​“Torches a devastating, cathartic path through the dark underbelly of Singapore… a story of and about girls and women.”
—The Straits Times

​“Will have you hooked from the first word to the last.”
—NPR, Best Books of 2025

​The Queer Women's Book Club is proud to host Wen-yi Lee at our upcoming January 2026 book club session, to discuss her newest book, When They Burned the Butterfly, a fierce, glamorous sapphic fantasy reimagining the secret societies of postcolonial Singapore.

​Expect a rich book club discussion, a moderated conversation with the author, and space to connect with fellow readers.

​Agenda

​7 - 7:30PM - Doors Open and Mingling

​7:30PM - 8PM - Book Club Discussion

​8 - 8:30PM - Moderated Conversation with Wen-yi Lee

​8:30 - 8:45PM - Audience Q&A

​8:45PM onwards - Free and Easy

​About the Book

​“Truly cinematic” — Library Journal, starred review

​Singapore, 1972: Newly independent and grappling for power in a fast-modernizing world. Here, gangsters in Chinese secret societies are the last conduits of their ancestors' migrant gods, and the back alleys where they fight are the last place magic has not been assimilated and legislated away.

​Loner schoolgirl Adeline Siow has never needed more company than the flame she can summon at her fingertips. But when her mother dies in a house fire with a butterfly seared onto her skin and Adeline hunts down a girl she saw in a back-alley barfight—a girl with a butterfly tattoo–she discovers she’s far from alone. 

​Buy your copy of the book: https://www.wenyileewrites.com/butterfly/

​About the Author

​Wen-yi Lee is the author of When They Burned the Butterfly and The Dark We Know.

​Her work often speculates on troubling women, troubled history, bodies, and ghosts, and has appeared in short form in venues like Lightspeed, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, Reactor, and various anthologies.

​She has been supported by the Clarion West Octavia E Butler Scholarship, the National Arts Council of Singapore, and the National Centre for Writing in the UK.

​She is currently based in Singapore. Find her online at @wenyilee_ or at wenyileewrites.com.