with whom he shares a complicated past. While Pierre puts on a brave front to support his students, the competition force him to confront painful memories from his past.

Free entry.

Be inspired by David Tsnen, international author of the latest book Start Sketching, Start Drawing. Watch his creative techniques come to life in an engaging and inspiring live demonstration. Whether you are a beginner or an art enthusiast, come learn, explore, and be inspired!

Free entry.