Thursday, October 01, 2009

Ioannis Interviewed

Fiction is something I’ve quietly been pursuing alongside the news analysis. Media is seductive in that it offers an immediate outlet to voice your concerns. But it’s not well suited to explore how relationships between individuals and communities play out against the backdrop of the larger world. And I was finding post-9/11, post-Iraq that those two realms—the personal on the one hand, and the external, which has become increasingly politicised—were growing inextricable. Fiction was better suited to explore that relationship.
Malaysian-based American writer and freelance foreign correspondent, Ioannis Gatsiounis, talks to Eric Forbes of MPH about his new collection of stories Velvet and Cinder Blocks.

And here he is too on this week's Fairly Current Show, talking to Fahmi Fadzil :
... about writing stories, living in and responding to all things Malaysian, and his most recent collection of writings ...
And notice how he slips into saying "we" when he talks about Malaysia, a sure sign of being hooked by the country.

Anyway, started reading the book today ...

2 comments:

Amir Muhammad said...

Which cover do you have?

bibliobibuli said...

i have both but i'm reading purple (blackcurrant flavour).