Depth of Field

“In this compelling book, Desmond Kon engages the reader in writing prompts that advance wellness and serve as an affirmation that the road to self-recovery exists. For those who question their own resilience and capacity to cope with life’s challenges, this intricately designed book offers a path to a better world, regardless of whether one reflects on personal blemishes or sacred keepsakes. As the author astutely suggests, the key to success lies within.”

Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, PhD Virginia Poet Laureate Emerita

“Desmond Kon’s Depth of Field: My Guided Journal for Self Healing presents a beautiful opportunity for anyone who would like to draft letters to his or her essential self. This strikingly illustrated journal book asks us to make use of writing prompts to express who we are, have been, and might be someday. Kon plays with and against proverbial wisdom—frequently invoking fables and fairy tales with a special emphasis on Aesop’s Fables. His prompts frequently suggest to users of the journal that they may want to tweak or even turn against traditional wisdom as they endeavor to achieve self-discovery. Kon—with his training in theology, creative writing, and book publishing—has made use of his many talents in the construction of Depth of Field, a journal book that can reveal a self to a self.”

Joseph Stanton, PhD Recipient of the Cades Award for Literature and the Ka Palapala Po?okela Award for Excellence in Literature

“Depth of Field is no literature: it’s a godsend of good fortune and favour. Desmond Kon proves here poets can still be miracle workers and help people heal with word combinations. A kind of psycho-Orphism underlies the fables the author delicately sets up for us, to which responses are intended to be given through a dedicated space: each page opens a different landscape of your unconscious inland and moves smoothly its inhabitants—the wonder trees, farm animals and wild beasts of the mind. Genuinely empathetic and elegantly crafted, Depth of Field is an ardent invitation to become the poet of one’s own life.”

Pierre Vinclair, PhD Recipient of the Académie Française Heredia Prize and the Villa Kujoyama in Literature

“Depth of Field is a guided journal about kindness to self. It is full of delicious metaphors, allegories, imageries, and beautiful wordplay by a consummate wordsmith. It connects you to familiar fables playfully reinterpreted to respond to the existential angst we experience today. Above all, it delights your being in a reflective way—your eyes with its visual beauty, your mind with its intellectual stimulation, your heart with its colourful imagination and your will with its compelling analogies to nudge you to be kind to yourself by willing into being your true submerged self—simply by writing your reflections from the looking glass.”

William Wan, PhD General Secretary of the Singapore Kindness Movement and Recipient of the President’s Philanthropy and Volunteerism Award

“Depth of Field performs the double task of providing self-help and overcoming writer’s block during pandemic lockdowns and beyond. It provides an easy-to-follow literary approach to free writing, a key tool in overcoming trauma. It also promises to free oneself from any writing rut with exciting prompts. The illustrations and photos are gorgeous as we have come to expect from Desmond F. X. Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé. This is an inspirational book for our time.”

Eric Tinsay Valles, PhD Director of Poetry Festival Singapore and Recipient of the Goh Sin Tub Creative Writing Prize

“Depth of Field is a rare work that has subtly and skilfully combined poetry and philosophy within the form of a self-help and activity book. The prompts—clearly the product of a mind and heart who lives with keen awareness and mindfulness—at once surprises, delights and provokes. These are prompts that will guide the reader to plumb the depths of the heart and scale the heights of the imagination that he/she/they would not have thought possible. This is a book that would not only heal. Its questions will open another world for you after which, you will not look at life you once knew the same again. It is a book that will make you look into yourself and find the gem within you that is waiting to be shared.”

Phan Ming Yen Fictionist and CEO of Global Cultural Alliance

“A whimsical activity book for grown-ups who need an escape from drudgery into wonderland. Follow Desmond down this perfectly-plotted rabbit hole—you’ll find wild flights of imagination before coming face to face with yourself in meditative moments of clarity.”

Amanda Chong Co-Founder of ReadAble and Recipient of the Singapore Youth Award

“During uncertain times, how vital it is to engage in the healing work of reflection. Depth of Field provides much-needed affirmation and consolation through insightful meditations of the mind and spirit. With tender precision, Desmond Kon has crafted a wise medley of enchanting creative exercises, akin to a recipe book for the heart. Let these imaginative prompts allow for pearls of experience to coalesce and crystallise, enacting and realising all at once what the poet Mary Oliver has called ‘instructions for living a life’.”

Ow Yeong Wai Kit Anthologist and Recipient of the Ministry of Education Outstanding Youth in Education Award

“Depth of Field is a book about us and the stories we tell ourselves. Each journal prompt is simple yet profound, bearing the whimsical qualities of a fairy tale, with stories awaiting to be written by you, the reader. Intricately interwoven with Aesop’s fables along with ekphrastic elements to inspire imagination and contemplation, this journal is an invitation for us to look deeper and discover that healing begins within.”

Nicole Kay Founder of the Tapestry Project Singapore