News in Starmag today of a reissue of two important short fiction collections editied by Lloyd Fernando. (I would give you the link but despite a long and frustrating search on the Star's home page I didn't locate the Rubin Khoo's article there. Mad am I, indeed I am.)
Fernando was professor in Universiti Malaya's English department and principle mover behind the creative writing course which aimed "to encourage students to write original works in the form of short stories, plays or poems."
Two anthologies, edited by Fernando, resulted: 22 Malaysian Stories (1963) and Malaysian Short Stories(1981). The good news is that both books have just been reissued by Maya Press. (The launch was on June 25th at Sutra House.)
As Lloyd's wife Marie says: "the books were done at a time when no-one gave a thought to local writing and Lloyd was always encouraging his students to do something." The anthologies encouraged emerging voices including those of K.S. Maniam (who also taught on the course), Shirley Lim, Kassim Ahmad, Stella Kon and John Machado.
The article quotes from the introducrtion of the first anthology:
"The short story in Malay, in the hands of practitioners like Keris Mas, Alias Ali and Shahnon Ahmad, has in fact burgeoned in post-war years into the dominant literary form in the language. The same does not hold true for the short story in English."
But the short story in English did not really take off, even after these anthologies were published. (Just read Amir Mohammad's excellent Foreword: Canned Goods in Silverfish New Writing 1 to be brought up to date.)
More recently, there's definitely been a resurgence of the short story in English thanks in no small part to Raman's efforts.
But more, much more needs to happen for local writers. And much more needs to be initiated by local writers. (If the Neohikayat Kutus can be brave and bold, why not others?)
The reissues of Lloyd Fernando's anthologies then are a timely reminder of where the Malaysian short story in English has been, and a kick-to-the-seat-of-the-pants to say isn't it time to take it even further?
