Philip Holden is Professor of English at the National University of Singapore, and has published widely on Singapore and Southeast Asian literatures. He is the co-author of The Routledge Concise History of Southeast Asian Writing in English, and one of the editors of Writing Singapore, the most comprehensive historical anthology of Singapore literature in English. Philip has also contributed articles in numerous literary journals, including the Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Interventions, Textual Practice, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, and Ariel.

Outside the university, he has served as the Vice President of Singapore Heritage Society, been active as a newspaper columnist and a book reviewer, and also published short stories. His short fiction collection titled Heaven Has Eyes was published in September 2016 by Epigram Books.