Literary Happenings!

Here are some of the other literary things you can find going on in the next few days in KL.

Tomorrow, Saturday 22nd November at 5.30pm at Silverfish Books (58-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar, KL) Kee Thuan Chye and friends Azmi Sharom, Animah Kosai, Helen Ang and Chacko Vadaketh will be reading excerpts from March 8th : The Day Malaysia Woke Up. There will be a discussion and Q&A after the reading and refreshments will be served. Free admission. (More information here.)

The Department of English Language and Literature (IIUM) will be hosting An Evening of Readings and Spoken Word on Tuesday 25th November from 8:00pm - 10:30pm in Ballroom 3, Crown Princess Hotel, City Square Centre, Jalan Tun Razak. This is an event held in conjunction with the international conference entitled ENGLISH and ASIA: First International Conference on Language and Linguistics 2008.

The evening will feature local poets and writers Dato' M. Shanmughalingam, Prof. Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof, Dr. Nor Faridah Abdul Manaf, the popular KL Slam's regulars and finalists, the active spoken word collective Poetry Underground and many more.

There will also be a performance by Ms Hardev Kaur, renowned Malaysian Hindi singer and local indie musicians ready to perform their original compositions. There may also be an open mic session.

The event is free for all Conference delegates. However, for non-delegates, there is a RM40 door fee inclusive of supper break by the end of the program.

Please reserve tickets now as places are limited. Contact Sheena 0129522094 nubian.crib@gmail.co to book your seats or if you have any enquiry! (The event also has a Facebook page.)

Please don't forget about Readings@Seksan on November 29th. I am just about to get the info out!

Adversity in Verse

She calls up the first poet from the Nuyorican team, a Falstaffian man called Jamal St John, who begins by announcing in a friendly, childlike voice that his “queens are queen-sized”. He yearns for “the beauty of the black female body…before they asked you to do Pilates.” With the audience on its feet and smiles on every face, he finishes the poem where he started it, exclaiming, “Real women have curves!” After a flurry of clapping, hollering and high scores, Ms Browne retakes the stage and implores “all the big girls to stand up!” They oblige exuberantly.

And yet the slam takes on many other shapes and forms. Jeanann Verlee is a short, serious, generously tattooed Irishwoman, who describes her day job as “an office manager in a corporate environment” and when asked to elaborate, simply giggles. She stands up and waits for the crowd to hush. She reads a sobering piece from the point of view of Charles Chapman, a man who was wrongly accused of rape and subsequently held in prison for years. Speaking on his behalf to his accusers, she coldly points to the floor and utters slowly “There is no resurrection here”.

The enthusiastic poetry slammers among you (and yes, there are quite a few now that we have slam here in KL) will enjoy this account from the Economist of a slam held at the Nuyorican in, of course, New York, prior to the National Poetry Slam. (You can read more about the slam and how it developed here.)

The article was forwarded to me by Datuk Shan, who isn't adverse to a little slamming himself.

Postscript (21/8/08):

Is it an overstatement to describe this as the most exciting time for literature since the 1970s? Possibly. But there are certainly more opportunities now for writers to connect with audiences in performances, as well as through new technologies.

Just thought I'd append a link to an interesting post about live literature in London by Shirley Dent on the Guardian blog.

Malaysian Poetry Idol

Some pictures from last night's poetry extravaganza at Wayang Kata IV at No Black Tie.

As usual the event was entertainingly compared by Jerome Kugan and Jasmine Low doing their famous double act.

Jerome also rolled up his sleeves and sang for us:

Jasmine read some of her poetry, and Shahrul Nizam read some pieces from his new collection If Only. (And was a lot less shy reading than I thought he'd be!)

Then the six poets competing for three places to go to the Singapore Writers' Festival in December:

Priya K.

Liyana Yusof

Bathsheba Zlikha Arsalan

Datuk Shan

Patricia Low

And ... oh my goodness, realised that I didn't get a photo of Divya KM Jiwa! My biggest apologies.

Members of the audience got to vote for their favourite. Daphne Lee, Pang Khee Teik, and I were the judges and we looked for those whose words had touched us most deeply. The standard overall was high (and I'm so happy to see how far these guys have come on, performing their work). A special commendation to Shan for making us laugh and Zlikha for her dazzling showmanship which involved several changes of clothing.

When the votes and our marks were tallied, the winners were Priya, Liyana and Divya. Well done, guys.

I missed some of the later stuff as I was hiding from all the cigarette smoke which was bringing back the hacking cough I thought I'd got rid of. But who was the woman with the truly astonishing singing voice? I want to buy her album! And who was the hip-hop poet? I want him for my readings later on!

KLILF Hanger

Yesterday, of course, the media launch of the The KL International Literary Festival (which now goes by the acronym KLILF!) at Bangsar Village which is to be held in various venues in Bangsar 28th March - 1st April.

The guest of honour was YB Dato' Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Minster of Women, Family and Community Development, who also happens to be the MP for Lembah Pantai (the constituency which includes Bangsar). She turned up a fashionable one hour late, as Ministers are always wont to do. For me the time was well spent, though, chatting to Saras, Dina, Adam, MPH's Dato Ng and others, and getting a Starbucks caffeine fix to propel me through the morning.

Here is Shahrizat making a grand entrance. The others are (left to right) Professor Lim Chee Seng, Raman, Tunku Halim with his back to the camera, Datuk Shanmugalingam (with the beard) and (in the corner) Dato' Ng Tieh Chuan of MPH.

Professor Lim introduced the event, and then Ronald Quay Ong Guan (above) the President of Bangsar Baru Business Council made a speech ... not only pointing out that Bangsar is a great venue for the festival but also asking for a community library for the area.

Ronald is the proprietor of the pub Ronnie Q's - the sporting pub where all my rugger bugger friends hang out on match nights. Now it's going to be transformed into a venue for Literature!

Dato' Seri Shahrizat's speech was nicely delivered and natural. It seems that she, Raman and Prof. Lim were all students at Universiti Malaya's Fifth College, at the same time. She also talked about the intellectual depth of Bangsar residents (haha!) which made the area an ideal one a litfest.

Professor Lim then read some favourite poetry ... and what a nice thing to have happen midweek just outside the supermarket! We had a sonnet by Petrach in Italian, Shakespeare's Sonnets 18 and 130, a Chinese student read poems by Li Po and Su Shi. Prof. Lim added a little John Donne, Tagore and Usman Awang much to the bemusement of pass-by shoppers, and then it was time to eat.

The lovely food was catered by the Hilton, but I was so busy gossiping to a whole range of people that I didn't eat much and went home hungry afterwards. Above, Raman with Eoin Duggan, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Ireland.

I'm glad Raman and Prof. Lim decided to use Bangsar as a venue (which I suggested to them both way back - common sense, innit?). The venues there should be more relaxed and informal than in some impersonal ballroom of some stuffy hotel, and dropping out to have a nice coffee or meal and gossip will be easy too. I'm glad too that the dull academic part of the festival has been dropped and there is no utterly confusing pricing structure this time.

In fact I'm looking forward to the festival. Have you registered yet? Get in before March 15th to get an Early Bird discount.

There are incidentally much better pics on Raman's site. Watch the slideshow and see how many faces you can name.

Oh and yes, here's the flier to pass on and stick on your blogs. Doesn't seem to be on Raman's site yet.

Celebrating Voices

The second of Saturday's literary events was of course, "Readings" at Seksan's. And for me the event was all about ... what is an authentic Malaysian voice?

Yang-May Ooi read first, and poor thing had to compete a little against the rain. Thank goodness we're amplified now.

She decided to use her slot for an experiment. She had brought along a passage from the novel she is currently working on, Tianming Traviata, and she read the same piece written in two slightly different voices. The first very standard English, the second in identifiably Malaysian English. I enjoyed both versions, though the second sounded more natural to me and all but Eric Forbes seemed to agree when we took a vote afterwards.

I told Yang-May later that Shirley Lim had talked about having the same problem when she wrote Sister Swing, and it really is a big deal for local writers. (I do so badly want to write at length on this but haven't yet got round to it.)

Talking about capturing voice, Datuk Shan does a great job of getting Indian voices down to the page and playing with them for comic effect as in the story about Mrs. Sarjit Singh getting teased for her terrible mispronunciations.

Zhang Su Li read us several appetite-whetting short pieces from her travel book A Backpack and a Bit of Luck. I loved the first piece she read about the time she worked in an opticians in Britain and gave a lecture to an old man about the correct way to put on glasses - only to realise that he only had one hand having lost the other in the war. This being Britain, a cup of tea while he told his story put things right. Su Li managed a very creditable northern accent!

Patricia Low is a very talented young lady. My first encounter with her work was with The Oral Stage's Rojak, last year. Two of my favourite pieces were penned by her and she was one of the directors. I sadly missed TOS second production, 59 Minutes, so it was nice that Pat read us a monologue from it - a wonderfully funny satire about the building of a durian tower in a shopping mall. But as I say, Malaysia constantly satirises itself! The scary thing about the piece was that it all seemed just too possible!

I loved the natural way that the voice in the story moved between English and Malay ... this is the reality of voice in the local context, the constant dipping between languages. For convenience. For emphasis. For humour.

Haris Zalkapli (and now I have his name spelt right!) writes columns on pop culture and politics and the interface between. I knew nothing about him before the reading since I had enlisted Raja Ahmad's help in finding good Malay writers, and I am very happy to have "discovered" Haris. He's clearly a writer who has found his niche - his pieces are entertaining and the arguments nicely developed. He read two columns The Stones and the Great Firewall, about The Rolling Stones tour of China and A Lesson in Coolness about Condoleza Rice and other politicians employing pop culture as a campaigning tool.

This was the second time that Eileen Lui has read at "Readings". Her stories have appeared in Silverfish collections, including the book I edited, Collateral Damage. She read a moving piece about a friendship ... which should have been more than a friendship ... about the best friends who became "better friends", but never quite made the transition to becoming lovers.

Thank goodness not everyone is like this couple, or Eileen would be out of a day-job!

Was very happy to see poet Wong Phui Nam in the audience and I think he was very pleased to see so many people interested in writing. I have invited him to read next time!

Many thanks (and you know the litany by now!) all who read and all who turned up to support them. To Seksan for the space. To La Bodega for the lovely wines. To Reza for help with the sound. To all who helped get set up and to Zedeck for washing glasses. Sorry I was so bossy.

I've decided not to hold "Readings" next month as the KL Litfest is on at the end of March and it's better that everyone supports that. But watch this space for April announcements.

February "Readings"

Would be grateful if you could pass on the news of our next "Readings".

Here's the info:

“Readings”

Our series of monthly readings continue next Saturday with the aim of encouraging new writing talent.
Time: 3.30pm
Date: 24th February 2006
Place: 67, Lorong Tempinis Satu, Lucky Garden, Bangsar (for directions check www.seksan.com)
Readers for this Saturday include:
Yang-May Ooi
Eileen Lui
Datuk SHANmugalingam
Haris Zulkfili
Pat Low
(and one more still to be confirmed reader)

"Readings" is the birth-child of Bernice Chauly, lovingly fostered by Sharon Bakar. We are grateful to Seksan for sponsorship.

Admission free and everyone very welcome. Please pass on the invitation to anyone else you think might be interested.

I feel like I'm chasing my tail at the moment trying to round up enough good readers to keep the crowd well entertained. Thanks, Raja Ahmad for helping me: he is getting back to me soon with the name one of another of his Suara-Suara protogees!

Still haven't managed to sort of the wine sponsorship so will be chasing up my friends in La Bodega as soon as CNY is over. We will have bottles there one way or another.

Novelist Yang-May Ooi will be out first guest (with Sharanya Manivannan) for this Breakfast with the Litbloggers thing in the new branch of MPH in Bangsar Village 11a.m. - 1 p.m. so we will be moving from one event to the other with just a little lunch in-between. It should be a good literary Saturday.

Sharanya's Launch at Indie Scene Cafe

There's been a lot going on this weekend. and I'm only just getting round to blogging it!

First Sharanya had a do at the Indie Scene Cafe Fiday night to launch her prety chapbook, Iyari. The event was supposed to start at 7 p.m. but it was a total nightmare to get down there with all the jams and it was after 8 when I arrived ... and that after running from the top of Bukit Bintang because I couldn't stand any more crawling in traffic.

Luckily (for me!) the start of the reading was delayed by the carolling "Santarinas" in the foyer of Piccolo Galleria. Sharanya had got a great crowd of friends there, and the atmosphere was just so warm and supportive. Even before anyone began to read, I was glad I had got my lazy self out of the house.

Sharanya has posted everyone's biodatas on her blog, so please go there for more information on her invited "talents". But here follows the pics I took.

Sharanya looked gorgeous in a black sari with gold trim and with big white roses in her hair. (She had also grown a few inches thanks to her platform shoes!) She did her job as host very well indeed - the open mic readings falling between her own readings. it was very special to hear her read poems that I've only seen on the page before.

Hafiz performed a beautiful song called Dengarkanlah (Please Listen) with lyrics by Nizam Zakaria (below). (You can download a demo version of the song here.) I didn't snap Hafiz because I was busy eating pizza!

Roy read a piece about being stopped at a police road block when neither he or his friend had a valid driver's license and ... er ... coming to an arrangement with a policeman.

Datuk Shan and Faridah Manaf did a nice little duet with a poem they had bounced back and forward by e-mail the night before.

Tshiung Han See read his poems ...

... and Priya K read a short piece ...

Nicholas Wong is distressingly talented for one so young (17) and has already won awards for his writing and had his poetry published. He's off to Columbia University in September to read Comparative Literature and Creative Writing.

Another very talented young man ... known simply as KG! His cousin also read a piece.

Somewhere in there too was me. Sharanya introduced me as the matriach of the local writing scene. Aiyoh, that sounds very scary!

I read a short short about an old couple warring over a dining chair that ends up abandoned and ruined in the garden. I wrote it some months ago and still haven't got polished to the point where I'd feel happy sending it out. Maybe after this I'll revise it again.

Thanks to Sharanya for inviting me and putting such an enjoyable evening together. Thanks too to Jasmine and Nicky for making this excellent little venue available to us. Indie Scene Cafe closes at the end of the month. How nice it would be to have a more permananent home for it ...

A New Home for Words

The monthly readings have moved from Darling Muse to a new venue. I initially felt sad because I'd got so fond of Yusof and Dax's place, but Bernice has found a gem in Seksan's place 67, Jalan Tempinis 1.

Seksan, a landscape architect, has gutted the original house, leaving a clean open space below his offices. There's paintings, wire sculptures scattered around and suspended from the ceiling so that they cast a dance of shadows on the walls. What little furniture there is is made from natural materials - a rough-hewn wooden bench, bamboo stools, a charpoy bed (bringing back memories of those Sikh guards who used to guard stores and banks). The stairs up to the office are made from old railway sleepers. And the landscaping is certainly unusual ... screens made of tall cages of coloured cacti, richly patterned porcelain balls lying in the lalang grass at the side of the house, and a koi pond.

Seksan's two lovely doggies played an active part (sometimes too active!) in the afternoon's proceedings.

First up to read was Datuk SHANmugalingam. Shan dedicated this reading to the memory of Krishen Jit who had encouraged him to adapt a couple of his stories for the theatre. I think this will work well - Shan has a wonderful ear for dialogue, a lively sense of humour and his work is populated by and assortment larger than life characters. Shan read from a number of his short pieces including Victoria and her Kimono.

Next was Jit Murad, actor, comedian, playwright and all round wit. He enjoyed the irony of an assembly of pigs in the huge painting behind staring over his shoulder as he read. His story is set in a steak house (in the Jakes's, Victoria Station mould) and tells of three very different lives meeting here. A very entertaining piece.

Then a break for wine (La Bodega sponsored as usual) and chat, before writer/filmaker Feroz Merican took the floor for just a moment to say "I wrote this when i was very patriotic", leaving Bernice to read from his work-in-progress No-one Has Claimed Responsibility. Hope he does get round to finishing it soon ...

Hishamuddin Rais ("everyone's favourite ISA detainee" as someone dubbed him) read last. "I'm not an artist and I don't pretend to be," he said. He read a chunk of his play Bilik Sulit about interrogation by Special Branch police officers. The play is supposed to open on 3rd June, I believe, but the performance has just been cancelled as DBKL will not grant it a license. It was in Malay but I found it pretty easy to follow ... it was fast-paced, angry and satirical.

I think I enjoyed this fifth set of readings more than any others so far. There was a terrific atmosphere of warmth and support and good humour. Thanks again to Bernice for making things move.

A Lazy Colony of Silverfish??

Article on Raman of Silverfish in the NST today. (Article behind subscription.)

Raman talks not only about his bookshop and how it's facing the challenge of larger competitors, but also about his publishing venture which has put out 14 books so far, six of them anthologies.

This from the article:

He believes there is a strong demand for books in English by local authors.

“It is an irony. We complain that Malaysian readers prefer buying foreign writers. This is rubbish. But we have to stop insulting them by offering low-quality books.”

He also feels that it is important for local authors to get their work published locally. While there is a lot of glamour in getting published abroad, it is also a make-it-or-break task.

“Britain publishes roughly 10,000 books a month. When you publish there, you are one in 10,000. Also, there is a lot of pandering to their taste and a kind of selling out. The big publishing houses want the exotic East, they are purely commercially driven,” he explains.

Raman, however, has one grouse. He is disappointed with the local writers who have contributed to his six anthologies. Discounting previously-published authors, the new writers have yet to come up with a book of their own.

“There are a lot of people calling themselves writers in this country but they have yet to become authors. We have about 50 writers (in the collections) and not one has become an author. I am very disappointed,” he says.

“They used to complain there was no platform for writers and I have given them a platform. I think they are just lazy.”

Laziness?? Is what Raman says entirely true? I know of one excellent Silverfish writer who had his manuscript rejected ... probably because it would have attracted too much controversy. (The writer is gay.) It's every publisher's right of course to decide on the type of books they want to publish. But the writer did submit his work and ergo was not "lazy".

The word "lazy" is unkind in the sense that many of the writers have gone on to achieve significant recognition elsewhere e.g. Datuk SHANmugalingam whose work has appeared in various collections of stories and poetry including the much more prestigious The Merlion and The Hibiscus (Penguin), James Lee who of course has become an award-winning filmmaker and my friend RuhayatX (whose incisive and witty articles appear in the NST and on the Malaysiakini website) has set up his own publishing company to encourage young Malay writers. Lazy, huh?

Still, I think Raman has a point and I certainly stand guilty as charged. (This is good kick-up-the-butt stuff for me - and I hope for the other Silverfish writers.) I've short stories to complete and the first draft of a novel that needs reworking. Okay, will make a redoubled effort to get down to it.

Hey guys - let's show him!