Singaporean Interlude

Back in the 80's, I used to take a bus down to Singapore so that I could get my fix of cheap second hand books at a row of tumbledown shops in Bras Basah road.

The area was redeveloped (as everywhere in Singapore tended to be) and the shops disappeared. It was only on this trip that I caught up with the booksellers again - in the (aptly named) Bras Basah Complex on Bain Street and thanks to Ellen Whyte who dragged me there during our symposium lunch-break on Thursday. The pictures are of Knowledge Book Centre on the third level of the complex - just one of several bookshops here, and well worth a visit when you are down in Lion City.

(I've lots to post about the symposium over the next week or so.)

Rebecca for Readings Too!

Oops! One of my readers I accidentally left off my list for tomorrow's Readings@Seksan's is children's author, Rebecca Loke who will be introducing us to her new book Great-Grandma's Hair Loss Remedy.

The book was inspired by Rebecca's son, Ethan, who has alopecia universalis - a condition which leads to the loss of hair, not only on the head but all over the body, including the eyebrows and the eyelashes.

As Rebecca notes on the book cover, there is meagre understanding of the condition in the community at large. She says in the foreword :

At times when Ethan goes out without covering his head, people stare at him. Some even do a double-take. Some tease and call him botak-head. Others assume he has cancewre and offer words of comfort. A few people have asked 'What did you do to make your head so smooth?'

Hopefully the story about an 8 year old called James will make folks more aware of the issues. The book is the first in a planned series called Children’s Concerns.

Rebecca and her son were featured in The Straits Times of Singapore last month, and you can read the piece here.

So What Have You Been Reading?

I'm off to the Publishing Symposium at the Singapore Writers festival and most probably away from this blog till Friday. Expect some updates after that of stuff I hope will be particularly relevant to local writers.

So while I'm gone, this is your space. What have you read recently? Any good?

Non-fiction and short stories are still my reads of choice at the moment. I finished Madness : A Bipolar Life by Marya Hornbacher very moving memoir of life with the illness - very well written, often harrowing but ultimately hopeful. A must-read if you know people who are bipolar and a book to put beside Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind. (I found my very cheap copy at Big Bookshop, and you can read excerpts from the book here.)

I read most of Gerrie Lim's In Lust We Trust : Adventures in Adult Cinema, at the hairdressers yesterday. Quite an eye-popping read (How does a nice Singaporean boy get mixed up in this? What actually goes on behind the scenes at the filming of porno movies - well aren't you also curious?), insightful and intelligent. (Bought by copy from Times bookstore.)

And now I'm toying with what to put in my bag to take to Singapore. Might give Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book a chance since it's almost halloween.

What Made Junot Diaz a Writer

... in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway. Wasn't until that night when I was faced with all those lousy pages that I realized, really realized, what it was exactly that I am.

Do read this very inspiring (and remarkably humble) account of how Pulitzer prize winning author Junot Diaz came to the realisation that he was a writer in O, the Oprah Magazine.

Faith and Fiction

Here in the early part of the twenty-first century, religious faith seems to have become increasingly prominent in world and cultural affairs. And this change in the salience of religious faith raises several questions, I think, for the art of the novel. If we think of fiction as “make believe” and religion as “must believe,” how might novelists reconcile the ambiguities and uncertainties of their craft with an attempt to express or characterize religious faith? Is what is meant by religious truth the same as artistic truth? And if these truths are different—and perhaps they are profoundly different—how might a novelist who hopes in some way to characterize or advance the cause of religious faith serve two masters?

says Albert Mobilio in conversation about Faith and Fiction with other authors at the 2009 PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. You can listen to this very interesting discussion here. (And there is much else worth browsing on the website.)

The Challenge Ahead

The development of serious literature in Malaysia is inhibited because the level of discussion in society is not high enough. In general, we are not a reading society. ...

Malaysia's new literary laureate is interviewed again, this time by Andrew Sia in Starmag.

Sekeping Tenggiri

I hope to get the list of readers for next Saturday's Readings@Seksan confirmed and posted here by tomorrow.

Meanwhile, you might like to check out the venue. We're honoured to be invited to use Seksan's beautiful new space, part art warehouse, part guesthouse called Sekeping Tenggiri (which translates, charmingly, as "a mackerel"). The address is 48, Jalan Tenggiri, Taman Bukit Pantai, and you can see some pictures here and read an interview with Seksan about it here.

I know you need a map, so here's a link to Google.

Asian Fiction for Italy

I'm very excited to hear of the launch of Italian publishing company, Metropoli d'Asia. I met founder, Andrea Berrini, when he was in Kuala Lumpur a few months ago, scouting for fiction from the region to publish in Italy. (Some of you might have met him at Readings@Seksan where he came to check out the local talent.) Here's the information about the new company :

... founded by Andrea Berrini, writer and essayist, in partnership with the Italian publisher Giunti Editore. The objective is to discover, translate and offer contemporary innovative writing by Asian authors to a wide public. Europe is starting to measure up to the new economic and political giants of this continent (China and India in particular, but there are others as well) and consequently with the new cultural scenes, the new schools and languages of contemporary Asia. This leads to the need to look more closely at the metropolises, cities which have undergone tremendous change in the past two decades and will change even more. Metropoli d’Asia intends to concentrate on authors living in many countries who experience their reality at first hand and on novels with urban settings; authors linked to a place, with which they have a physical and material contiguity, because they tread their streets and know their neighbourhoods and have a direct relationship with their inhabitants. The first titles, according to the editorial plan, will be published in 2009, from 14th October.

So far no Malaysian markets have been earmarked. We seem to do well on short stories, but very poorly on marketable contemporary novels. Maybe with the encouragement of a new overseas market for local writing ...?

Karim at Times

Karim Raslan will appearing at Times, Pavilion KL this Sat (24th) at 3.00pm to talk about his books, Ceritalah 3 and sign copies. (My previous post about the book is here.)

Learning the Language of the Past

The notebooks excited me because, for all their gaps and mysteries, they recorded, verbatim, conversations around which I could build a story. I’d have to invent the context for the conversations, and I’d have to speculate about the people who spoke the words, and I was uncertain about how appropriate it was to do that. But in the end I felt it was important to try, because this story was one that recorded an aspect of our past—shared between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians—that was hugely important. It records a moment in that shared history where mutual goodwill and generous curiosity created real understanding.

Australian novelist, Kate Grenville (shortlisted for the 2009 Booker Prize for The Secret River), writes about how the contents of two notebooks brought alive to the friendship between a young lieutenant in a newly formed penal colony at the end of the C18th, and a young aboriginal girl; and how she set about using and this material and fleshing it out with further research. She says:

As a novelist I have latitude to speculate, to add, to omit, to guess and even to invent. But I also have available to me all the richness of the historical record. In a tradition that goes back to Homer and beyond, I’ve taken events that took place in the real world and used them as the basis for a work of imagination.

(You can preview the novel, The Lieutenant on Google Books.)

There are so many more excellent articles for the various editions of Quill magazine posted up on Eric Forbes' blog, so I urge you to go have a read. Quill seems to have evolved over the past couple of years into one of the best literary magazines - anywhere!

The Curious Intimacy of Strangers

The beauty of reading a book by yourself is how the author's imagination interacts with your own, in a way it doesn't if you're watching a movie. There's that curious intimacy of strangers. That's why I think this genre will survive.

Sir Salman Rushdie in an interview with Donna Seaman. The author received the Chicago Public Library Foundation Carl Sandburg Literary Award at a banquet in the Harold Washington Library on Thursday, October 15.

Singapore Writers Fest on YouTube

Okay, how about a quick break for an ad?

For 2009, the Singapore Writers Festival is going UnderCovers to bring you the literary talents from Singapore, the region and the world.

The Last Books

There's something deeply upsetting about the notion of someone – and one day, yourself – reaching the point where you put down Pride and Prejudice and think, well, that's the last time I'll read that. When I read a book I really love, part of the pleasure for me is the knowledge that it's not gone forever; that I'll come back to it in a couple of years' time. Recognising that a point will come where this isn't the case could well constitute the closest I've ever come to acknowledging my own mortality … Then, there's the question of which books you'd store up for a final read. I'd put Wuthering Heights in there, I think, and definitely Updike's Rabbit tetralogy, and Bruce Chatwin's On the Black Hill. If it's not too maudlin, I'd be interested to hear what you'd choose, too. Either way, I recommend Athill's Yesterday Morning heartily – whether you've read it before or not.

A bit morbid this, but Sarah Crown's post on The Guardian blog certainly struck a chord with me, as I know I'm (subconciously) working on my mental list of books I want to revisit "before it's too late".

Old friends like Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians, Carson McCuller's The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, D.H. Lawrence's The Rainbow will definitely have to be saved up for the long goodbye.

I remember an elderly British novelist telling me some time back about how he was giving away most of his most of his personal library - books he'll never read again - and just keeping the few that he would want with him. I'm sad I didn't ask him what those most precious books were.

Inspector Singh in Cambodia ... and then India!

Congrats once again to the highly prolific Shamini Flint who now has a further two book deal with Little Brown, bringing the number of Asian adventures featuring Inspector Singh to five!

Singh has already annoyed the other policemen in Malaysia , Bali and Singapore . Now our favourite inspector will be flying off to the killing fields of Cambodia ...

reads the publicity info I received today :

Inspector Singh is in Cambodia – wishing he wasn't. He's been sent as an observer to the international war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, the latest effort by his superiors to ensure that he is anywhere except in Singapore. But for the first time the fat Sikh inspector is on the verge of losing his appetite when a key member of the tribunal is murdered in cold blood. The authorities are determined to write off the incident as a random act of violence, but Singh thinks otherwise. It isn't long before he finds himself caught up in one of the most terrible murder investigations he’s witnessed – the roots of which lie in the Cambodian killing fields… And in Book 5 he’ll be whizzing off to India ... The Guardian says about this series that ‘It’s impossible to not warm to the sweating, dishevelled, wheezing Inspector Singh’ and the Daily Record that Singh is ‘An unconventional new crime hero who has the potential to be as compelling (and successful) as McCall Smith’s Precious Ramotswe.‘

Meanwhile the second volume of the series, A Bali Conspiracy So Foul, is hitting the stores here. It was launched at the Ubud writers' and Readers Festival, and will have another launch at the Singapore Writers Festival. Volume 3, Inspector Singh Investigates: A Singapore School of Villainy, is due out next February. Worth reading - Adrian Turpin in The Financial Times considers Shamini's first novel alongside other writing he feels are in the mould of Alexander McCall Smiths novels featuring Precious Rabotswe.

Su Kim in Ubud

I ... took part in two panel sessions. One was entitled Wanderlust: Travelling Stories and featured Aussie outback traveller and writer Andrew McMillan and Brian Thacker, who specialises in travel off the beaten track. In the other panel session entitled Across Genres: Identity, Family and Place, I talked about multiple identities and shared stories and identity experiences from my Peranakan and Malaysian heritage. I was invited to do readings from my books with other selected authors at a Literary Lunch in a beautiful setting amidst emerald-green rice fields at John Hardy’s unique estate and at a panel session entitled Dangerous Women held at the magnificent Alila Hotel, which is dramatically set on a cliff overlooking forests with two narrow gorges running through the lush valley below. I must say that, apart from the attraction of meeting writers from all over the world, another pulling power of this festival has to be its ambience. The settings were superb, rich with the natural beauty of Bali.

I was stifling my feeling of sadness at not being in Ubud for the Writers and Readers Festival for the first time in three years. Then Lee Su Kim's piece in today's Starmag brought home to me just how much I missed being there and I could have cried. I'm really glad Su Kim had such a wonderful time though and plan to make the trip next year. Meanwhile there is the Singapore Writers Festival to look forward to this month. (BTW, I've heard a rumour that there will soon be a new international literary festival starting up in Thailand, which will be close enough for us to get to too.) One thing Su Kim gets wrong, as do the organisers of the Singapore Writers' Fest, Shamini Flint is a Malaysian, not a Singaporean author. (Ask her! ... Though just as a bowl of yong tau foo is delicious on both sides of the causeway, apart from flag-waving, does it really matter?)

Singapore Writers Fest Pays us a Visit

It is really nice to see the organisers of the Singapore Writers' Festival reaching out to Malaysian authors and book lovers. They were in town Thursday for a press conference at MPH Mid Valley.

Singaporean lawyer and award-winning author Philip Jeyaretnam (fourth from left) is the chairperson of the SWF 2009 Steering Committee)talked about the interface between Singaporean and Malaysian writers and how an exchange of readers between the two countries was very much needed. (You can read more about what he says about the festival on Eric's blog.)

Phan Ming Yen (second from left, above) Assistant General Manager of The Arts House, gave an overview of the festival, beginning with the history. He talked about the richness of the literature coming from the region (some of it works in translation) and how it deserves to be better known worldwide.

He explained that the theme of the festival - unDERcover - could be interpreted in various ways - tucking yourself under the bed covers with a good book; exposing silenced voices; uncovering works that had not been available before.

(The theme) has allowed SWF to present readers a rich diversity of authors whose works - ranging from horror through crime to 'serious fiction' - are at once accessible and fun but yet serve as a metaphor for social and humanitarian issues.

The festival this year spans 9 days of events; features 100 participating writers and 150 events on the programme; and has a 60-40 ratio of Singaporean writers to overseas writers. (Check out some of the writers and what they think about coming to the festival on Eric's blog, and also here.)

The biggest name, as far as local readers are concerned is Neil Gaiman, and the organisers have had to move the event to a bigger venue because of the enormous demand for tickets.

Khor Kok Wah, deputy chief executive officer and Director, Literary Arts of Singapore’s National Arts Council (centre) spoke of Malaysia's cultural links with Singapore, naming for example the Second Link theatre performances, and the fact than our new writer laureate's works are studied in Singapore schools. He also pointed out that many Singaporean writers were born in Malaysia and there was crossing of the border on a personal basis, and a deep sense of sharing between the two countries.

Then it was over to the Malaysian authors. Anwar Ridwan (right) spoke about the need to identify new writing talent and about how we needed to know each others writers well.

KS Maniam (left) talked about the relationship with Singaporean writers, particularly in his own case with Edwin Thumboo.

And of course Malaysian poet and playwright Wong Phui Nam, of course, provided us with the biggest surprise of the afternoon. One which I'm still mulling over. (As, it seems from the comments on that post, so are you.)

Wrong Place to Buy a Book

No, I couldn't believe it either!

(Thanks Liz for forwarding this.)

Deepavali Wishes

Wishing all my Hindu friends a very happy Deepavali.

Malaysian Writing in English is Dead!

Malaysian poet Wong Phui Nam declared Malaysian writing in English dead yesterday at a press conference to publicise the Singapore Writer's Festival, held at MPH Midvalley (about which more later) :

We should be looking at young writers - their absence shows that the tradition of writing in English is dead. ... Why are writers in English dying out in this country? In 10-20 years time Malaysian writers in English will be an adjunct to Singaporean writing.

He also talked about how other writers in English had "run away" from Malaysia, and how the greatest of them was Shirley Lim.

I respect Phui Nam very much (An Acre of the Day's Glass is the Malaysian poetry collection that has most excited me, and I wish that they made more writers in his mould!) but I don't agree with him on the above. I don't just think it is a case of me being unrealistically optimistic - perhaps it is more a question of perspective.

In organising Readings@Seksan, I am constantly coming into contact with Malaysian writers (new and not so new, young and not so young) whose work excites me, and who work confidently and well in English. Writers in English are not even an endangered species, I'd say. (What do you think?)

And as for the overseas writers having "run away" ... well, anyhow, I have already blogged all I have to say on the topic here.

Something else that Phui Nam said that was very interesting :

I am not writing in English. I am writing in EMS : Educated Malaysian English. We speak the language in a different way, a subdialect of the English language.

Malaysian English of the acrolectal variety (linguistic term for standard educated form of a language) is a distinct variety of English and should be every bit as acceptable internationally as any other (UK, American, Australian, Indian etc). I wrote about the issue in this interview for The Star.

Postscript :

Daphne Lee also blogged (very powerfully) about this, and concludes :

Wong spoke about how Malaysian writing (in English) is stillborn, a result of our education system. Having identified this problem, I should think Wong has his own theories about how the deadening effect of our schooling can be countered and/or reversed. Does he and others like him have a part to play in helping aspiring authors produce writing that has a chance to grow in effectiveness and beauty? Perhaps Wong just does not think it is his battle to fight.

BTW there is an interesting comment on the blog about how Readings@Seksan could be perceived as "cliquey". I responded at length and would value your (honest) comments too.

(Someone else did yell at me not so long ago "What does Readings achieve? Nothing at all.")

Postscript 2:

Zedeck Siew at Klue magazine writes about Phui Mam's speech :

Doom and gloom, then. But we're sorry if these dire pronouncements sound bitter to us. Yes, official support for English-language writing is practically non-existent. That said, things seem to be on the mend, actually.

Writers are soldiering on. Brian Gomez's excellent pulp -- but supremely relevant - novel Devil's Place was published last year. This year, Kow Shih-Li's Ripples and Other Stories was shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor Award - the most lucrative prize for short fiction. Further back was Kam Raslan's Confessions of an Old Boy.

How about the anthologies: Silverfish Books' regular efforts, or the queer collection Body 2 Body? And non-fiction, such as the excellent (and bilingual) New Malaysian Essays series? Literary readings happen with acceptable regularity: Readings and CeritAku; or Say Goodnight, Twitterverse. Amir Muhammad (of Matahati Books) has hosted organised the KL Alternative Bookfest twice, to much success.

There is a second problem with Phui Nam's complaint. KLue itself is an English-language publication - but even we don't prize the lingua Brittanica's purity that much.

The Malay-language book business is booming, from mainstream romance to the fringe. Its literature is in rather ruddy shape: new small (but significant) ventures like Oxygen Press are springing up all over the place. Sang Freud Press's works deploy an urban form of Malay that doesn't shy from displaying its obvious syncretism.

The language of this region has always been a Creole, mixing Bahasa Melayu, English, the Chinese dialects and Indian languages. Phui Nam appeared aware of this when he said that "we speak [English] in a different way." He, of all people, should know - since his full name is Mohammed Razali Wong Phui Nam, and his latest plays Malay/Cambodian takes on Antigone and Medea. No need to be so precious lah.

Cindy Tackles a Digi- Novel

Coiuld this be the shape of books to come? Cindy Tham at The Nutgraph writes about her encounter with a hybrid book, a "digi-novel" called Level 26: Dark Origins, in which :

... readers are given a code to access cyber-bridges or videos that flesh out parts of the plot in vivid detail. There is also an interactive forum for readers to chat with other readers and contribute ideas on how the authors could revise the story for future editions and sequels.

and she wonders whether this is the shape of books to come as society becomes more immersed in digital technology.

Two problems she highlights based on this experience - little is left to the reader's imagination, and of course this is the best part of the reading experience, and the cyber-bridges can be disruptive to the reading flow.

But she vows to keep an open mind about the future of "vooks" ... and so will I.

E-Reading and The Brain

Is there a difference in the way the brain takes in or absorbs information when it is presented electronically versus on paper?

asks The New York Times. It is a very pertinent question, as we rush headlong into a future of e-books and paperless libraries. And it's addressed by a whole bunch of experts in the field.

On whether and how reading on a computer or electronic device rewires the brain, Tufts Professor Maryanne Wolf, author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain says :

After many years of research on how the human brain learns to read, I came to an unsettlingly simple conclusion: We humans were never born to read. We learn to do so by an extraordinarily ingenuous ability to rearrange our “original parts” — like language and vision, both of which have genetic programs that unfold in fairly orderly fashion within any nurturant environment. Reading isn’t like that.

Each young reader has to fashion an entirely new “reading circuit” afresh every time. There is no one neat circuit just waiting to unfold. This means that the circuit can become more or less developed depending on the particulars of the learner: e.g., instruction, culture, motivation, educational opportunity.

Equally interesting, this tabula rasa circuit is shaped by the particular requirements of the writing system: for example, Chinese reading circuits require more visual memory than alphabets. This “open architecture” of the reading circuit makes the young reader’s developing circuit malleable to what the medium (e.g., digital online reading, book, etc) emphasizes.

And that, of course, is the problem at hand. No one really knows the ultimate effects of an immersion in a digital medium on the young developing brain.

And she warns :

The child’s imagination and children’s nascent sense of probity and introspection are no match for a medium that creates a sense of urgency to get to the next piece of stimulating information.I have no doubt that the digital immersion of our children will provide a rich life of entertainment and information and knowledge. My concern is that they will not learn, with their passive immersion, the joy and the effort of the third life, of thinking one’s own thoughts and going beyond what is given. Let us bring our best thought and research to preserving what is most precious about the present reading brain as we add the new capacities of its next iteration.

Not surprisingly, distraction was listed by several of the experts as one of the main problems with reading electronically.

Sandra Aamodt (former editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience and co-author of Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life) tells us (what sadly we all know too well!) :

To a great extent, the computer’s usefulness for serious reading depends on the user’s strength of character. Distractions abound on most people’s computer screens. The reading speed reported in academic studies does not include delays induced by clicking away from the text to see the new email that just arrived or check out what’s new on your favorite blog. In one study, workers switched tasks about every three minutes and took over 23 minutes on average to return to a task. Frequent task switching costs time and interferes with the concentration needed to think deeply about what you read.

And Gloria Mark professor in the Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine adds :

Reading online is thus not just about reading text in isolation. When you read news, or blogs or fiction, you are reading one document in a networked maze of an unfathomable amount of information. My own research shows that people are continually distracted when working with digital information. They switch simple activities an average of every three minutes (e.g. reading email or IM) and switch projects about every 10 and a half minutes. It’s just not possible to engage in deep thought about a topic when we’re switching so rapidly.

But paper books still come out on top. David Gelernter, a professor of computer science at Yale University, reckons :

All reading is not migrating to computer screens. So long as books are cheap, tough, easy to “read” from outside (What kind of book is this? How long is it? Is this the one I was reading last week? Let’s flip to the pictures), easy to mark up, rated for safe operation from beaches to polar wastes and — above all — beautiful, they will remain the best of all word-delivery vehicles.

Book Parodies

The Huffington Post [via] has fun with some very popular book covers. Among the books lampooned are Dan Brown's new one, Stephanie Meyer's last one, and of course, this one. Readers are also invited to send in their own.

The National Book Foundation

The finalists for America's National Book Award were announced yesterday. These are the shortlisted fiction titles (because this is the category that interests me most) with links to further information about book and author :

Bonnie Jo Campbell - American Salvage
Colum McCann - Let the Great World Spin
Daniyal Mueenuddin - In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
Jayne Anne Phillips - Lark and Termite
Marcel Theroux - Far North

Do check out the other nominees in the Non-Fiction, Young People's and Poetry categories on the National Book Foundation's website.

More about this year's nominations at Jacket Copy, and I will add as postscripts any other interesting links of the topic I come across.

Sneek Peek of Barnes and Noble's E-Reader

If there's one thing I want more than a Kindle, then it could be the new Barnes and Noble e-reader (as yet unchristened) produced by Plastic Logic, and due to be formally announced on October 20th. There's a sneak peek on the mobilitysite.com website, and it really is a very pretty little gadget a true *sigh* object of desire ...

Crisis in the News Media

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Christopher Hedges gives us some truly staggering statistics about how newspaper readership is declining in the US. In a publication called News Media in Crisis (published by the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover), he says that :

One reason for the decline of newspaper circulation is that 42 million Americans are illiterate and roughly 50 million more are semi-literate. What’s more 80 percent of U.S. households last year did not buy a book. ... The rates of illiteracy or semi-literacy - meaning people reading at a fourth or fifth grade level - now comprise one-third of the United States and even those who are technically literate opt into a system where they get most of their information through images - images which are of course skillfully manipulated.

He further believes that with the decline in newspapers and the decline of a literature culture, American society:

... is essentially walking into a world of moral nihilism, where we no longer embrace values.

The most chilling statistic of all though :

What we’re seeing is not just the death of newsprint or the death of print, but the rise in corporate hands of essentially the obliteration and destruction of our open society. Virtually everything that we see, read, and hear is now controlled by roughly eight corporations.

The Horror! The Horror!

... the deeper you venture into the dark woods of these fairytales, the more you have to wonder – are these stories really for kids?

All this week The Guardian celebrates the fairytale. Old stories are retold by modern authors who also discuss the contemporary resonances. The related articles (which you can find here) include Adam Barnett (quoted above) who looks at the horror and violence the stories contain; Alison Lurie talking about wisdom and folly in fairytales, and Adam Phillips looking at the concept of quests in fairytales.

Helpful Stuff for Writers

With the ultimate writing competition, the Nanowrimo, just round the corner, it's the right time to put up some links to the good stuff you can find online to help you write November's magnum opus.

(You don't know what I'm talking about? Go visit the website.)

First off, do you need an instant plot for your work of genre fiction (whether dragon-filled, neo-noir or dismally dystopian)? This hilarious generarator from Wondermark [found via]... well, it might not actually help you, but it is sure to raise a good chuckle.

Paperback Writer links to Ten Things for the NaNoWriMoer's including blog badges; a progress graph so you can chart your progress towards the 50,000 word target; a random name picker to help you name your hero or heroine; and advice to help you write the outline of your novel in 30 minutes.

Mashable also has a very useful toolkit for the writer with plenty more nice things to play with.

I'm finding Twitter enormously helpful as a blogger (since it enables me to scoop up interesting stories quickly, and I can tweet even when I haven't time to blog) and it is nice to discover about how it can also help writers. Debbie Ridpath Ohi lists ten ways, and has blogged A Writer's Guide to Twitter with lots of good advice.

There's nothing like advice from the master, and Kurt Vonnegut gives us some excellent advice about how to write with style, which he nicely distills into 7 principles (Finally someone who doesn't feel the need to have as many points as they have fingers!) :

1. Find a subject you care about

2. Do not ramble, though

3. Keep it simple

4. Have guts to cut

5. Sound like yourself

6. Say what you mean

7. Pity the readers

The Danger of a Single Story

In a very interesting lecture in the excellent TED series, Nigerian author, Chimamanda Adichie, talks about the danger of misunderstanding which can arise when we only hear a single story about another person or country.



(Thanks, Reza, for the link.)

Studies in Sepia

The Saturday edition of The Star featured a book I am now eating my heart out for. Malay Peninsula: Old Photographs of Malaya and Singapore draws on the turn of the 20th century photographs in the private collection of Selangor Sultan, Sharafuddin Idris Shah. He bought a boxed set of of photogravure prints by German photographer Charles Kleingrothe from a dealer in London, some decades back :

When I saw the old-fashioned photographs of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States, I was very impressed and realised instantly that these were of great historical importance. By buying the original prints, I was not just adding to my collection, but also helping to preserve the nation’s photographic history. The photos are beautifully and expertly taken, and the subjects ranged from people in traditional wear, natural landscapes, buildings, tin mines and fishing villages, to large towns, government offices, plantations, ports and everything that made up the Malay peninsula over a hundred years ago.

This is the kind of book I could pour over for hours, the nearest thing to a time machine. Just that the RM400 price tag is a bit too steep for me. (Have I ever paid that for a book?)

Mantelpieces

There's another excellent interview with Man Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel, this time in The Independent with Boyd Tonkin. And on the same page there is a video of her reading from Wolf Hall which was filmed in my favourite bookshop - Daunt Books in London - so do have an oggle.

And the author has contributed an exclusive short story - The Heart Fails Without Warning - to The Guardian.

Postscript :

Robert McCrum sees similarities between Mantel and this week's Nobel prize winner, and salutes their hard work and dedication in the face of considerable adversity :

Müller suffered horribly under Ceaucescu, and her work has been shaped by political repression. Mantel's early adult life was blighted by a debilitating, undiagnosed illness. Müller committed herself to her writing in great privation and obscurity. Mantel laboured for years on a book (A Place of Greater Safety) that was repeatedly rejected, and finally shoved into a drawer before its belated publication in 1992. Now, after years of quiet dedication, both women have been fully recognised. This underlines a fundamental truism I have always believed about the book world: it's the work, not the life, that matters.

Herta Müller - Who?

So while the rest of us are scratching our heads and feeling uncomfortably ignorant about who the 2009 Literature Nobel Prize actually is, blogger M.A Orthofer was spot on in his predictions and had even put up a page about Herta Müller. (But then again he has become really adept at reading last minute changes in the bookies' odds!). He calls her :

A quirky, perhaps predictable choice

for the way that she seems to fit all the criteria the Nobel committee appear to be looking for :

Bicultural/ethnic minority background (German in Romania -- a pretty exotic/unusual one, at least from some foreign perspectives) -- not a literary reason, but nationality and language always seem to matter...Anti-totalitarian writing -- and how: much of her writing deals with life under Ceauşescu, in horrific detail...Writes both poetry and prose.

A summary of her life and work can be found on Nobel Prize site and she sounds a courageous woman writing important work in very difficult times. (She should surely have infiltrated our consciousness rather more, as this is not the first international literary award she has won - she won the IMPAC Dublin award for The Land of Green Plums in 1998.)

The Atlantic sums up the American reactions to the award [found via]. Particularly telling is Lev Grossman's (of Time magazine's) comment :

In the past decade, about half of the Nobel laureates in literature have been writers of whom few readers in the U.S., academics and literary journalists included, had or have any real awareness. What Americans may not realize is that Müller's selection isn't much less surprising in Germany...Almost no one considered her a figure of global literary eminence...If the past is any guide, the Nobel won't make Müller a household name in America -- it certainly hasn't done much for Elfriede Jelinek (who won in 2004) or Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (2008). That may simply be because there is little in the lives of most Americans that resonates with what Müller has gone through.

But, across the world, Ulrich Baron at the Spiegal Online gives a quite different perpective of the win :

Herta Müller's is a political voice that can also sing poetic. Her writing unites the great virtues of literature. Her work pleads for justice that transgresses all borders. It was correct and important to award her the Nobel Prize.

And he links to an extract, translated into English, from her latest novel Everything I own I Carry With Me.

Her novel The Appointment is available from Macmillan. Peter Filkins wrote of it in The New York Times [found via]:

The Appointment is more a test of endurance than pleasure ... the kind of novel you might be glad you finished, but sorry that you started, no matter the bleak complexity within it.

No doubt there will be more to chuck into this debate later on, and I will append here anything else interesting I come across!

Postscript :

In awarding the 2009 Nobel prize for literature to Herta Müller, as well as rewarding an outstanding writer, the Swedish Academy is, I think, doing two things. It is once again challenging the self-satisfied Anglo-centrism of the English-language publishing business, with its rather narrow definitions of what constitutes good writing, and it is widening our ideas of Europe. And it is perhaps in its failure to engage with European literatures that the English culture, for all the advantages of the global reach of the English language, shows itself at its most provincial.

Martin Chalmers, Herta Müller's translator explains why she matters, on The Guardian blog.

Anwar Ridhwan on the Malay Literary Landscape

I am happy that a few young writers such as Faisal Tehrani, Nisah Haron, Mawar Shafie and SM Zakir are still producing serious literature but I would like to see more youngsters doing so. ... [They aren't because] That is the influence from the popular culture. Today, people want recognition fast. People want more royalty. So they prefer to produce popular rather than serious literature. When you write serious literature, you have to be patient before recognition comes your way. ... It is also related to our school system, our reading habits and the level of discussion in society. All of them have not come to an intellectual level where it stimulates good writing. So it is difficult to get writers who can think seriously about life, people, the environment and culture.

Bissme S talks to Malaysia's new literary laureate, Datuk Dr Mohd Anuar Rethwan, alias Anwar Ridhwan in The Sun about the problems facing the Malay literary scene, and why there are so few non-Malays on it. Asked whether Malay literature can appeal to the international market, the author says :

We have very good Malay literary works. But producing good work is not enough. You need to translate these into English and other foreign languages, and most important of all, you need to promote and advertise these works. We have been translating some works but we have not been promoting these books aggressively outside the country. Mark Twain said, “Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”

On Dewan Bahasa's not playing an active role in promoting Malay literature, he says :

To be fair, DBP is trying to be effective. But most of their staff are young and inexperienced. I believe they should work with outside publishers so the quality of their books can be improved. ... They should not only work with Malay publishers and distributors. They must also work with Chinese and Indian publishers as long as these publishers are willing to publish books in Malay. ... I have worked with DBP and I know the responsibility put on DBP is very heavy. They must have good in-house training for their staff. They must also learn to work fast. When they get a manuscript they must publish it within three to six months. But this is not the case. Some writers have to wait from one to two years to see their work published.

I would so like to see good Malay novels available in translation - not only for the international market, but in our own bookshops here too. The Sun also has this very interesting guide to laureates past (Click to full size.) :

Publishing Forum at SWF

Publisher Philip Tatham is helping to organise the Publishing Forum at the Singapore Writers Festival, and sent me a copy of the programme. (Price: $120* (single-day pass) / $200* (two-day pass) / $30 (per panel) *includes refreshments and lunch.)
Venue : Blue Room

I shall be attending and plan to blog the event. Anyone joining me? :

DAY ONE / Wed 28th October 2009

Beyond Print (part one) Bookshops RIP: an introduction to new distribution models and how this will affect authors and the trade

9.30am –10.30am

Bookshops are being marginalized and online retailers are becoming more important. Traditional book distributors will have a shrinking role; trade book publishers will see their roles changing, and many will disappear. Online marketing will become more important. Authors will benefit, in theory, by having fewer barriers to publish and readers should benefit from more choice, but may be faced by decreasing standards of quality. How will this affect authors and the trade in Singapore and beyond?

10.30am – 11am Tea Break

Beyond Print (part two) Online Publicity: making the most of the digital age
11am ¬–12pm
Do you Tweet? Social media is now larger in terms of digital volume than email. How should authors make the most of blogs, personal websites, Twitter, Facebook and other social media products to promote their books? Who foots the bill, author or publisher?

Publishers Lunch: face-to-face meetings with Singapore publishers during the lunch break

12pm – 1.30pm

Singapore’s fiction and creative nonfiction publishing houses will be showcasing their titles and will make the publisher and/or an editorial representative available to answer questions from writers and designers.

Hands off my Manuscript: do publishers add value to authors' manuscripts?

1.30pm – 2.30pm

A discussion on the current and future role of the publisher in the publishing process and how they add value to manuscripts in terms of editing, design, as a literary filter, in shaping a canon of Singapore literature. Why don’t authors just self publish books?

Copyright and the Killer Contract: what authors and freelance designers need to know about copyright and author contracts

2.30pm – 3.30pm

A look at the most important clauses in author contracts, especially with regard to copyright issues and the emergence of new media.

3.30pm – 4pm Tea Break

The Starving Poet: do Singapore poets and literary authors make money?

4pm –5.00pm

How do literary authors and poets survive? How do they publish their works? Do they make money? Do all literary authors have day jobs and do they need to make money from their writing? What is the role of funding agencies? Will new media and the removal of barriers to publishing help literary authors and the literary scene?

DAY TWO / Thurs 29th October 2009

The Art of Biography: how to write a biography in Singapore

9.30am – 10.30am

How do biographers blend objective and subjective elements? What are the challenges biographers in Singapore face relating to sources, interpretation, organization and writing style? What sources are available in Singapore such as correspondence, diaries, the press, legal sources and memoirs, what are the legal issues involved?

10.30am – 11am Tea Break

We Eat Durian: localizing content for children's books

11am – 12pm

The kid's trade book market is still dominated by books from overseas. How can Singaporean authors produce competitive titles with local content? Do the books need local content? Is local content for kid's books a door-opener to overseas markets or a hindrance?

Publishers Lunch: face-to-face meetings with Singapore publishers during the lunch break

12pm –1.30pm

Singapore’s fiction and creative nonfiction publishing houses will be showcasing their titles and will make the publisher and/or an editorial representative available to answer questions from writers and designers.

Read ASEAN: A comparison of consumer book-buying habits and trends within ASEAN

1.30pm – 2.30pm

How do book-buying habits compare across different markets in the region? Do readers in ASEAN consume books in native languages or foreign publications? Do inter-ASEAN translations play an important role?

Lost in Translation: the process of literary translation

2.30pm – 3.30pm

What genres work well for translation? Where are the literary translators? How do publishers and authors control the quality of literary translations?

3.30pm – 4pm Tea Break

Selling our Heritage: the business of publishing and selling literary translations

4.00pm – 5.00pm

How do authors and publishers market and sell translation rights? Many smaller non-English-speaking European countries have national funds available to foreign publishers to translate their works, should this be encouraged in Singapore? How do we market literary translations within ASEAN?

Marysia Juszczaklewicz, Creative Work Limited (Hong Kong)
Peter Schoppert, McKinsey (S’pore)
Erik Hartmann, Google (S’pore)
Marianne Bohr, Senior VP, National Book Network (USA)
Peter Gordon, Paddyfield.com and The Asian Review of Books (HK)
Grant S. Clark, author (S’pore)
Triena Ong, President, Singapore Book Publishers Association (S’pore)
Lee Jin Pyn, author (S’pore)
Chua Hong Koon, Armour Publishing (S’pore)
Paul Wee, CLASS (S’pore)
Kelvin Lee, Diretor, Samuel Seow Law Corporation (S’pore)
Kirpal Singh, A/P Literature SMU (S’pore)
Shirley Hew, Exec Director, Straits Times Press (S’pore)
Kevin Tan, biographer (S’pore)
Ann Blainey, award-winning biographer (Australia)
Shamini Flint, author (S’pore)
Emily Lim, author (S’pore)
Adeline Foo, author (S’pore)
Richard Lord, author and editor (USA now S’pore)
Edda de Silva, biography educator (Malaysia)
Vasin Permsup, VP, PUBAT (Thailand)
Goh Eck Kheng, Publisher, Landmark (S’pore)
Cyril Wong, author (S’pore)
Rasiah Halil, author (S’pore)
Mabel Lee, translator and publisher (Australia)
Helena Hong Gao, Asst Prof, NTU (S’pore)

Kindle Goes International - Sorta

Talk about a news item which gets your hopes up, and then cruelly dashes them a moment later.

Amazon announced yesterday that its Kindle e-book reader would now be available in an international edition, the price has also been dropped to (US$259) and it would ship to 100 countries.

Sadly, Malaysia is not one of them (neither are Canada, New Zealand, and the countries in this region).

I got a bit humphy I'm afraid, especially as I was watching all the excited booklovers jumping up and down for joy on Twitter, where this quickly became a trending topic. I felt left out. I felt hurt and neglected. I came face to face with the realisation of how much I want this bloody device!

I shot off an email to Amazon to ask why we weren't included, wondering whether it was (as Eyeris and Umapagan had tweeted back to me, because Malaysians don't read enough!) or was it an issue with licensing.

I was pleasantly surprised when I got a reply an hour or so later from Amazon spokesperson Cinthia Portugal herself, telling me :

We want to ship Kindle everywhere and we’re working hard on it, but at this time we are not able to ship to Malaysia. ... This is an audacious first step, and we will continue to innovate on behalf of our customers and expand our offerings – we know that there will be other steps, but we’re happy with where we are starting and we think our customers will be too.

So hopefully, we will be there somewhere in the expansion plans. I thought it was interesting too that Amazon seems to be doing a better job with its corporate communications than it did when the Homozone.com scandal came to light.

By the way, it seems there is a workaround solution for those desperate enough : one Singaporean customer at Amazon.com notes:

the wireless doesnt work outside of the USA - you can still buy books using your amazon account online and then download them to your PC and upload them via a cable to your kindle- not exactly instantaneous - but much easier (and cheaper) than slugging it down to orchard to Kino or Borders! Kindle rocks.

Bookies' Book Bags the Booker!

Just for once, the bookies favourite won! Hilary Mantel was awarded the 2009 Man Booker Prize last night for Wolf Hall, which is set in the 1520s and tells the story of Thomas Cromwell's rise to prominence in the Tudor court.

James Naughtie, chair of judges said :

Hilary Mantel has given us a thoroughly modern novel set in the 16th century. Wolf Hall has a vast narrative sweep that gleams on every page with luminous and mesmerising detail. ... It probes the mysteries of power by examining and describing the meticulous dealings in Henry VIII's court, revealing in thrilling prose how politics and history is made by men and women. ... In the words of Mantel's Thomas Cromwell, whose story this is, "the fate of peoples is made like this, two men in small rooms. Forget the coronations, the conclaves of cardinals, the pomp and processions. This is how the world changes."

Mantel is the first British winner of the Booker in 5 years. Of the £50,000 prize money, Mantel is quoted by The Daily Telegraph as saying :

It's earnings. That may seem a very cold way of looking at a major award, but cost out what an author earns per hour and it's far, far less than the minimum wage. The return is not great. The money from prizes, welcome though it is, must be used to pay the mortgage.

Worth reading is this review of the novel by Janet Maslin in The New York Times. There's an interesting interview with Mantel up on the Booker website and another by Ada Edemariam in The Guardian. You can read the extract from the novel (which appeared in The New York Review of Books) here. You can also hear Nabtel talk about the book and read from it on the BBC website.

Booker Countdown

There's just a few hours to go before the man Booker Prize winner 2009 is announced. No time to read the books first? Well you can cheat and enjoy John Crace's condensed versions of all the shortlisted novels at The Guardian.

Meanwhile the punters have been placing their bets, but Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall remains favourite.

ZI Publications' Double Book Launch

You're invited to a double book launch by ZI Publications :

I, Too, Am Malay - Zaid Ibrahim's bestselling book Saya Pun Melayu has been translated and is now available in English...

&

Velvet & Cinder Blocks - New York native Ioannis Gatsiounis' debut collection of short stories. (Author of Beyond The Veneer: Malaysia ’s Struggle for Dignity and Direction.)

Join us for this rare double book launch event - the event features both Datuk Zaid and Ioannis discussing their respective books, a Q&A session, autograph-signing, photo snapping....and yes, book buying too!

ALL ARE WELCOME. (Limited space/chairs, so do come early...)

Soft drinks and light snacks provided. (There're LOTS of restaurants downstairs for a proper meal afterwards!)

Details

Date: Friday, Oct 16th, 2009

Venue: PJLA, Jaya One, Jalan Universiti, PJ.

Time: 7.30pm

About the Books :

I, Too, Am Malay, is a collection of Zaid Ibrahim's innermost thoughts on values, attitudes and how future politics in Malaysia must be based on that which is positive and unites all ethnic groups. Tackling controversial issues such as Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Supremacy), the rule of law, and the role of the monarchy, Zaid speaks candidly but sincerely about the way forward for democracy in this country currently plagued by political crises.

A successful corporate attorney who created the nation's biggest law firm despite his humble origins in a village in Kelantan, Zaid's journey as a lawyer, politician and philanthropist is depicted here--from his resignation as a Minister and his sacking from UMNO, a party of which he had been a member for 23 years, to his analysis of the current Prime Minister's ability to restore the rakyat's confidence in the government.

I, Too, Am Malay, reveals the hopes and dreams of a Malay who sees the future of the Malays in a refreshed democracy that anchors on common sense and a profound understanding of their place in a world far larger than their own.

Velvet & Cinder Blocks - Gatsiounis' début collection of stories captures the spirit of the individual who struggles to define himself in a world where the idea of identity is both concrete and perpetually fleeting, a world where loyalties, friendships and family ties can alter in an instant. A young painter follows a false prophet deep into a desert. A pious rape victim struggles to see past her faith in the aftermath of a tsunami. A Chinese-American’s Chineseness is put to the test in multiracial Malaysia . A young Malay caretaker and his lone guest at a remote guesthouse struggle to find direction and compassion in an era of stark civilisational divides.

With these 10 well imagined and decadently engrossing stories, Gatsiounis offers us a timely, penetrating meditation on intimacy, alienation and triumph in the post-9/11 world.

If you want to attend then you must RSVP info@zipublications.com.my or call 603-78850020.

Here's the map :

Lydia Chai on New Zealand Writing

Lydia Chai very kindly agreed to guestblog a post for us :

October is New Zealand Book Month. Like Sharon Bakar, I have become an unlikely champion of my adopted country's literature. The only difference is that Sharon is a Brit living in Malaysia whereas I am a Malaysian living in New Zealand; and while Sharon promotes Malaysian books through her widely read blog, my sphere of influence extends to only a very small circle of friends in Auckland. A few New Zealand friends have mentioned to me that it is unusual for an immigrant like myself - Asian, no less - to have such an interest in New Zealand literature. One friend remarked that I put her to shame because it never before occurred to her to read New Zealand writers - a result of the 'tall poppy syndrome', she said. The tall poppy syndrome, for those of you who thankfully do not know it, is supposedly a social phenomenon particular to New Zealand and Australia, whereby the locals think it necessary to cut down to size their fellow men and women who succeed internationally. As a result, according to my friend, New Zealanders are more likely to pick up hipper novels by the likes of Julian Barnes or Jodi Picoult than ones by Lloyd Jones or Charlotte Grimshaw. Pity, that; as New Zealand boasts a lot of talented writers. Perhaps the fact that New Zealand Book Month exists at all is evidence that the tall poppy syndrome still persists and must be counteracted. Being a recent immigrant, I read New Zealand authors to make myself feel more at home here (another way I go about this proverbial nesting is by planting a vegetable garden to feel more connected to the land, literally letting it nourish me), since I learn more about a nation's psyche from its literature than from its history books. I learned, for instance, that New Zealand's literary identity was not always so unique and assured. Writers from earlier generations tended to borrow their voice from the English tradition. It was only relatively recently that writers had begun shedding their hang-ups about living in a country so remote from the rest of the world, and developed their own voice. The notion of 'looking back' interests me, for I am always 'looking back' to my tanahair: the distance provides a tension that is useful in my creative life. Moreover, I find it comforting that New Zealand writers have found a way to articulate the New Zealand experience without overly exoticizing their home - I'm hopeful that Malaysian writing will similarly evolve. It always thrills me to read a piece by a Malaysian author that has obviously been written with Malaysian readers in mind. Likewise with a piece of New Zealand writing. Tall poppy syndrome or no, New Zealand does heavily support its writers, as can be seen from its various annual literary festivals, heavily funded residencies and monetary awards. I do so love living in a country that highly values its writers. Here are my favourite blogs on the New Zealand literary scene: Books In The City (maintained by Auckland City Libraries' staff) Book Notes (the New Zealand Book Council's quarterly magazine) Trendy But Casual (author Paula Morris' blog) Chinglish (writer Renee Liang's blog; she organises the local poetry slams) The Elam Fine Arts Library blog Lydia Chai is a Malaysian artist residing in Auckland.

Connect with Writers Connect

Writers - here's somewhere you might like to send your writing.

Writers Connect is an online literary arts portal designed to connect writers to writers and writers to readers. It is owned and managed by Word Forward Limited, a non-profit literary arts company based in Singapore.

It welcomes quality creative works in all genres (fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, book reviews, essays, and interviews) from all corners of the world but works on and about Asia are especially welcome. Submission guidelines can be found here.

I don't know how this online publication slipped beneath my radar (it could well just be a case of me being as confused as the proverbial cuttlefish ... yes, I knew about WordForward the organisation, knew they had regular gatherings for writers, but hadn't realised they had got this together!).

Anyway, I would like to point you in the direction of some excellent fiction, some of it written by folks who are friends of this blog. The story of the week this time is Elmo Jayawardena's Tsunami. (You may remember this author from his visit to KL last year.) Other contributors you may know include local mat salleh Yusof Martin and Singaporean journalist and blogger Zafar Anjum. More stories here.

I also need to play catch-up with the poetry, interviews and reviews (the latest of which is Zafar's discussion of In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin.)

Right to Read Festival

More news about the Right to Read Festival next weekend, taken from the event's Facebook page :

• Presented by : Sisters In Islam and Centre For Independent Journalism
• Venue: The Annexe Gallery, Central Market Annexe, Jalan Hang Kasturi, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
• Date : Sat 10 & Sun 11 Oct, 10.30am to 6pm
• Further information : Call 0320701137 or email jerome@annexegallery.com
• Admission Free

Sisters In Islam and Centre For Independent Journalism are proud to present the Right To Read Festival, a gala promoting creative ideas and independent thought, and a celebration of free expression and the right to information.

Books are the keystone of information and expression. Books can feed the mind, nourish soul, and promote positive change in individuals and society. Living in a world without books is like living in a world without air, we definitely cannot survive without books. The act of banning books is like banning air – senseless. Not to mention, dangerous! Yet, between 1971 and 2009, the Malaysian government has banned more than 1,500 books. So, join us to stop this bibliocide and celebrate our Right To Read !

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS

FROM COVER TO UNCOVER
Sat 10, 1pm to 6pm
Sun 11, 11am to 6pm
A visual spectacle of our right to the written word and what they represent: independent thought, creative ideas and vital knowledge.

And also all-day Reading Corner, DIY Shirt Workshop and Bookstalls.

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

SAT 10 OCT

10.30am – FREE2READ
It’s never to early to start cultivating a love for reading. This bookcover art workshop takes young readers between ages 9 and 12 into the wonderful vista of books. For details and registration, please call Nazreen at 03-7785 6121.

11am – PAGE@STAGE
Rumah Anak Teater shares the art of making books come alive through drama. This two-day theatre workshop is open to performance students and youth theatre practitioners. For details and registration, please call Syue at 03-7785 6121.

2pm – RIGHT TO READ FESTIVAL LAUNCH
Catch the Wayang Buku performance by local actor director Fahmi Fadzil and singer songwriter Azmyl Yunor. Show up to see who our surprise Guests Of Honour will be!

4pm – BOOKWORMS ANONYMOUS
Some books may be banned but it sure hasn’t stopped people from reading behind closed doors. Celebrity book lovers share their guilty pleasures.

SUN 11 OCT

10.30am – REEL-ITY BITES
What do books and films have in common? Well, in many countries, both are filtered before they are released for public consumption. Film screening and talk on freedom of expression. Speakers: Sharaad Kuttan and Honey Tan.

3pm – WORD PLAY
Freedom of the arts is an extension of the freedom of thought and expression. The Page@Stage participants with “mentor” Rumah Anak Teater pop-up in a workshop performance.