Waves Rising is a volume that aims to recover the voice of Ho Poh Fun, an accomplished poet and fiction writer in the 1980s and 1990s, while establishing the contemporary relevance of her work to the growing readership of Singapore literature.

We were honored to design the cover depicting an urban landscape with skyscrapers and highways that recall Ho Poh Fun’s Katong. Nature is enclosed within these structures, symbolising how urbanisation has replaced much of the natural world. Abstract skyscraper lines resembling books and Tiong Bahru spiral staircases suggest the link between literature, architecture, and memory.

At the centre is a strong, independent woman writer with a blazer over her shoulders, quietly observing the city, echoing Ho’s presence. The Oriental Pied hornbill, the hawksbill sea turtle, and botanical details referenced in her work such as casuarinas, heliconias, caladiums, and tabebuia trees, tie together the persistence of nature within modern life.