Born in 1977, Alfian Bin Sa'at was a fourth year medical student at the National University of Singapore when he published A History of Amnesia. His first book of verse, One Fierce Hour, was well-received in Singapore and Malaysia. His collection of short stories, Corridor, won the Singapore Literature Prize Commendation Award in 1998; this was published in 1999.

Alfian Sa'at is also the Resident Playwright of W!LD RICE. His plays have been translated into German, Swedish and Danish, and they have been read and performed in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, London, Berlin, Hamburg, Zurich, Munich, Copenhagen and Stockholm. He has been nominated for the Life! Theatre Awards for Best Original Script seven times, and has received the award twice.

Alfian was the winner of the SPH-NAC Golden Point Award for Poetry and the Singapore Young Artist Award for Literature in 2001. His other publications include the first play Collected Plays One, poetry collection A History of Amnesia, political satire play Cooling-Off Day and two short story collection, Malay Sketches.