Amit - The Publisher's Nightmare

I reacted against this professionalising of the author, in India and in Britain ...

Indian author Amit Chaudhari confesses to being something of a publisher's nightmare to Sophie Harrison in The Guardian. His new novel The Immortals is in nine years.

Particularly interesting in the interview is the comparison between Chaudhuri's

... slender, focused novels ...

and the

... grandeur, whimsicality and pickle factories ...

of Rushdie and his followers, which :

... represents a kind of hallucinatory cliff behind which we cannot see.

I came across Chaudhari's work when he was a guest at our first KL Literary Festival, and was stunned by the meticulous observation and the humanity of his writing which transported me into the same space as his characters.

I have owed him an apology since the festival so post it here.

There really was a balls up with the programming which I was supposed to be in charge of and thought I had sorted out okay. But the nice Mr. Raman decided during the event to shoehorn a couple more readers - folks that he had published - into each slot at the very last minute. It would have been okay ... but both these guys ran over their allotted time and ignored my notes and wild wavings. (I'm studiously avoiding names here because they are guys I really love and they deserved their moment in the sun. Only I wish I had known earlier that they were to be accomodated in the programme.)

Amit's slot (his second appearance in the festival) was scheduled for the very end of the afternoon. I had found a good moderator (or so I thought) for the session - a woman who had studied his work and was a tremendous fan, and she was going to interview him one on one. I told her before the session began the timing she had to work to.

And then the pair of them, up on stage, totally ignored it!

Amit is so interesting, I'd have loved him to speak for hours, and the woman interviewing him certainly knew her stuff and was asking the right questions ... but the ballroom at the Rennaisance was only booked till 6 and there was a wedding dinner taking place that night so the hotel staff needed to move in pretty sharpish to get the place set up so I could give him only 45 minutes. Tops.

The couple on the stage ran over ... by ten minutes ... by 15 minutes ...

I tried to catch their eye.

The hotel staff began to move into the room. I ran over to them and begged for a few more minutes. Not possible.

I started to gesticualte wildly from the back.

The hotel staff began to move tables.

Members of the audience angrily turned round to shush them.

The hotel staff became increasingly and I think deliberately noisier.

The couple on stage were now 25 minutes over time ... having a really cosy chat ...

I picked up the mic and asked the speakers, if they could just wind up the session.

The audience got all angry with me and one woman (a major sponsor) told me to sit down and shut up!

I was by now in tears. I looked around in vain for Raman to help. For anyone who would tell me the right thing to do.

Amit was relectant to end, but said he would close with a reading. He read ... not one of his beautiful descriptive pieces, but a very odd poem about ... shit! Was this a polite and controlled expression of his anger?

And then it was over, and shit was exactly what I felt like! I bawled my eyes out in the Ladies. I had not slept in a couple of days for worrying about everything and all that had to be released before I could face the world again.

But there was the next event to attend ... it was the wonderful production of Riding the Nice Bus over at Zouk, and it went so well that my spirit was completely smoothed again.

And this is why I won't ever be an organiser for a literary festival again, and take my hat off to anybody who does the job. And especially if they manage to remain calm under extremely adverse circumstances!

Castro on Writing

My books are well-received in the literature community but they are not selling that well. However, as long as I have a loyal group of readers, I’m happy. The best kind of feedback I’ve gotten was when a reader came out of a crowd and told me he identified with the book personally. I don’t care about the masses. It’s that one person I’ve reached that counts because in the end, you feel connected with somebody in this world.

Michael Cheang interviews Australian author Brian Castro in the Star today. Castro, who appeared at the KL International Literary Festival (KLILF), certainly won many fans here, among them Bernice Chauly who writes a review of the festival on Kakiseni.

She says about Castro:

As a writer inspired by his own family stories, Brian weaves fiction and non-fiction in ways that defy ethical limitations “Go for broke,” he told his audience. “If you write a story, make it as intriguing as possible. Take risks and move beyond. You have to keep the idea that if the passion is starting to disappear, then your story is all wrong. Writing has to become an exorcism of the self.”

Bernice's comments about the festival are spot on and I'm also very happy that she wrote about our poetry slam!

Setting the Rushdie Straight

Camilla Gibb dropped me a line yesterday re. the quote about Rushdie which I had picked up from Raman's website. She is clearly upset that one small comment was taken out of context and somewhat sensationalised, and would like to set the record straight:

My goodness – the passion that my comment elicited on your site! I had no idea. I’m glad to see such passion alive in Malaysia, but I do have to say that not only was my comment a cheeky aside in the context of a talk about other, and I hope, much more important things, it was hardly original. To suggest that Rushdie’s career in some way benefited from the exposure of the fatwa against him has been said many times before. I do have problems with his work, but that is another issue and quite frankly, simply one woman’s opinion.

There's no doubt about it, Rushdie does elicit strong feelings, and no doubt we'll go on debating whether we love him or hate him, and whether he is a great writer or not. But then that's the fun of it.

Thanks for writing, Camilla, and I do hope that this puts things right!

MILS and Book Boon

Oh the frustration! Nurjehan Mohamed's articles in the Learning Curve section Sunday Times today haven't been put up on line, so I can't link to them and can't do a quick cut and paste of the interesting bits. Here though are highlights.

(Note: have since found links thanks to Lydia!)

In a piece called Bringing Reading to the Masses, Jehan interviews Raman of Silverfish and Professor Lim Chee Seng about the setting up of the Malaysian International Literary Society (MILS) which co-organised the KL Literary Festival (KLILF).

Prof. Lim said the organisation wants to help Malaysians cultivate the reading habit.

He says that one of the ideas the group keeps coming back to is to collaborate with Keretapi Tanah Melayu (Malayan Railways) to provide a "travelling book box" which will be transported to small towns along the line and then opened by a volunteer with a key so that "local children who never the privilege of handling a book, will have a chance to read one."

MILS also plans to conduct a range of workshops "for teaching, storytelling and writing."

Lim talks about setting up the Malaysian Shakespeare Society (MSS) to introduce Malaysians to the bard through the sponsorship of performances and readings. Raman adds that MILS want to set up mini-libraries in the suburbs and small towns, have literary events in other towns.

A round of applause for anyone who promotes books and reading.

Jehan's other piece (The Familiar and the Unknown) is an overview of KLILF itself The feedback from participants she spoke to (including me!) is very positive.

Still am wondering why only the education section of this national newspaper bothered to cover the story. It's heart-breaking when folks have put so much effort into organising an event like this.

(All pics nicked from the NST. Top Raman and Prof. Lim. Bottom Brian Castro with KLILF participants.)

Cecil in the Pub

NST columnist Kathirasen writes an account of Cecil Rajendra's end of litfest poetry reading and party at Ronnie Q's, which I'm sad I missed.

...only a handful of Malaysians are into poetry ...

says Kathirasen. I'd like to point out that had he been a couple of miles up the road at exactly the same time he would have seen 200 people crowded into a small space to hear Benjamin Zephaniah. Poetry is alive and kicking in KL and getting very good audiences these days - in case anyone hadn't noticed!

I enjoyed Kathirasen's account of the poetry that was read that night and went looking for The Animal & Insect Act online in full and found it here. Apparently:

There was uproarious applause for this poem, an indication, indubitably, of the feelings of those present.

And this, of course, is Cecil Rajendra's great strength, reflecting the zeitgeist of the country and using poetry as a platform for social comment. He's critical because, as he says, he cares about Malaysia:

if i did not care
i would not dare
chart your many imperfections
i would sing
only your praises
picking the best
ignoring the rest

KLILF Round-up

The write-ups on the KL Litfest (KLILF) continue in StarMag. Jamie Khoo writes a very good overview piece which includes this great Raman quote:

There’s a huge gap in English and Malay writing here. If we take away K.S. Maniam ... who else do we have? Where are the writers?

Kadek Kris interviews Dina Zaman about her sessions and reactions to her book I Am Muslim. I liked Dina's message to her readers:

If you care enough about these stories, then you write them. Don’t wait for me.

Daphne Lee interviews Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah about her teen novel Does My Head Look Big in This? which focuses on an Australian-Palestinian Muslim girl who decides to wear the hijab. As the article points out, Randa feels it’s vital that writers who belong to ethnic minority groups write about their experiences as part of these communities.

Who knows us better than we do? We have stories that we can tell about experiences and feelings that no one else has as much knowledge of. There’s nothing like having lived through something to give weight to your description or narrative.

The Sunday Times, meanwhile, have their story on the festival slated for next Sunday in Learning Curve.

Four-Letter Words and Festivals

I feel churlish for grumbling about ANYTHING in regards to the recent literary festival (KLILF) after reading Mr. Raman's v. nicely written rant about the problems faced in making it happen.

Four weeks before the event we have thirty participants and zero sponsors. Only the registration fees paid up. There was no coverage in any of the media. I am wondering if we will have enough money to print fliers. Posters? Too late for that. We must push ahead. "Don't worry, it will fall in place." Right.

If we want events to happen at all, we must support them.

And talking about newspaper coverage, I noticed that the Sunday Times last week didn't have a single feature on the festival. How sad is that? (I blogged some time back about the lack of support from the newspapers for the first festival.)

Raman also picks up on a couple of the most controversial things writers said at the festival. Camilla Gibb had me gasping too when she called Salman Rushdie "a mediocre writer" (sacrilege! declare a fatwa!).

Postscript:

Thoughts about KLILF on other blogs, to give you a vicarious peep.

Lydia has lots of photos and interesting accounts of the sessions she attended with Tash Aw, Randah Abdel-Fattah and Brian Castro. (I am so sad that I could not attend the presentations she describes, particularly Brian Castro's which Mercy and Saras felt was one of the best of the festival.)

I love Dollygirl's take, particularly on the weird questioners and the loveliness of Tash. Karcy give the festival a thumbs up but laments the slice of cake that got away. Owen had to read the first few lines of Lolita in front of everyone in Tash's Session, and then got blown away by Zephaniah.

Kak Teh had a good time. Madcap Machinist gets poetic as he is wont to do. There are more great photos from Adam, and amazing, moody black and whites from Sharil Nizam.

And Tarlia got Tash Aw to pose with her little yellow ducky! Here are her accounts of Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3.

Postscript 2:

Message from Raman:

We are thinking of putting up a slideshow online with photographs taken by participants. A participant's point of view, you could say. Please send us photos of you with your favourite writers, or of your favourite funny pictures (or not), or whatever you think might be of interest to others. Please send them to ikanperak@gmail.com which allows larger attachments (but not more than 10mb). You can also drop off a CDRom with your photos here at Silverfish if you wish. We cannot use all the pictures, of course, but we would like a good spread.

Indigestion and Protocol

I was actually quite flattered to be asked along to the official opening dinner for KLILF hosted by the MP for Lembah Pantai, Dato' Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil

So flattered I guess that I ignored the warning light in my head that said "Avoid ye official protocol laden functions ... ". (I even try to give wedding dinners a skip!)

See, I had in my mind the sort of function that I'd have loved it be - an intimate cocktail party full of fascinating folks to talk to, plate of delicious tidbits in one hand, large glass of excellent Australian Riesling in the other. It wasn't like that.

I remembered a fable a someone once told me about hell.

This guy was given a conducted tour by an angel. Hell wasn't at all what he expected: there was a table laden with the most delicious food he had ever seen. But when it came to time to eat, the inhabitants of hell were all given six foot long spoons so that although they could scoop food up, they couldn't put it in their mouths. The thing you desire most sits tantalizingly within your sights, but you cannot reach it.

So it was with this evening. I could see all my friends, all these really interesting writers from around the world at neighbouring tables, but I couldn't talk to any of them because there was no let up in the noise level the whole evening. Speeches were followed by declarations of Malay poetry were followed by a woman belting out cover versions. (Dina told me she is a very famous Malay pop-star called Dayang Nurfaizah.)

The politicians who graced the occasion were the Deputy Prime Minister, YAB Dato’ Sri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak and (the beloved of bloggers) Minister for Tourism Tengku Adnan.

Prof. Lim Chee Seng gave a speech about the launching of the Malaysian International Literary Society which was behind KLILF, and applauded himself once more about being instrumental in getting literature back on the school syllabus. Najib's wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the patron for the event, gave a speech. Then her husband gave a long speech about the value of Malay literature.

Anyway, I wasn't listening too closely I'm afraid as I was concentrating on eating the green chillies with my chopsticks to try to ward off the growling pangs of hunger. But my friends said later how strange it was that the achievements of our Malaysian writers in English, those guys whose writing has won international recognition, were not mentioned at all.

Then MILS was ceremonially launched with a big explosion and a shower of coloured paper:

I went over to sit between Chris Mooney-Singh and his wife so that we could shout to each other about how we intend to do Saturday's slam.

The evening proceeded with gendang silat and then a series of readings of Malay poetry by PENA (National Writers Association of Malaysia) as the food arrived. On another day in another environment, I would have been very interested in the readings. And I did really love the excerpt from a Mak Yong performance because it is so rarely seen.

But on this occasion, the constant barrage of sound just gave me a headache.

The food was the usual Bangsar Seafood type banquet menu. Four Seasons hors d'oevres with abalone, followed shark's fin soup (immoral!!!), steamed fish, fried and steamed prawns, roast chicken, mixed vegetables, rice wrapped in lotus leaves, and dainty little tarts for desert. (But only Chinese tea to drink!)

YTL and Citigroup were the sponsors and the event must have cost a fortune.

One big mystery for me - Raman who I've always seen as the centre of this Litfest thing seems to have been totally sidelined at this dinner. I didn't hear his name mentioned in the speeches. He wasn't called upon to speak. And he was sat at a table right out on the periphery of the room looking pretty unhappy. If anyone should be thanked for the fact that all this was happening, it should be him. What are the politics of the litfest now? I haven't had my ear to the ground much.

There was one embarrassing moment towards the end of the evening when - almost as an afterthought - the international writers were invited on stage. Most had already made good their exit.

Sensible.

Postscript:

Ruby Ahmad is a lot kinder than I am and offers a survival guide to official functions in her comments.

KLILF - Some Thoughts

So some thoughts about this litfest - known gulpily as KLILF.

Any event that brings together a bunch of excellent writers to inspire us is mighty welcome. I really do thank all the organizers for their hard work. I know from the inside just how draining getting a festival together can be.

Some comments though which might be helpful for next time.

The timing wasn't great. Many of my friends were heartsick that they had to miss the events because they were working. There were no evening events except on the last night. Surely a festival like this should be as accessible to as many people as possible?

Events over the weekend would work best. The last Singapore Writers' Festival I seem to remember, took place over a couple of weekends with a few events on weekday evenings.

I liked that the venues were easily accessible. Parking wasn't a problem. Everything was in easy walking distance. There were plenty of good places to eat.

I liked Alexis best as a venue: it was comfortable and intimate.

Marmalade was a very nice space but distractingly noisy as only one section of the restaurant was closed off. Writers had to compete with the noise of the coffee grinder and the ice pick and the chat of other diners.

Cafe 1920 was a very public space as it is just next to the ramp which connects the two parts of Bangsar Village. New Zealand poet Elizabeth Smithers decided that her words would be lost here and asked for a change of venue. Performance poet Chris Mooney-Singh was unhappy with the acoustics.

Which all brings me to another point - folks who hadn't registered and paid could (and did) wander into events unchecked. There was one very loud and distracting German lady who was talking loudly during one of Benjamin Zephaniah's sessions when she shouldn't have been anywhere near it!

I was surprised that other very accessible venues in Bangsar weren't used though - Actor's Studio would have been an obvious choice. La Bodega are very keen to sponsor the arts and I'm sure would have lent a space. Seksan might have been happy to lend his inspiring space for an event or two, his place just a short walk away. And MPH - why was Bangsar's biggest bookstore sidelined when they have a very nice meeting area in their Bangsar Village store?

It wasn't possible to see many writers in a day. There were just 3 sessions, of one and a half hours, a day with long gaps between them, most of them featuring just a single writer. I liked the way the Ubud Readers and Writers festival worked, where the sessions ran in just two venues from 9-5 without a single break, and most featured at least a couple of writers. And of course there was a good programme of evening events at Ubud too.

To their credit the organisers had made sure most writers appeared twice so that readers weren't too torn as to who to go and see.

KLILF felt oddly without centre. There was no opening event or closure (except for Cecil Rajendran's party at Ronnie Q's which I couldn't make it to.) I had wanted to meet up with people and socialise, but everyone was so spread out that I didn't seem to bump into many folks.

There was zero buzz about the events outside the venues. Surely at the very least there should have been lots of banners around? Surely a festival should feel ... well, festive? I'm sure the vast majority of people who came to Bangsar village to shop during the festival had no idea that this event was on.

Our first KL Litfest by comparison was over ambitious and messy, spread out over too many venues and the organisers were right to scale it back to something more intimate and manageable. Overall, KLILF broadly succeeded in what it set out to do, but felt ... minimalist and half-hearted.

So ... what did you think?

Some Litfest Photos

Two poetic lovelies: Sharanya Manivannan with Indonesian poet Lakshmi Pamuntjak (right). I took this the first day of the festival when a whole gang of us descended on Delicious for lunch.

Courting controversy. I introduced one of Dina Zaman's sessions, and she read about from I Am Muslim about "born-again virgins".
Eva Kriseova sponsored by the Embassy of the Czech republic, reading outside Starbucks in Bangsar Village 2. She's a writer with a fascinating story to tell. She worked as a reporter during the Prague Spring in 1986. After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia her writings were banned. She lost her job and went underground. Later, she worked as an advisor to President Vaclav Havel.

Benjamin Zephaniah strutting his stuff at Marmalade. I sneaked a preview of his poetry at this session but enjoyed much more his great performance at Central Market last night. Plan to write more about that later.

Even though I had interviewed Canadian author Camilla Gibb a couple of days before, I was fascinated to hear even more about her writing.

I didn't manage to get to Tash Aw's workshops but met up with him at MPH Bangsar Village for his "meet the public session". Such a very nice guy. He told me that he was working hard on the second novel and trying hard to not to be distracted.

I introduced New Zealand poet/novelist Elizabeth Smither's session at Alexis. I enjoyed her well observed poems - small true moments. Was also stunned by just how prolific a writer this lady is - she has 14 volumes of poetry (soon to be 15), 4 novels, 3 (or was it four?) collections of short fiction, and other published works. All this produced around her full-time librarian's job! She says she writes 250 words of a novel everyday, and keeps a notebook on her to jot down ideas for poetry that occur to her throughout the day.

Dream Interlude

So this was the dream I had Saturday night.

I was supposed to be interviewing author Camilla Gibb and a friend asked me if she could tag along. We got to the hotel, and I excused myself to go to the loo. And when I got back to the coffee shop, there was Camilla being interviewed by my friend instead of me ... and I was incensed!

When I finally sat down at the table to begin the interview, I realized that I didn't have a single pen in the big bag I carry around, my little cassette recorder had no batteries, a tape in it that was all tangled up, and a nest of ants living inside it. And when I thought things couldn't get any worse, I found I couldn't remember the titles of any of her books, couldn't find my notes and heard myself asking the most inane of questions.

I woke up in a huff at five a.m. If that was the way my dreams wanted to play it, I wouldn't give them room. You have to show them who's boss. Change the channel.

As it happened the interview on Monday went fine (apart from a mix-up about the time which meant it got rescheduled for later the same day). The piece should be in Sunday's StarMag. If you see me posting erratically on this blog over the next day or two it's because 1) the Litfest is on and I'm chasing stories and talking my heart out about books and writing, and 2) because I really need time to work on the article and my best writing time is also my best blogging time i.e. the crack of dawn.

Hope to see some of you around this week.

(My picture of Camilla taken at the interview while the pixman from the Star was going his stuff).

Byck Ride

Joan Lau interviews It's a Long Way to the Floor author, the eternally ebullient yoga-convert David Byck in the New Straits Times.

Thought it gave me a nice excuse to nick this very nice picture of David and wife Alina with Ashtanga Yoga founder Sri K. Pattabhi Jois.

Joan makes this very interesting observation:

Many of the literary glitterati in the country will be focusing on the Kuala Lumpur International Literary Festival which takes place later this month. ... David Byck will not be a part of that ...

Not sure if I qualify as a glitterati but it is sad how many local authors have been bypassed as presumably not 'literary' enough or not 'in' with the organisers.

Bangsar ... and/or Bali?

Raman now has a tentative timetable up for his KL Litfest International Literary Festival. The venues for events are mostly clustered in Bangsar Village 1 & 2, and include Starbucks, Marmalade, the main concourse for Wong Phui Nam's play reading, Caffe 1920 (1st floor, just by the walkway to BV2).

Other events are up the road: in Silverfish itself (mostly workshops), upstairs at Alexis Bistro, and Ronnie Q (for Cecil Rajendran's evening of poetry and music).

Everything is conveniently close. There a plenty of places to eat, drink and gossip with the writing crowd ... and you can easily pop into Village Grocer for your shopping between readings!

The early bird discount for the festival has been extended to March 15th.

If your appetite for litfests is whetted, why not venture a little further afield and enjoy a holiday in a beautiful location at the same time? The Ubud Readers and Writers Festival runs from 25th-30th September and this year features Kiran Desai, Su Tong, XinRan, Peter Goldsworthy, Shashi Tharoor, Hitomi Kanehara, Catherine Lim, and Tim Flannery.

I believe Kam Raslan, Farish Noor and Tan Twan Eng will be representing Malaysia ... although curiously, none are on the programme for KLILF.

The festival has been listed as one of the six best literary festivals in the world by Harpers Bazaar in the UK (Feb edition). This doesn't surprise me.

Apparently there are some very good deals on Air Asia flights at the moment, with fares from here as low as RM30 (one way!) at the moment. Organiser Finley Smith wrote to tell me that six members of one KL based reading group have already booked.

So ... Bangsar or Bali ... or both???

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.

Litfest Invite

Your are invited to the media launch of the KL International Literary Festival at Bangsar Village on Thursday morning. (Clickez-vous to enlarge.) Please pass the message on.

Oh ... and see some of you there!!

The Satisfaction of Finishing a Book

KayKay forwarded a really nice piece from John Connolly's blog about the satisfaction of finishing a book. His thoughts after finishing and enjoying Wilbur Smith's River God:

I ... felt a degree of satisfaction as I closed the book and put it to one side. There, I thought: another book read, and a lengthy one at that. For a moment, I was one step closer to reading every book in my house, albeit a step forwards that would soon be nullified. River God will probably go to my local Oxfam shop, and there is now a space where it once sat on my bookshelves, a space that can be occupied by a new book as soon as I find the time to amble into one of my native city's many bookstores.

Alas, it is a satisfaction I'm very far from feeling this week. I've never been so part way through so many books.

Believe it or not I'm still reading my first book from the TBR Challenge Martin Amis' Money, but I'm well past half way which is not bad.

I bought the book because I thought I oughta. Had heard stories of Amis being obnoxious and his protagonist is obsessed with ... yes, filthy lucre, and you can't get more crass than that.

Didn't expect to be laughing myself stupid so often, delighting in the bad-boy voice (Amir Hafizi has to read this! making a mental note to pass him my scrunched up pizza-decorated copy when I buy a shiny new one), the dialogue, and the craft of every sentence.

The book is set during the Summer of the Charles and Di wedding and the riots which swept the country. The novel captures the early 80's and Thatcher's Britain so well.

It isn't my first Amis, because I read Time's Arrow years back. That's a bit of clever writing, a whole novel told in reverse chronological order from the protagonist's death to his birth. (Try imagining eating backwards for e.g. ... but that's not the worst). Just like a movie being rewound.

I've got to read The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy because Kaykay said so.

Okay then, it's our book club choice and the meeting is next week. Crime fiction so isn't my thing. And this is very much a sweat soaked testosterone drenched bloke book. But it is very well written and I'm not a quitter. So.

I'm also trying to read Yang-May Ooi's Mind Game before Saturday and the Breakfast for Litbloggers thing at MPH and then the readings at Seksan's.

Thrillers aren't my thing either. When I was in Nigeria I overdosed on them because they were the only books available, thanks to my neighbour.

Anyway, am finding Yang-May's novel (which I managed to borrow from my friend Soo Choon) an intriguing read. I appreciate the contemporary Malaysian setting, and find the Asian Values Alliance, bent on world domination, most sinister. And I like that its an unashamedly lesbian love-story!

Have started reading Camilla Gibbs Sweetness in the Belly as I will be interviewing the author when she comes for the KL Literary Festival at the end of March so this is homework, but nice homework as I am enjoying its African setting.

So a lot of books hanging halfway ...

Oh yes, I did finish one book, Richard Posners Little Book of Plagiarism. A legal mind tackles who did and who did not plagiarise in literary history. (Shakespeare gets off the hook you'll be pleased to know!) and just what constitutes plagiarism in the legal context. It's an extremely readable guide, fascinating for litbuffs and invaluable for academics.

One little quote I'll leave you with:

The reader has to care about being deceived about authorial identity in order for deceit to cross the line to fraud and thus constitute plagiarism.

That's right. The ball is in the reader's court.

And talking of readers, what have you finished, and what have you not?

KL Litfest 2007

Raman has announced the Kuala Lumpur International Literature Festival which is to take place 28th, 29th and 30th of March 2007. The theme for the event is 'The nation at 50.'

Am happy to see that the whole event has been scaled down compared to the 2004 event which was way too ambitious (though we largely pulled it off) and has dropped the literary conference part which really didn't work last time. The events will be held in and around Bangsar Baru, and are all within walking distance. This also strikes me as a very good idea and there are plenty of places to stop and eat and socialise in between venues.

Events are still being worked out but will include, book launches, discussions, meetings with writers, exhibitions and workshops - for adults and children.

Some names have been announced, local (Dina Zaman, Cecil Rajendra, Salleh ben Joned, Tash Aw, Wong Phui Nam among them) and international (including performance poet Benjamin Zephaniah from the UK).

The whole thing will cost RM100 for the three days (RM50 for writers/ teachers/ students).

The only fault I can find with the whole thing is five events running simulataneously may mean 1) making tough choices (though some events will repeat) 2) some events being under attended.

More news as it comes in! Meanwhile mark the dates in your diaries. (And that's an order!)

Texts Across the Causeway

Anyone interested in the literature of Malaysia and Singapore shouldn't miss the forthcoming performance of Second Link by Wild Rice at Actor's Studio, Bangsar.

Let's go back in time a couple of years.

I was helping Mr. Raman to organise the KL Litfest. My job was to coordinate the whole kaboodle, which meant keeping in contact with all the writers and deciding on how to fit everyone into the programme and keep them happy. (Not at all easy!)*

I was in contact with the Singapore contingent through poet Alvin Pang. I slotted the Singaporean poets into the programme and was extremely pleased when Alvin told me that Singapore Arts Council wanted to sponsor an evening event of readings. We put our heads together about the venue and decided we could use the Renaissance ballroom.

Then, just three weeks or so before the Litfest, when the planning was thankfully over (after much sweat and buckets of tears) and the programme had gone to print, Alvin announced that there had been a slight change of plan.

The Singaporean contribution would not simply be readings, but a full blown theatre production directed by none other than the great Krishen Jit. Could we find a theatre for it? I went into full-blown panic mode, phoning round every venue I could think of. All fully booked. Fortunately, the folks at the Singapore High Commission were able to think outside the box and came up with a brilliant alternative: the coolest venue in town, nightclub Zouk.

Now shame on me for doubting that Krishen and his team could come up with the goods in such a short time frame!

The production called Riding the Nice Bus was easily one of the highlights of the entire festival. It was a unique cross-causeway collaboration between the two countries which share so much history, yet seem artistically divided by the causeway. The texts (lifted from plays, fiction and poetry) paid homage to the history of Singaporean writing and were brilliantly chosen by curator Eleanor Wong - the kind of stuff that slaps you right between the eyes. A Malaysian cast performed the whole thing seamlessly. The venue was perfect. (Featured writers and performers listed here.)

Afterwards, I had tears in my eyes as I thanked Krishen (seated at the bar, looking pretty enigmatic) for all his hard work. I could have hugged him, actually, for giving us such an amazing and unlooked for gift for our festival. It was the first and only time I got a chance to talk to this great man, although I had seen him at performances of his plays previously. He passed away suddenly in April 2005.

I wish I had gone down to the Singapore Arts Festival last year (still kicking myself!) because among other things I would like to have seen Riding the Nice Bus performed again - but this time alongside Tikam-tikam: Malaysian Roulette, directed by Singaporean Ivan Heng, featuring Malaysian writings, and performed by a Singaporean cast. (Jerome Kugan gives and excellent account of both festival and performance here.)

The upcoming performance at Actor's Studio merges both productions and brings together more than 50 celebrated texts and ten actors, from both sides of the causeway.

It opens 30th August and runs till 3rd September with tickets at just RM49 on the first two nights. I bought my ticket for 31st because I can't think of a better way to celebrate Merdeka Day!**

* This is what organising the programme for the festival felt like. So many egos to accomodate! The stories I could tell but won't, unless in my autobigraphy published posthumously!
**Though as a citizen of your former colonising power should I be celebrating??

Taking Snapshots

My friends Aneeta Sundararaj, Saradha Narayanan and A. Jessie Michael have just published a collection of short fiction together: Snapshots by is published by Oak, and available to buy here.

Biggest congrats for having the guts, gumption and gusto to get your project off the ground! I've not read it yet, but Lotus Reads gives a glowing account of it here.

It's gratifying to see that the creative writing workshop which was held at the KL Litfest a couple of years ago was the starting point for the collaboration. Craig Cormick and Satendra Nandan from the University of Canberra's Creative Writing programme ran afternoon sessions for keen writers and wannabe's at the Australian High Commission*. Craig encouraged the writers and edited the final selection.

Good luck now with getting the books sold!!

(*Okay, a touch of jealousy here ... I organised the workshops but couldn't attend because everything else was going on at the same time! Sob!)

Mambo with Foot In Mouth

(Glimpses from behind the lines organising the first KL Litfest, taken from my notebook. This was written July 1 2004)

July has come upon me too fast. I had anticipated a 31st June ...

Went to hotel in city centre today with Usha and Lorna to check over the rooms and facilities for Litfest. There was a seminar (on reading) on at the hotel and met an old teaching friend of mine I hadn't seen for years. Kurnia had been doing her PhD in the US ... but had returned to Malaysia for cancer treatment. She's had operations for tumours in her throat, breast and elsewhere ... but at the moment is in remission and determined to come through it.

Went over to bookshop p.m. with heavy heart. Raman all smiles as if last Friday had never happened, and I managed to get him to sit down and talk about the programme. He's come up with his own version of the thing, though fortunately hasn't changed too much about. All that anger and pain over what has ended up being one or two small changes in the end! The programme is not as I would have wanted it to be, but as a compromise solution it will work okay and save his face, and him turning round at some future point of time and saying I told you so when things go wrong.

Lorna gave him the full blast of her fury for having delayed the programme. I was proud of her.

A very nice Indian woman came in to the shop to volunter her services for the Litfest, a friend of Yolanda's. When we asked what she does for a living she said in a very larconic voice, I'm a professional dilentante. Other people think I should have ambition and do things, she added, so here I am.

The guys from the US Embassy came by for a business chat with Lorna. They are apparently thinking of having a party for Oscar Hijuelos when he comes, with lots of latin music and dancing. I said, I must come. And they said, of course ... and we are also going to invite our friends from the other embassies, particularly those from Latin America. I said, you can invite the Cubans ... oops ... and bit my tongue. Not the C word, they said and laughed.

(Originally written 8/7/04)

Litfest preparations move on. Raman is not saying a lot to me, and maintaining a polite distance. He also doesn't seem to be delegating much to me, which I won't complain about. Today I'm worrying about my Japanese writer, who at the last moment says he wants to run a three-hour haiku workshop which will involve some kind of walkabout to look at nature and scribble stuff on paper. Great, except now I have to find a venue - which involves moving other sessions around. Am also discovering how easily offended some of our local writers are - difficult personalities that will need to be handled carefully.