"It's a passion thing ..." said Raja Ahmad Aminullah telling me about his new publishing venture on the phone the other day.He has been working with some "fresh and undisovered poets and writers" writing in a variety of genres, and now his venture RumahPenerbitan Suarasuara (Voices Publishing House) is due to launch its first five titles at the KL Book Fair next Tuesday.
He is keeping the publication run small to begin with and is selling copies from his house until a distributor can be found, but the books are proving to be very popular from the outset.
The first title, Utopia Trauma, sold out on the first day and I'm not surprised, because it's Rahmat Haron's first time in print and he's a real burn-em-up-and-leave-no-survivors sort of poet and I want a copy madly (especially if it contains his Keranamu Malaysia)!
The other titles include are: a bilingual short story collection titled White Elephant/Gajah Putih by Zakaria Ali; Fosil, a collection of poems by Amirul Fakir; and KataKataHati, poems by Raja Ahmad Aminullah. KataHati features work in a variety of forms and genres by a large number of young writers.
The book launch is at 2.30 p.m. on March 28, 2006 at Putera World Trade Centre.
I'll have to cheer the writers on in absentia because I have another appointment on that day, but I'm sure there will be other readings around town.
(For more information or to purchase copies contact suarasuara_publications@yahoo.com.my)
4 comments:
That's the way to go, Raja Ahmad. Syabas!!
Sure. Well patriotism and all that. But hm my Malay sux. Makes good business sense to publish in Malay though, right now people uin this country are getting really wealthy, and there's not a lot of stuff to spend the money on. Lots of Malay-based stuff are in the pipeline.
Oh, and it's also a money thing. If it was just a passion thing he'd have sold it at cost :)
Hurrah for such local publishing, hope that it wouldn't be just popular literature, but build on the local literary giants that paved the way.
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