Monday, November 10, 2008

An Evening with Preeta Samarasan

On Friday night MPH held an event called an Evening with Preeta Samarasan at Bottles and Bottles in the Gardens. Yours truly did the introducing and a whole bunch of folks read their work : Kathleen Choo, Reza Rosli, Priya K, MK Ajay reading poetry; Lee Su Kim reading from A Nyonya in Texas; and Ezra Zaid, reading a special message to us from Khaled Al Khamissi and an extract from Al Khamissi's Taxi which Ezra recent published here.


But it was the lady herself we were celebrating and waiting to hear. She read from Chapter 5 this time about the return of Paathi the grandmother, who died under mysterious circumstances in the bathroom ... and reading those lines that make us gasp at their sheer audacity.

The wine (a fruity, smooth Chilean - good enough to marry) was excellent, so thank you Bottles and Bottles for that. And thanks to MPH - especially Eric Forbes and Janet Tay, for organising the event and providing the food.

Adam Lee took some terrific photos of the evening and I refer you to his page on Facebook. I couldn't resisit getting him to take this shot of Su Kim's dinky embroidered nyonya slippers. The lady gets my award for literary sartorial elegance.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Priya K. and I were on a poetry project for a month!

bibliobibuli said...

didn't know that, Siege! she's a very talented young lady ...

Anonymous said...

Priya didn't have to read her poem, which was nice. I was impressed by her. Talent talent talent.

And by Preeta, of course. She's amazing.

And it was nice to finally meet Eric. He's not as scary in person haha.

Borneo Expat Writer said...

So envious of you guys having all these great readings and events, and the variety of people and the talent. Great for networking and inspiring each other to keep writing. Nice slippers, too! Su Kim is the one who got the ball rolling for me to switch to MPH. I was lucky to bump into her at the food line in Penang. For that I'm grateful!

Anonymous said...

I'm another envious one too - wilting here (or slowly freezing) from the lack of chatty, creative communities!

The online world can NEVER replace the energy or enthusiasm of face-to-face interactions esp about writing, good books and good food :)

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

I forgot to add that I LOVED Lee Su Kim's "A Nyonya in Texas" and am inspired with writing one based on my "banana" experiences in China...

Do you think it's worth a try?