Nury Vittachi has some good news for the would-be published among you :
A new literary agency has been launched which is hungry for work from Asia. Osian’s Literary Agency is actively seeking new writers from the region.
“I am sure there are many good writers in the Philippines and elsewhere across Asia, who really need to be brought onto the international stage. I would love to see work from Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and elsewhere,” said the boss, Renuka Chatterjee.
She’s the real thing. Renuka has spent 15 years in publishing, with senior roles in the South Asian operations of Penguin and HarperCollins.
Osian’s is part of a big Indian conglomerate. Already on her list are writers such as Jose Dalisay.
Here's
the link to Osian's literary agency.
Nury Vittachi has some good news for the would-be published among you :
15 comments:
because this room is still empty let me throw a few little pebbles around...
where are malaysian writers ?
if hunter h thompson hasn't blown his head off and is still alive and if he is a malaysian he'd have a riot writing about the current going ons leading to the 8 march general election here. a very mouth watering ifs but an impossibility. out of the question.
what is NOT out of the question and perfectly conceivable and not an impossibility is that we in malaysia can -if we want to. we DO have local writers and journalists who are fairly good and can even write the way the late mr thompson did and can be as perceptive and darkly satirical as any writers around. but forget journalists who work in the four mainstream newspapers.(NST, The Star, Utusan Malaysia and Berita harian) these people especially those writing for the malay papers (Utusan Malaysia and Berita harian) have no balls whatsoever and probably half retarded.
it's difficult to think that they are willing to write such tripes and become willing donkeys and mouthpiece to the BN assholes. the method of writing and reporting by this journalists is simple. write anything 'good' about BN and ignore or write anything BAD about opposition. what kind of journalism is this?
i am more than willing to read good, objective piece of writing on anything (preferably with a dose of dark humor thrown in), but as i say, these journo idiots can only come up with limp and ridiculous one sided write-ups. but they are quick to quote opposition remarks -and invariably out of context -if these seem to sound ridiculous and make them look like fools. can't these people use their writing talent to write a little more objectively? instead of such blatant one sided reportings as though these main stream papers are only meant for lobotomised umno assholes (with half of the critical thinking part of the brain sliced off).
but i guess , we are only malaysians. a nation where critical thinking is not encouraged. malaysians are not very high on the intellectual scale of things. a nation whose citizens' main concern is still making ends meet. still right at the bottom of the maslow's heirachy of needs. despite the gleaming and impressive concrete jungles of KL, malaysia is just like a prostitute. the face is properly made up but everything else is rotten and pitiful.
so , malaysian journalists and papers is just a reflection of the state of malaysian intellectual stage. immature! as they say. we deserve what we get. we are so fucking stupid, we can't think beyond BN . and one of the biggest blame lies squarely on the malaysian mass media. they mould the mind scape of malaysians and because they are BN donkeys we are well and properly fucked!
but in this day and age there are ways to get around this. and thanks to all those good bloggers, youtubers and all that , those who are fortunate enough to have access to internets ( rapidly growing thank god) can have alternative views. alternative ways of looking at things. but this is still way too little. and probably the majority of these people mainly surf for porns and stuff anyway! and for every one who has internet there are ten who live in villages that still think malaysia belongs to BN. these people can only be reached by normal media and we need good objective writings and good objective papers. and i'm pessimistic.
and what strike me as strange is this, where are the 'real' writers? the novelists? the literary fiction writers? to use the old tired cliche, their silence is deafening! they, who are so vigorous in talking about all kinds of story arcs, the meaning of dead gold fish in different cultures, the merits of booker writers and and all the other highly intellectual stuff? where are they? these are the people who can write with elegance, eloquently and wittily. if anything these are the very people that can change the mindscape of malaysians . but i don't see and hear anything from this group?
or perhaps i'm just mistaken. malaysian writers are perhaps just like those journalists who treat their vocation as merely another job. no different from being a plumber or a clerk. just another way of putting food on the table. but i'd like to think that real writers are made of sterner stuff than that. i'd like to think that real writers are the conscience otf the country. the mirror to a country's soul. i hate to think that maalaysia is soulless.
(sorry ms bib... cut and paste job from my blog...)
valid question greenbottle
now then, i think YOU have to make a start on putting things right!!!!!
btw have you read "malaysian essays 1" yet? if not perhaps you may find some stuff that makes your heart happy there. there's good stuff too in "off the edge" and farish always writes v. well. i can understand your frustration but don't ignore the good stuff that is there and which now you should try to contribute to. the gauntlet is chucked at your feet.
"but i guess , we are only malaysians. a nation where critical thinking is not encouraged"
Not encouraged ? we already have full freedom of speech here.. you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
"and what strike me as strange is this, where are the 'real' writers?"
What do you define as "real" ?
"we are so fucking stupid, we can't think beyond BN"
please speak for yourself, I don't recall voting for you :) feel free to make your point here or elsewhere, why do you think they're better than BN ?
"so , malaysian journalists and papers is just a reflection of the state of malaysian intellectual stage. immature!"
You say people are immature and yet you call them "lobotomized assholes" ? :)
"the method of writing and reporting by this journalists is simple. write anything 'good' about BN and ignore or write anything BAD about opposition. what kind of journalism is this?"
The same "method" of writing that writes anything 'bad' about BN and ignores or writes anything GOOD about the opposition ? :)
(wait, methods of writing can write ? :) )
PS. Is checking your syntax and semantics so difficult for you ?
anon good rebuttal. i actually do find long angry off-topic rants annoying ...
"Full freedom of speech" ?!? Um yeah except you can get thrown in jail without trial for "inciting racial hostility." Except for that one little detail, I suppose we have freedom of speech. To talk about everything except, you know, the biggest elephant in the room.
But in answer to Greenbottle's rant I'd say: you're not reading the right things. They're out there and there are starting to be more and more of them, but if you sit at home with your NST you can hardly blame anyone else.
- Preeta
....I would love to see work from Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and elsewhere,” said the boss, Renuka Chatterjee.
is the omission of malaysia intentional? whatever it is, it speaks volume...
"...i actually do find long angry off-topic rants annoying ..."
in my case i find boring treacly patting each others back annoying...
so anon @ 2.51 pm finds we already have full freedom of speech here...
welldone! proves my point exactly... malaysians are so fucking stupid...
malaysia is one of her elsewheres? and why not? she was listing examples and not giving an all inclusive list. (gosh, she left out cambodia, burma, laos!) and maybe she feels malaysians may not terribly need her help as writers are already making a showing on the world stage
what you find annoying and what i find annoying has this one little difference. this is my blog and here the rules are mine.
not that i really have rules. i just hate these great tornadoes of vast defeatism. they make me feel snarly and uncomfortable and wonder what i'm blogging for. in this case it's particularly uninvited since the post was about an agent inviting work, and that's something to be glad about. doors are opening for malaysian authors and it isn't just about malaysians needing western agents and publishers. there's a sea-change (or a SEA change happening)
i thought there would be one or two voices saying "hey great, that's just the kind of thing we wanted to know"
on a more personal note, something is eating you up, greenbottle, and you need to find a real life way to get that anger out before it causes you harm. i say this as a (well i hope i am!) friend.
oh dear ms bib!
i'm truly sorry if i've offended you. yes indeed i consider you as a friend. i thought you being british and all, have more flexibility and tolerate more 'dissent' ...er.. allow more freedom of expression here...i guess i'm wrong (as usual) and i guess you've been in malaysia too long.
the only reason i posted this rant here was because it was so empty and it's likely to remain so without me throwing a few small stones as i say.
i guess we should have another lunch sometimes to smooth ruffled feathers. again i'm sorry. i've been very rude.
but er yes..something is eating me up...despite all the good and blessed life that i am leading (comparatively) i feel suffocated here...but I'm NOT migrating anywhere.
no, really nothing is eating me up.
gb - you pms'ing ah?
ha ha lil ms d... don't be too clever...i'll spank you one of these days.
funny ms d, i was going to ask him the same thing! lunch soon i think. we'll sort him out!
"except you can get thrown in jail without trial for "inciting racial hostility."
If anyone was inciting ANY hostility, racial or otherwise, I would very much support a day or two in a convenient jail cell.
Anyway I suspect that his problem is nothing more than a serious case of teenage angst. Writers are sensitive people, they get that way sometimes.
Yea have lunch with him or something. I'll make you the same offer I make everyone else -- if whatever you want is commercially viable (it doesn't even have to be profitable, as long as it covers expenses) I'll see about what I can do to get what you want done.
There's no point in ranting here or elsewhere, really, unless it's for entertainment or anything. But freedom of speech is good, at least I know that there's something you want.
As for BN, well there's a lot I can say about them. I wish we had better opposition, but wishes aren't horses. Other countries have sterling opposition, but we're stuck with opposition parties that can't even write proper press statements.
Dear Anonymous @ 2:48:
Let me explain something. Inverted commas, as in:
"inciting racial hostility"
indicate irony. As in, what the government defines as "inciting racial hostility" is sometimes just speaking the truth.
I hope that helps. If you need me to spell it out still more clearly, just let me know!
And greenbottle: freedom of speech is all well and good, but when one has nothing to say, one should say nothing. There is nothing worse than someone who has absolutely nothing to say thinking that they are controversial and iconoclastic. Sometimes, when people tell you to be quiet, it's because you have nothing to say.
-- PS
-- Preeta
preeta;
so, you think i've nothing to say. that's a new one.
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