Wena and Co for Southbank

It was very nice to hear this morning (via Twitter) that Singaporean author Wena Poon is going to be appearing with novelist Isa Kamari (left) and Edwin Thumboo at Level 5 Function Room at the Southbank centre in London on Monday 28 September 2009, 7.45pm. The event is called Writing Singapore and here is the blurb about it :

In a first for Southbank Centre, we welcome a group of Singaporean writers to read from their work and share insights about the literary culture of their nation. Isa Kamari is an experimental novelist and playwright whose most recent work is Tawassul (Nearness). Wena Poon writes from the diaspora experience of living in the US. Her fiction looks at Singaporean and American life in her latest novel Lions in Winter. Edwin Thumboo is a leading figure in Singaporean poetry, who edited some of the earliest anthologies of Singaporean and Malaysian literature in English.

Do hope some of you who are living in London will be able to make it. I wish I could be there!

Thumboo Talk and Reading

Professor Quayum has just sent me information of a couple of events taking place at the International Islamic University to which all of you are invited (and please pass the information on).

The first is a public lecture by Dell Visiting Professor, Edwin Thumboo (who is sometimes described as Singapore's unofficial poet laureate!) :

Tilting Paradigms: Creativity in Englishes

Abstract: The decision to write poems, plays, short stories and novels is a personal one. If we are bi- or tri- lingual by the time we decide, it is our main – or strongest – language that chooses us. Few have the ability to create in two languages, let alone three; it is difficult enough in one. For the ex-colonial, it is either the language of one’s race or the language of former colonisers. If we chose English, as many have, we face a number of challenges. What English and why? What shapes the substance of our experience behind our writing, and to what extent? And how is that substance influenced by the history and the politics of national recovery and nation formation? Issues such as those arising from the fact that English is the leading international language, the influence of literary traditions and content of other languages, and the relationship between the various national literatures, will be noted as well as discussed in terms of their creative and critical implications. The language in this case is English and the focus is on poetry.

DATE: 12 AUGUST 2009
TIME: 10 AM – 12 NOON
VENUE: HS SEMINAR ROOM, IIU

Professor Edwin Thumboo is a distinguished poet and academic who has been teaching at the National University of Singapore (NUS) for over forty years. His publications include six volumes of poetry, two collections of nursery rhymes, over twenty academic books, and articles in leading literary journals around the world. He has received several literary awards including the Singapore National Award for poetry (1978, 1980 and 1994), the Southeast Asia Write Award (1979), the Singapore Cultural Medallion (1980), the ASEAN Cultural and Communication Award in Literature (1987), and the Raja Rao Award (2002). Currently an Emeritus Professor, Professor Thumboo was the Head of the Department of English Language and Literature, NUS, for sixteen years (1977-1993) and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences for eleven years (1980-1991).

The second is a poetry reading. (Click on the poster to read the details.)

Cocktail Networking

Was at a cocktail reception last night organised by the British Council in conjuction with its Reading Across Cultures: Teaching English Through Literature conference. Was too busy gossiping with old teacher-training buddies and conference participants to make serious inroads into the lovely food, but also did some useful networking and met up with the writers who will be reading at my Night of the Living Text event tonight: Louise Doughty, Roger Robinson and Isagani Cruz. We also have Taiwanese poet (doctor by day) Ke Hua Chen to add to our list, which is great.

Just talking to these guys, I know tonight is going to be a lot of fun.

Author Tan Twan Eng also came along and was very happy to meet up with old friend (old as in lama not tua, I hasten to add) John McRae (author, academic and much more) who will be introducing him tonight. Hope that makes Twan's first ever reading a little less nerve-wracking!

Also had a chat with Singaporean poet Edwin Thumboo who says that he is very sorry he cannot come tonight because he has something else on, but promises to come up to Malaysia again soon. (Will chase up that promise!)

The lady in the picture above is Thai author and translator Jane Vejjajiva who read from her children's novel The Happiness of Kati. (Read an extract here.) Despite suffering from cerebral palsy, Jane has a very impressive CV in translation and publishing and now runs a copywriting agency. She has also received the Chevalier de l'Order des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture, and a SEA Write Award.

Anyway (nudge nudge) really look forward to seeing you all at Central Market Annex tonight!