Nuraliah Norasid (born September 8, 1986) is a Singaporean author. She won the Epigram Books Fiction Prize for her first novel, The Gatekeeper, in 2016.[1] She currently works as a research associate with the Centre for Research on Islamic and Malay Affairs, where she studies social marginalisation.[2]
Nuraliah grew up as the eldest of three children. Her parents brought her and her brothers up with a love of literature, ensuring that they spent an hour reading books every night. She also learned the skills of imaginative world-building from her passion for online games such as The Elder Scrolls.[3] However, her childhood was also troubled, due to her family's poverty, and the fact that she was both a perpetrator and victim of bullying in school.[4]
She eventually channelled her anger into writing, pursuing a PhD in English literature and creative writing at Nanyang Technological University, exploring how speculative fiction can be used to explore "issues such as marginality, isolation and socio-historical traumas facing the Malay community in Singapore".[5] This work resulted in the manuscript of her first novel, The Gatekeeper.
Her other hobbies include taking walks and collecting stamps.[5]
Nuraliah's first novel, The Gatekeeper, blends Greek mythology with contemporary Southeast Asian cultural elements. Set in the high-tech city of Manticura, it tells the story of a young medusa named Ria, who struggles to protect herself and her community of outcasts who have been marginalised by Human colonial settlers.[6]
Her short stories and essays have been published in Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Perempuan: Muslim Women in Singapore Speak Out, Eye/Feel/Write: Building Architectonics II and Best New Singaporean Short Stories: Volume Three.[5]
