A Sense of HOME

Instant Cafe Theatre present HOME, new works by Jit Murad, Jo Kukathas, Ridzwan Othman and Zedeck Siew around the theme of HOME and family on September 5, 2009, 5.30-7.30 at their new home - CHAI House, 6 Jalan 6/3, Petaling Jaya.

The exhibition HOME is still on till 16 Sept so be sure to turn up early to have a look at the show or stay on to talk about the work over a nice cup of chai.

Admission is free but donations are welcomed.

More details here. Or call 0377848792, or Email: chai@instantcafetheatre.com

Sunday Night at No Black Tie

Missed most of the live lit events this weekend but did manage it to make it to No Black Tie for the episode of "Readings" Bernice organised, Sunday night.

The lady herself.

Jit read an excellent memoir piece on "sexuality and religiosity". Funny and honest. Beautifully written but with a real Malaysian voice. Hope this material gets collected and published. I still have some of the pages I found on the floor later. Will keep them for posterity.

Canadian Jordan MacVay was a big hit at Seksan's when he read an extract from the non-fiction novel he's working on. He's further along now, and read the complete chapter four in which Rizal and his friend are floating in a raft in the sea after the tsunami, and encounter a group of naked girls drifting in the branches of an uprooted tree. Again, I was very moved by this material and want to shout out to publishers across the world that this novel needs to be put out into the world!

Young Nicholas Wong, now growing his hair back after his National Service stint. Nic will be heading off to Columbia University later this month. He read a poem about a cleaning lady; Nicobar Pigeon; Son-net; and then "a triptych" (lovely word!) of philosophical poems - the first on beauty dedicated to Sharanya. He also played the piano - and he is good, really good. (I feel that it would be fairer if talented were more evenly distributed.) He had his mum, dad and little brother there to cheer him on.

After the break, playwright Ann Lee read a wonderfully surreal peace called Perpustakaan (Library). I never knew that stage directions could be so poetic. She was going to read another piece but it was getting late so we didn't get to hear it. (Another time, I hope.)

I had to leave before midnight as I had to get up very early for work, and so sadly I missed Sharanya and Bernice read.

I must say I like the venue very much ... but why do all cab drivers in that area seem to want to charge three times the fare even before midnight??

Voices @ Seksan

Our "Readings" event yesterday went really well. I'm always happily gobsmacked at the great support the writers get, so thanks sincerely to all who came. I always ask Reza to estimate the size of crowds because he's good at counting things, and he reckoned there were more than 40.

Azwan Ismail went first. Now here is a very sporting guy! I'd called him up just the night before to ask him to read when another reader had to pull out, and was so happy that he said yes.

Azwan, and engineer by day and a poet full-time, is a regular at open mic sessions (usually wearing his trademark fedora!) and has just published a poetry zine called Mantra, which he was kind enough to give me a copy of. (I promised to pass him a donation for it and forgot. Next time, Azwan.) He read just three poems, two in Malay and one in English. I think the first was called Ada Seseorang Terbakar (There's Someone on Fire) which mixed images of snow and blood, heat and cold. I like this one called Satan & Angel which I found on his blog.

Reza Rosli was next. His first time in front of the microphone, but he grew in confidence as he read his pieces and in the end I think was enjoying himself. Reza has only recently begun putting his writing out into the world, though I've long enjoyed his writing on his blog. He read poems In the Glass House (written from a dream) one about his lovely little blue bubble of a Smart car (almost a love poem, and I don't blame him because it is a dinky little thing that I much envy ... maybe he should sell the poem to the company for advertising? ... earlier version of it here) , and another about kayaking in Thailand with wonderful imagery of the weight of the sky.

He also read a piece of prose Eh, Saya Muslim, Tak Boleh (subtitled Or, How Being A Muslim Saved Me From Getting Buggered) that had its genesis during my writing course (Got to be a proud teacher here!) the story of how he was almost sexually assaulted by a huge fellow in a dark back alley. We were all listening breath with bated breath to hear how he managed to slide out of a potentially terrifying situation with a bit of quick thinking. You can read the piece here, but Reza improvised a little on it, I think! (Which in a sense just goes to show how valuable it is to read work aloud to see how the voice comes through and the audience responds.)


I first met Alina Rastam a couple of years ago when we both gave a talk at Silverfish about reading groups of different kinds and I was very impressed that she was running classes in literature for adult learners ... because there is very little in this country for working folks who want to further their education in a more informal context.

Alina is a freelance writer and editor, and part-time lecturer in literature at Monash and is involved with women's movement in Malaysia. She hs written on literature for various publications including the New Straits Times and Off The Edge.

She read a couple of poems from her first collection Diver & Other Poems which I reviewed a couple of days back: Prayer and Morning Song the first written for a teacher who greatly influenced her life and the second which she wrote for her partner. Both were pieces in which she had poured out her whole heart - and she read obviously feeling the full emotional impact of the poems. We're hungry for more, Alina, so come back another day.

Tinling Choong was next and read to us from her first novel FireWife the story of the extraordinarily generous Zimi who leases her forehead as advertising space. It was so nice to hear the extract read in her voice. Tinling has been nominated for a Henry Miller Award for Best Literary Sex Scene. (As they say, Malaysia boleh!) It makes all of us, I'm sure, very proud to see a local author have a publishing success overseas ... and it says, hey, it is possible after all guys.

After the break (and I always feel such a spoil sport for dragging folks back when they're so busy enjoying the drinks and the conversation) it was the lovely Jit Murad who needs no introduction. Jit wanted to illustrate just how much further a playwright needs to go developing the back story of his characters so that he/she really knows them. He read us the monologues of two of his characters which you will actually never hear in the play he's working on (Mr. Metro) - both with very different voices, the first (Chris Tong who called himself Chris because it was the nearest name he could find to Krystal Carrington). Very enjoyable.

Last ... and the youngest, but by no means least was Priya K. I first met Priya when she did my writing course some time back and was very happy that she chose to read a piece (edgy, dark, mysterious ... almost graphic fiction in words) she wrote for that course, as well as a poem about KL she wrote when she did Jacob Sam-La Rose's workshop which captures the city very well. Priya has also been writing and performing with The Oral Stage, and is a law student.

My biggest thanks ... as always ... to those who read and those who came. (By the way it was lovely to see our Glenda and I do hope she can be persuaded to read for us another day!)

To Seksan for his kindness in letting us use his lovely space.

To whoever painted the intriguing picture of terrorists in diapers which was our backdrop. (It was part of the notthatbalai art festival.)

To La Bodega for generously giving us a crate of wine.

I hope that I can arrange the next "Readings" at Seksans on 25th August when we will have Preeta Samarasan among the guests joining us. Bernice is also organising "Readings at No Black Tie" on 5th August and a special edition for our 50 years Merdeka celebrations on 31st! Details to be confirmed.

There is a poetry jam on Friday night 3rd August at Bau Bau cafe at Central Market as part of the notthatbalai art festival, and on Saturday 4th July the Maskara readings happening again at Rumah Pena.

Don't you feel that lovely buzz of good things happening?

Other Links:

Sufian has some great photos mostly of those informal moments when you did not notice him lurking! Eternal Wanderer wrote the event up for KL Weekly. (Many thanks!)

Reza (aka Madcap Machinist) has written a fantastic piece about how the whole experience of reading. It is a pretty terrifying thing to do, especially for the first timers.

Lovely quote from Glenda:

Yesterday I went to a reading by some Malaysian authors and was impressed by the level of talent. Damn, but there are some good writers out there. And courageous ones too, who aren't afraid to stand up and say: this is what I am and you can't change it with your threats or your self-righteous religiosity...

Amen! Who got the hotline to heaven better than inspired scribblers?

Not So Full of Jit!

Caught actor/comedian/playwright Jit Murad's latest show Full of Jit last night at Actor's Studio, BSC. (Thanks for your company, Chet!) Full house. Audience 100% on Jit's side even before he opened his mouth (with receding gums ... sorry one of the jokes).

For me whether I encounter Jit on stage or hanging out in Bangsar, there's a big grin of delight on my face the whole time. He's such a nice guy ... one of the rare people who give me the warm fuzzies of the heart. I suspect that he touches others that way.

It's cathartic to come together and laugh about all those things about the country that would otherwise make you cry. The audience were hungry for someone to articulate the sillinesses of here. Jit's references were very topical - and he even included a joke or two about "the bloggers"!

I loved the way Jit could slip into those other characters, Renee Choy talked about his days as a shampoo boy and how he helped the bosses' daughter the supermodel with artificial insemination (don't ask!), but I liked best his elderly Malay gentleman, mispronouncing his words hilariously, and talking about corruption.

There was a change of pace in the second half when Jit performed the memoir piece he had previously read in an early draft at "Readings". I love this material, it's honest, moving and funny (although not in the laugh-out-hilarious way of the rest of the show) and hope that it gets developed even further - into a full-length performance or a book ... or both.

If you need another dose of Jit there's this piece from the Sunday Times and an interview with him on the Star website about his favourite things (including books).


(Photo at top nicked from NST)

Seksan's on Saturday

Those who came to Seksen's yesterday afternoon enjoyed an afternoon of exciting storytelling.

First up was Nizam Zakaria who told us that his first novel Susuk (based on the film by Amir Mohammad) will be published by Marshall Cavendish in January. He also had a telefilm on TV a couple of nights ago. He said that since he's gone mainstream in his writing recently he sai that he had decided to go a little more subversive in this reading and gave us Chapter 7 from his novel Diva Dilla, his novel in progress.

Saras Manickam gave us the story of Dey Raju which appears in Silverfish New Writing 6. It's a very funny and sweet story about a case of mistaken identity and an Indian wedding. (I feel a great connection to the story because I was there the night it was born at Leah Ray's house one Friday evening for a supper and writing session.)

Actor/ comedian / playwright and all round nice guy Jit Murad made it this time (no rain or hailstones to prevent him!) and read a new piece - a stream-of-conciousness account of his childhood linked to the various houses where he had lived. Funny and touching and I hope he goes on with it and gets it published. I am greatly humbled that a successful writer like Jit can come along to an event like this to try out his new work before a live audience.

Animah Kosai reading a very important piece she's written. In this case not fiction, but a letter to the prime mininster re. "restricted books" for us all to sign. I will tell you more about this anon.

Dianadirani has two stories in the Neohikayat collection Aweks (forthcoming). She read us a piece of what she called "Malaysian chic-lit".

Chris Yin rushed over from a tennis tournament to read his story The Geology of Malaysia which was published in Silverfish New Writing 5, and which also (deservedly) made it into The Best of Silverfish New Writing.

I would like to thank La Bodega for generously sponsoring the wine for the event and Seksan for allowing us to use his beautiful space once again. And of course, the very supportive audience without whom nothing at all could have happened.

Next month "Readings" is scheduled for 23rd December and will mark the launch of Neohikayat's literary mag Elarti. More news later.

Update

Natasha's wonderfully arty efforts. (Sorry I "transformed" your name. Am just blur. And thanks for bringing the cakes.)

Readings Rock On!

Ahah! You were wondering where Readings had got to, weren't you? One month off for Hari Raya and the open house season, and you thought I'd lost the plot among the ketupat and nasi impit or absconded with all that lovely wine. Not at all. Readings rock on!

I've shifted the date a wee bit, organiser's privilege I'm afraid. Bernice always organised the meetings for the third week of the month, I'm shifting it back a week because MPH Writer's Circle is on the 3rd Saturday and I'm involved in that too (especially now that Oon Yeoh has pulled out.) I've found it stressful to rush from one to the other and I want to fully enjoy both. Hope no-one minds too much.

This then is the blogvertisement to be broadcast far and near:

"Readings" Rock On!

The next "Readings" in our monthly series will be held next Saturday, 25th November 2006, with the aim of showcasing local writers and encouraging new talent. We have a very exciting and varied line-up for you, so come and join us for an afternoon of words, wit and wine!

Reading this time:

Jit Murad (really!)
Saras M. Manickam
Christopher Yin
Eileen Lui
Nizam Zakari
Dianadrani

Time: 3.30pm
Date: 25th November 2006
Place: 67, Lorong Tempinis Satu, Lucky Garden, Bangsar (for directions and map check www.seksan.com)

"Readings" was initiated by Bernice Chauly, is currently organized by Sharon Bakar, and made possible by the gracious sponsorship of Seksan from 67 Tempinis Satu and La Bodega.

Sharon Bakar hp: 012-6848835 - sbakar@streamyx.com - http://thebookaholic.blogspot.com

Could you please pass on this information to anyone you think might like to come along?

Cold Rain and Hailstones ... Jitlessly

There's an over-anxious part of me that constantly screens grisly "what-if" scenarios in my head when I'm organising anything.

I thank goodness I set off for Bangsar so early yesterday afternoon, just as the sky was beginning to grow dark. At just after 2p.m. the rain came tipping down. A quick shower, I thought and then it will be over with, and it will be nice and cool for the readings.

But who am I to dictate to rainclouds? I sat in my car outside Seksan's waiting for a break in the storm, which never came. And then I noticed a drenched Amir Hafizi, and a neatly rain-drop splattered Dina in a dress as grey as the sky, waiting for Buddhi to slide open the door, which despite several tingalings on the artistic temple bell, he hadn't yet.

Once in, we set up. Put out glasses, opened bottles, arranged stools and benches. Then sat, our attempts at talk drowned out completely. The vista of Lucky Garden disappeared behind a solid sheet of water. The thunder was a solid growl, and suddenly there was a new dimension to the percussion of the rain on the roof. Hail!

I kid you not. Hailstones. Perfect little rounded knobs of ice.

Buddhi splashed out onto the verandah to get me one. It looks a little melted in the photo below. (By the time Dina had snapped it. By the time I had rooted out my camera.) The first time I've ever seen hailstones here, though I remember some fell in parts of the Klang Valley during the haze last year. Sky ice in the tropics!

This is an Act of God? I looked to Dina and Amir for reassurance. I mean there's no way this could be interpreted as a balls-up on the part of the organiser? (Come back Bernice, the sky would listen to you!!)

But people began to arrive. One by one. Each with a tale of survival against the odds and in different degrees of soakedness. Joy Teh and her friend Helena. Patrick. See Ming and Sim. Natasya. Our Australian poet Patricia Sykes and her friends were only a short walk away and managed to make it across. At least by now we had three writers and some audience. The readings would happen.

Aneeta and Xeus both SOSed via SMS to say that they were stuck in traffic due to flashfloods. Jit was stuck in Kenny Hills and couldn't get a taxi despite offering generous bribes via the company's telephone operators. He apologizesd profusely for never having learned to drive. I told him to stay safe and we'll ask him back next time. (He had promised to read a monologue from his play Gold Rain and Hailstones - hence my brilliantly inspired title for this post!)

We waited until the storm died down enough for us to hear the readers, half an hour after the scheduled time. (We don't have a microphone. Need one.)

Here are my photos. Deliberately and artistically out of focus and camera-shakey:


Patricia Sykes read from both collections of poetry. Her first, Wiredancing, uses the circus as a metaphor for the world. (She used to be a tightrope walker and juggle with fire - how cool is that?) The poem she read ended with such a disturbing image - kittens lapping up spilled human blood. She told us that her second collection Modewarre: Home Ground was a collection about identity and belonging, and read a poem called A Face in the Water. She also gave us an extract from her opera libretto (she's working again with composer Lisa Lim and the first performance is scheduled for 2008 in Brisbane) about the weaving together of language: she had lines in Finnish, a click language of the Kalahari ... and when the call for prayers drifted over from Bangsar mosque, she had yet another layer of language and poetry!

I do hope there's a chance to hear Patricia again before she leaves. I'm so curious to hear more.

He isn't wearing his superman costume, but this is Mr. MalayMale himself: Amir Hafizi.

I'm glad he read a piece based on blog entries about his father and village as this is what I've enjoyed most on his blog. It's an affectionate piece, but at the same time there is a strong sense of the ridiculous which is very funny.

I don't want any of this to go straight to his already swollen head (and his friends were falling about laughing mentally writing his post-reading blog entry!), but I could read much much more of this!

Joy Teh is a lot less blurred in real-life than she is in this picture! She's one of Bernice's creative writing students from Sunway and at present working on a screenplay which she read us part of. Enjoyed watching the film in my head as she read, and hope it gets made in the end. She finished with a poem. A very confident reader.

After the break, Faridah Manaf stepped in to give us a taste of her new collection of poems: The Art of Naming: A Muslim Woman's Journey, which she says she wrote as a reaction to the fallout of 9/11, and the constant questions about being a Moslem woman she faced as she travelled overseas. Since she only had a short slot, I hope that she can come back again another day, because I want to hear much more.

Our other missing readers made it just before the break, and must have had a horrendous time getting to Seksen's. Xeus (Lynette Kwan) read from her story One if by Land from her Dark City collection, a story based on information gatheed from a prison warder at Kajang Gaol. I love the way that Lynette's pleasure in her writing spills over. She's found her voice, she's found her niche, and clearly she's having a blast with her writing. I'm overjoyed to hear that she has now found a British agent for her children's stories.

Last up was Aneeta Sundaraj, one third of the writerly equation which collaborated on Snapshots! (Jessie and Saradha read last month.) Aneeta read her story brought Brought Back to Life. She seemed a little nervous - understandable - under the circumstances and without her fellow-writers there.

So glad she was finally up there though, as she has supported and cheered on others, and been so committed to her own writing. We'll get you back another day, Aneeta!

So it all happened. Thanks very much to our audience in wet clothes. Thanks too to the ones who tried to make it but couldn't because of the inclement weather. Thanks to Seksen for the lovely space. Thanks to Buddhi for helping set up and clear up. Thanks to La Bodega for the wine. And most of all, thanks to the six very special people who shared their words with us.

Bernice sends her love. She had a family energency in Ipoh. I hope she's able to make the next one ... which will be the other side of Hari Raya, so tentatively November 24th.

Went for tea afterwords with Sharanya, KG, and Singaporean journalist and good blog-friend Zafar Anjum (of Dream Ink).

Wish all my Muslim friends a blessed and peaceful Ramadan.

Update:

Read Xeus' account of the afternoon here. Ted's here. Aneeta's here. Natasya's pics on Flickr. Vovin's here. Zafar's here. Amir Hafizi gives some excellent advice on how to prepare for a reading here.

I'll add other links as I discover 'em.

Readings Ride Again!

The next "Readings" in our monthly series will be held next Saturday, 23rd September, 2006, with the aim of showcasing local writers and encouraging new talent. We have a very exciting and varied line-up for you, so come and join us for an afternoon of words, wit and wine!

Reading this time:

Jit Murad
Aneeta Sundaraj
Xeus
Patricia Sykes
Amir Hafizi
Joy Teh

Time: 3.30pm
Date: 23rd September 2006
Place: 67, Lorong Tempinis Satu, Lucky Garden, Bangsar (for directions check www.seksan.com)

"Readings" was initiated by Bernice Chauly, is currently organized by Sharon Bakar, and made possible by the gracious sponsorship of Seksan from 67 Tempinis Satu and La Bodega.

Sharon Bakar Writer/ teacher hp: 012-6848835
sbakar@streamyx.com http://thebookaholic.blogspot.com

Could you please pass on this information to anyone you think might like to come along?

Teachers Unleashed

Yesterday afternoon saw me running a workshop optimisitically entitled Unleashing Your Creativity for around 90 teachers and teacher-trainers from across the country invited by my friends and ex-collegues at ELTEC (English Language Teacher Education Centre).

I wanted the group to have a taste of the kind of activities I use on my courses, particularly as they can use the ideas in their own classrooms to build the confidence of the students. The physical conditions were less than ideal though - space constraints and a lack of tables meant that the participants had to write on their laps of take to the floor!

Fortunately, they were a most sporting bunch!

Handling so many people at the same time was also a juggling act (I like to work with intimate groups of 8-10). And in case you've wondered, teachers en masse can be every bit as naughty as the kids they teach. (Teacher-trainers being the worse of the lot. Just try controlling a roomful of them!)

But it worked out okay in the end, and I think the participants enjoyed the 'hands-on' nature of the session and came away with pieces of personal writing they can polish at home. (Was very moved when one woman came to show me her writing afterwards - she had really hit a nerve with the piece she had begun about the death of her son. Hope she completes it - the story really wanted to be written.)


I then had a chance to grind a favourite axe and talked about how schools and the education system too often serve to smoother creativity, and about how teachers can create the space and time and conditions for creativity of all kinds to occur. Hope something strikes a chord ...

It felt really good to be back and working with teachers after a long time away from it, and it was great to see so many of my friends from the Makatab Peguruan Ilmu Khas (Specialist Teacher's College) days ... as well as a couple of my former B.Ed students doing well (one of them now in ELTEC herself and training teachers).

*Sigh* As they say, old teachers never die they just lose their class.

Was exhausted after the session. (Training takes so much energy, psychic and physical!) I then had a horrendous drive to KLPAC in the pouring rain and rush-hour traffic to see Jit Murad's Gold Rain and Hailstones. But I couldn't miss it. Jit is for sure one of my favourite people in the whole wide world - I get the warm fuzzies inside every time I meet him, which is nearly always in Bangsar Shopping Complex, his second home. It was opening night and Jit's family and friends were there - so there was a very nice atmosphere. I was much too tired to be a very responsive member of the audience though, and longed only for my bed.

Need to do the play more justice than this, don't I? Shall come back to it later.

But right now I've got to get ready to go to the Pay Less Warehouse Sale! See you there??

Tikam-Tikam Texts

As I said the other day, my Merdeka substitute for flag waving was to go along and see Second Link at the Actor's Studio, Bangsar.

Without the emotional fug of the Litfest (the evening it was performed at Zouk I had reached meltdown point), this time I could relax and fully enjoy Riding the Nice Bus which formed the first half of the show. The Malaysian cast Fahmi Fadzil, Anne James, Edwin Sumon, Sukania Venugopal, and Reza Zainal Abidin moved seamlessly from story to story, making us laugh, plunging us into aching sadness. The show features pieces from Singapore's most important writers including Edwin Thumboo, Suchen Christine Lim, Alfian Sa'at, Felix Cheong, Eleanor Wong and Yong Shu Hoong.

Because I really hadn't known much about how our unlooked for Singaporean gift actually came into being, I enjoyed reading in the programme notes how the original "curators" of the show, Alvin Pang and Madeleine Lee approached director Krishen Jit for help with a "produced reading" for the festival:

"Performed literature," he admonished over lunch, "is a genre of its own and well known in other countries. You'd do well to use the correct term from now on."

Yes sir!

But I must confess that I preferred the second half performance Tikam Tikam, where Malaysian texts were performed by the five Singaporean actors. It was the variety of texts I think that made the difference - not just from literary sources, but from interviews, folk tales, and articles and documents - and even from An Introduction to the Constitution of Malaysia!

The exact order of the texts (apart from the beginning and the ending) varies from performance to performance, based on a game of chance (Tikam-Tikam) played with the audience.

The Singaporean cast, Gani Abdul Karim, Lim Yu-Beng, Jonathan Lim, Neo Swee Lim and Karen Tan were excellent in bringing the very diverse extracts to life in a really entertaining way. Little moments, little snapshots of Malaysian life and culture, were randomly thrown to the audience.

The production has made me realise how much quality local literature is out there, and how neglected it is outside the university departments. And how much of it seems not to be available in the bookshops! (My biblioheart weeps for the copy of Adibah Amin's magical collection of essays As I Was Passing, which I lent to a student years ago, and never got back.)

It was also a lesson in the kind of cooperation that's possible between the two neighbouring countries. And between the members of a multi-ethnic cast.

Rhino Extinction

A moment's tribute to a brave local publishing venture that sadly went belly-up a few years back ... apparently because of problems with distribution.

Do you remember the Black & White series produced by Rhino Press? If your memory needs jogging, you can still find copies of these mini-books at Silverfish. (Snap them up, they might become valuable ...)

Rhino Press, was founded by Bernice Chauly and Fay Khoo, and the titles of the first ten little books were:

Kamal and
Nadiah Bamadhaj Aksi Write

Bernice Chauly Going There and Coming Back

Mahani Gunnell Mother Material

Rahel Joseph Beginnings

Fay Khoo A Little Book of Love And Loss

Jit Murad 2 Things

Mira Mustapha Speak Louder! Darling

Dain Said Surabaya Johnny

Aziz Salim A Stroll Through The Other Forest

Dina Zaman night & day

I bought my books from Guardian Pharmacy in BSC (in the days when they still sold books - remember?), and read them over a coffee. after shopping. They were just the right length for a coffee break. Cost just RM6.99. And made my heart happy because they captured on the page the Malaysia I recognised. For the first time.

I particularly loved Dina Zaman's Night & Day, recognised some of the characters in it (including my egg lady!) from the streets around Central Market.

Some of these writers are still going strong (Dina, Jit, Bernice) but I wonder what happened to the rest?

Saturday is Writers Day!

Funny how you can go for weeks with very little happening, and then suddenly there's three things on the same day. This coming Saturday, that is.

The MPH Writer's Circle meets 11a.m. in the Booker room at the 1 Utama store. The topic is Publishing, but I haven't yet received any further details about who's speaking. *

After a hiatus of a few months readings are back on track this Saturday, May 20, 2006 3.30 pm at 67 Jalan Tempinis Satu. In case you didn't know:

readings' is a monthly event where established, new and emerging writers come together to read new works and works-in progress. very simply, it is a chance to get heard.

If you wish to read YOUR works in the future, contact Bernice Chauly at mulutmata@yahoo.com

This Saturday's readings feature the talents of:

Ruhayat X

Jit Murad

Dina Zaman

Zedeck Siew

Farid Ramlee

Lainie Yeoh

and

Kam Raslan

And the third thing that's happening is the launch of the Best of Silverfish New Writing and Robert Raymer's collection of stories Lovers and Strangers - Revisitedfrom 5.30pm-7.30pm at Silverfish Books, 67-1 Jalan Telawi 3, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur. Admission is free. All are welcome.

One of the saddest things about the launch of the anthology is that one of the writers whose story I featured in the collection I edited, Chee Kok Liang, has since passed away. I didn't learn exactly what happened until just now, when I read this piece by his wife. Marriages are Made in Heaven was one of the strongest stories in Collateral Damage and well deserves its place in a Best of collection. Chee had, I believe, only just begun writing fiction although he had published a management book. There was enough in that single story to show me that he was a fiction writer of great potential. My deepest sympathies to his widow.

I'm going to be busy Saturday, but hope to bump into some of you guys along the way.

Update

* The MPH Writer's Circle is moderated by Oon Yeoh and this month's special guest is Cik Nafisah Ahmad from the National Library of Malaysia. She will share about the importance of ISBN numbers for books and give you an introduction about how libraries work. Thank, Renee for filling in the gap for me!

The Dina Zaman File

Dina Zaman suggested the idea of a blog interview the other day to tie in with her reading this afternoon at Borders. Since we'd arranged to meet yesterday morning to talk over a couple of her stories, it seemed like the right opportunity.

After all, if as Raman suggests, the local newspapers aren't featuring much book news, doesn't a self-styled litblogger have a duty to scoop an exclusive?

I've enjoyed Dina's writing for some time. The first stories I came across were published in a little volume called Night & Day (Rhino Press) and I felt rush of joy as I read them. Not only did the writing slip down easily, she was the first writer I'd come across who'd manged to get down to the page a Malaysia I recognised. (Heck, She even captured characters I had seen myself on the street!)

Dina told me that she had spent hours observing people while waiting for her bus after work (she was a PR executive for Central Market or wandering Petaling Street. The stories were there and waiting for her.

Dina says that she's always felt a sense of rootlessness, of being in the outside of things. Her father was a diplomat and the family had to continually move between postings so that she always felt like the new kid in town.

Born in 1969, she spent her early years in Tokyo and grew up speaking Japanese with "just a smattering of English, so that no-one knew what to do with me". One of her strongest memories from these early years was her mum making her a pair of wings because she fancied being a butterfly. The family later moved to the former Soviet Union where she attended an Indonesian school and has vivid memories of being bullied.

Because of the disruptions to her education, Dina moved back to live with her grandparents in rural Terrenganu and fell in love with kampong life. She was also homeschooled for a while - an experiment she describes as not being too successful, before the prestigious Sekolah Tungku Kurshiah and then Convent Bukit Nanas.

She discovered that writing was her vocation whilst on a degree course in Mass Communication at Western Michigan University. Forced to find a subsidiary subject, she chose creative writing initially because it seemed an easy option, but she found she had a flair for it, and Philippa, one of the pieces she wrote while there, found its way into Skoob Pacifica Anthology Volume 2 (1994) published by Thor Kah Hoong of Skoob Books.

A spell in PR followed, but Dina began to submit pieces to the New Straits Times, and before long she was offered her own column by editors Rose Ismail and Fatimah Abu Bakar. Christened Dina's Dalca (named after a kind of lentil curry which contains a whole mixture of ingredients), she soon had a large number of followers intrigued by the frankness of the writing, delighted by the humour. She also had pieces accepted by Men's Review where she describes editors Kam Raslan and Sheryl Stoddard as supportive "but tough".

She runs through the names which were most prominent in the writing scene in the early '90's, a time when the writing scene seemed so much more exciting, ("There were so few of us in the KL writing scene in those days, so we all knew each other and were working towards a common goal") but laments that of all those promising young voices only Bernice Chauly and Jit Murad are still writing.

Dina's blog The Gongkapas Times (written she says "to let off steam") carried on from where Dalca left off, and was one of the most popular destinations in the Malaysian blogosphere. There was a collective howl of sorrow when the blog suddenly got taken down by a hacker and months of entries were completely lost. (The good news though, is that it's back.)

She did an MA in Creative Writing in Lancaster, choosing it over SOAS because of London prices and a desire to be in the countryside and "live out farm girl fantasies". And there was the Lake District close at hand of course, with its writerly associations with Beatrice Potter and William Wordsworth.

She says that she didn't really feel stretched by the course where she felt she was repeating stuff she had done for her first degree. But homesicknesses was assuaged by writing about kampong life, and she finished the draft of a collection of short stories set in rural Malaysia. One of the stories, And She Became an Angel, was shortlisted for the Ian St. James Awards. (The collection The Road to Elvis and Other Stories will be published later this year.)

Her year in Britain also gave Dina the opportunity to travel around Britain and talk to fellow Muslims, and the idea for a new column about Islam was formed.

After a spell working for Marie Claire, she became editor of Rentakini, the magazine section of the controversial online newspaper, Malaysiakini. Her I Am Muslim column was born and Dina became a powerful female voice for moderate Islam in the country.

If Dina has become something of a public figure, she is at heart is a very private person who feels uneasy when her personal space is invaded. Her writing has attracted legions of fans, including some who don't respect her boundaries. "When you're very open and write about your life, people feel they know you."

She's also had her fair share of detractors over the years, she says, including those who ask "What is this Malay girl trying to prove?" and her early fiction has been criticised for being "too sexual, too angry". There's less anger, a great deal more humour in the new collection, but the stories are still bound to stir some controversy.

And once The Road to Elvis is Published? Dina's colourful stories about the larger than life characters in her extended family can keep me enthralled for hours, and I'd love to see her write a dynastic novel about her Terengganu roots ala Allende or Marquez.

Curiosity stirred? Well then, come over and hear her read some of her writing this afternoon at Borders! The fun begins at 3 p.m.

Director's Workshop

Please go along to support this event. I heard that last week's performance of Fahmi's play (which was performed in Sekseng's kitchen!) was absolutely excellent, and I was sad that I didn't have a chance to attend because of too many other things. Hope I can make it for this.


Five Arts Centre with the support of 67 Tempinis Satu presents

Directors' Workshop 5 - CPM @ 67, Jalan Tempinis 1, Lucky Garden, Bangsar, Kuala
Lumpur.

Thursday 16th June - Saturday 18th June 2005 @ 8.45pm
Entry by minimum donation (RM10).
Maximum Capacity: 70 people, first come first served.

Three Uncertain Histories

An exploration of both Chinese opera as well as the CPM,
Three Uncertain Histories presents the not-always-reliable
memories of the emergency as told by three different
characters struggling to negotiate the dilemmas of the
conflict: a female guerilla who takes an offering to a
temple before she joins the communists in the jungle, a
failed Chinese opera actor who hears rumors of killings and
torture, and a police interrogator who engages in a
dialogue with his prisoner.

written & directed by Gabrielle Low
performed by Kiew Suet Kim

Baling (membaling)
Rundingan Baling '55. Arms traders. Pistol-pistolan Darurat. Sympathisers & deportations. Memory and forgetting dengan Chin Peng, Tunku, Harold Briggs dan lain-lain.

directed by Mark Teh
performed by Chang Yoong Chia, Fahmi Reza & Imri Nasution
devised & written by semua orang


Mentors - the late Krishen Jit & Chee Sek Thim

Producer - Wong Tay Sy

Executive Producer - Marion D' Cruz

For map and directions to 67 Tempinis Satu, please visit http://www.seksan.com/map.html. Audiences are advised to park at Bangsar Village car park or Lucky Garden (near Pizza Hut-TMC).

For more information, please call Five Arts Centre at 03-7725-4858, Wong Tay Sy (012-328-1946), Fahmi Fadzil (012-281-1150) or Mark Teh (012-207-3744).

Hmmm ... talking about Marion D'Cruz, met her at a British Council reception the other night and she is over the moon about Tash Aw's success because she used to be his teacher! So of course lah, she deserves all the credit for his novel and a share of the royalties.

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.

Bookguilt

How nice! Found a letter from MPH in my letterbox today telling me that I could collect RM33 of book vouchers - my rebate on the more than RM600 I've spent in the store in the last few months. RM600 out of the housekeeping money. (Shhhh ... don't tell my husband.) Bookguilt overwhelms me.

It's simply dreadful to have a decent bookshop this close to my house. To find my feet taking me there every time I'm bored, on the slightest pretext. ("I'm just going to 1 Utama to recycle my bottles.")

Bookgreed is my downfall. Cannot walk into a bookshop without coming out with a bagfull of books. Kinokuniya, Times, Popular, Silverfish (where Raman knows my weak spots) ... I'm a totally promiscuous bookbuyer and have all the members cards to prove it. KL's book emporiums are soon to include a franchise of Border's. (Raman informs me that book retail space in KL has grown from 20,000 square foot of retail space to 250,000 in the last five years ... are there enough readers to sustain this growth?) I haven't even mentioned Payless Books because I don't dare set foot inside the shop ... I know my weakness all too well. (I bought a dozen or so hardbacks donated by Payless to the Austrian/Swiss/German charity fair before Christmas anyway.)

And now sitting at the computer has become doubly dangerous because Amazon now has "one-click" ordering and any book you fancy is on it's way to you before you've even realised what your itchy-twitchy mouse-finger has done. (I hide the Amazon boxes in my car as a binging alchoholic hides the bottles.)

That RM600 spent at MPH is the thin end of the wedge, I'm telling you.

Then Abebooks is amazing. It's a database of second-hand bookshops around the globe. I used their services when I was trying to track down books by some of the authors coming to the Litfest last year. I got a brand-new hardback copy Ken Wiwa's In The Shadow of A Saint for just $12 Canadian from a university bookshop in British Columbia, and I managed to track down several of Paul Bailey's earlier novels (why on earth are they out of print? - another rant waiting to happen here!) for less than one pound sterling - interestingly enough, most of them seem to have been lifted at some point from libraries around Britain.

The next confession is a little more painful. I am not so much an avid reader as a squirreling bookhorder.

Might as well buy the book now while I see it, I think, because titles seems to just disappear from the shelves here when they are no longer flavour of the month. (Sadly I haven't quite developed the knack of finding my way to warehouse sales ...)

I accumulate books on my "To Be Read Shelf", where the titles are stacked two deep, with others wedged in on top of them. I tell myself I won't add to the stash until I've read at least some of them. And if I don't read them, I hope for some kind of osmosis to take place where book-knowledge transfers itself into my waiting brain while I am asleep. If only.

I shouldn't buy more books. My conscious mind can handle this fact. But then my resolve weakens when I get within sniffing distance of a bookshop and I have to have my fix.

(Jit Murad once compared reading to snuggling under his mother's armpit because both give the same sense of comfort and acceptance. Maybe this is the root cause of my bookaholism - a lack of maternal love ...)

Incidentally, the RM33 voucher goes towards the volume of Neruda's poems I actually managed to restrain myself (really!) from buying the other day.