Writers Unlimited Tour of KL

We're just a few days away from the Writer's Unlimited Tour - our mini lit-fest happening in June. Please click up to size the poster and the information about the writers taking part. Please pass on the information to your own circle.

Press Release

Writers Unlimited Tour KL/Makassar 2001
June 10,11 & 12th June

Writers Unlimited - the Hague Literature Network (www.winternachten.nl)

Since 1995, Writers Unlimited has focussed its attention on the maintenance and development of the network of writers from both The Netherlands and mainly non-Western countries. Writers Unlimited (formerly known as Winternachten) organises an annual international literature festival in The Hague in January. More than seventy writers, poets, thinkers and musical groups come together for a programme focussing on the presentation of literary work to the public, in addition to hosting cultural and social debate. Apart from its annual festival in The Hague, Writers Unlimited organises literary events abroad, in cooperation with local partner organisations. Once every two years, Writers Unlimited organises a literary festival in each of their partner countries. Amongst their current partner organisations are ITEF Festival in Istanbul, University of Western Cape in South Africa and the Literary Festival Foundation in Surinam. Writers Unlimited is coming to Malaysia, and ‘Readings@CeritAku’ is pleased to be its first local partner.

Readings was created by Malaysian poet/writer Bernice Chauly in January of 2005 as a platform for live literary events, which focusses on emerging and established writers. Sharon Bakar took over as organiser in 2006 for Readings at 67tempinis satu in Bangsar, and Bernice Chauly expanded the literary repertoire to create Readings@CeritAku at KL’s top jazz bar No Black Tie in 2007. Now in its seventh year, both Readings’ are the city’s longest lasting live literary events.

“I was fortunate to have been invited to tour as a writer/poet with Writers Unlimited last year to the Dutch Antilles, Suriname and South Africa and was privileged and honoured to have seen the work that Writers Unlimited does in countries outside the Netherlands. As a result of this collaboration, Writers Unlimited has decided to come to Kuala Lumpur to seek new shores and to work with Malaysian writers and thinkers”.

The theme of the festival is Writing the Truth – Fact of Fiction? We are fortunate to have four touring writers of various origins from the Netherlands, Turkey, Egypt and the US who will be performing in languages as diverse as Arabic, Dutch, Turkish and English. Our five Malaysian writers will perform in Bahasa Malaysia and English. Writers will discuss their own work as intersections of history, politics and autobiography. Is fiction ‘the lie’ that can help us get at ‘the truth’? Or do we rely on fact as truth to then fictionalise new versions of the truth?

This three-day event will incorporate readings, panel discussions and a visit to a local university. This small literary festival has the potential to invigorate and inspire many who write, think and enjoy discourse.

We hope to see you there!
Bernice Chauly
(festival director)
Bernice Chauly (festival director)

012 323 0929/mulutmata@gmail.com


Bernice Chauly is a writer, poet, photographer, filmmaker and actor who has worked extensively in the arts in KL for twenty years. She has worked on many award-winning projects and has also written, acted and directed for the stage and screen. Her photographs have also been exhibited locally and internationally. She has published two collections of poems, a collection of short stories and has performed in literary festivals all over the world. Her upcoming fictive memoir, Growing Up With Ghosts, chronicles a hundred years of her Punjabi and Chinese family diasporas and stories will be published later this year. She lives in KL with her two daughters.

April Readings@Seksan

Date: Saturday 30 April, 2011
Time: 3.30pm
Place: Seksan's, 67, Jalan Tempinis Satu, Lucky Garden, Bangsar

(Map)

We have both established authors promoting new books, and several newcomers stepping out for the first time. The readers for this month are :

Yusuf Martin
Lee Su Kim
David T.K. Wong
Yvonne Lee
Lilian Tan
Haslina Usman
Chee Siew Hoong

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

Marshall Cavendish is offering big discounts on books sold!!

(For enquiries contact Sharon 017-2644956, sharonbakar@yahoo.com)

Bernice Hosts More Stories at No Black Tie

After a long hiatus, I am pleased to present the following line-up of writers for our next CeritAku@readings at No Black Tie.

Details are on the attached poster.

We have some emerging and established voices, including poet/playwright Alfian Sa'at from Singapore, Shirley Lim, eminent Malaysian writer/poet based in UC Berkeley California and poet/politician Dr Nasir Hashim, Adun for Kota Damansara and leader of PSM (Parti Socialis Malaysia).

The evening promises to be an enlightening and inspiring one for lovers of the written and spoken word.

Please feel free to pass this on and we hope to see you there!

Thanks and regards
Bernice.

Live Lit on the MAP

There's a gigantic arts festival on this weekend to celebrate the opening of MAP, a  arts-and-culture space/community incorporating gallery and theatre space located in the Solaris Dutamas development. All kinds of happenings are planned including, art, performance and music. And there are plenty of literary events, among them Poetry Underground, and readings organised by Bernice Chauly to celebrate Earth Hour (8.30-9.30 pm Saturday).  Do go check out the programme for details and also the Festival's Facebook page.

When I heard about it a few days back  my reaction of course was "Oh S**t!" because my own event runs on Saturday afternoon and of course quite a few of the regulars are involved and, of course, deserve support.   I really didn't know this was on the horizon when I organised things! But one doesn't go back on promises, so yes, we're on for Saturday even if we don't have the biggest audience.

And since I can't make it to the MAP Festival on Saturday, I will hope to pop along for Sunday's events and check out this exciting space.

Our Event, the Capricorn!

So ... it turns out that our event, Readings, is a Capricorn (since it was born 8th January 2005) which makes it (according to audience member, Dave Tee, "ambitious, strong willed and never prepared to say die"!)

Forgive a short detour to nostalgia.

We began of course at Darling Muse gallery, and later in 2005 moved to Seksan's and have had a home here ever since. Bernice was the mummy of Readings, and I took over as adoptive mum when her mum became terminally ill, and then she fully handed over the event to me and started a new one, Ceritaku!, at No Black Tie.

Over the years we've given more than 160 writers space to read their work and given them a meeting place where friendships have been forged and collaborations born.

And as straits-mongrel (who also gave me permission to use his beautiful pictures) points out beautifully in his post Reading in Colours,  this event has brought together a huge diversity of folks in the kind of Muhibbah spirit that this 1 Malaysia thing is supposed to be about. Frankly, that's never been on the conscious agenda, but has definitely been one of the best things that has naturally emerged from the event.

And now we've launched a book project which hopefully will put event and writers on the map.

So a party to celebrate this was in order, and party we did.

We welcomed back some of our earliest readers and introduced some new ones.

I've been trying to get hold of The Loud girl aka Elaine Foster ever since I first heard her read at one of The British Council's Wayang Kata events.  She could also be crowned slam queen of KL, and is organising spoken word events now in collaboration with Word Forward in Singapore.  I especially loved the first piece she read, which she had written in collaboration with George Wielgus and Tsiung Han See about the coming revolution and what it would not be like!

Jo Kukathas, actor, playwright, director, and driving force behind Instant Cafe Theatre had been one of the participants in the British Council's creative writing workshops earlier this month.  I loved the pieces she brought to share with the group, and she read from one of them - she isn't prepared yet to say whether it is fiction or autobiography ("It's a something.") which tells the story of larger than life family members.  I really am looking forward to more.

Some three years back, O Thiam Chin told the sad story about how hard it was for him to self-publish his first collection of short fiction and get the copies sold.  How far he's come since then, with a very well-received second book, Never Been Better, published by MPH. (And the bookshop sent along copies for sale.)

And then it was time for cake! We actually had three cakes.  Two of them were red velvet cakes with butter-cream icing ordered from That Last Slice, and they tasted every bit as good as they looked. (Thanks, Aishah,  for driving over from Shah Alam to deliver!)

The third was an absolutely delicious chocolate cake which Saras had had a friend bake for us, and very much appreciated. 

We blew out candles and made a wish - for the next 5 - no, 50 years of Readings to be as successful.


After the break, Bernice Chauly read from the book she is finishing Growing Up with Ghosts which she describes as:

... a literary autobiography, a memoir of sorts in five voices ... about her Chinese and Punjabi family and diasporas which span hundreds of years.

It will also form part of her MA in English Literature and Creative Writing at University Malaya.  Bernice has also been chosen as one of four writers worldwide to participate in Winternachten's (International Writers' Festival of The Hague) tour of the Dutch Caribbean and Suriname in April on the theme A Sense of Belonging.

What I've heard of the new work so far (in the workshops and here in Readings) shows that Bernice is working with fascinating material, and as she says, writing of this kind has been very much neglected in Malaysia. I think it also takes a lot of courage to put your own story out there in the public arena.

Do read this interview Bernice did with The Nutgraph last year, in which she shares some of her personal history with us.

Kam Raslan is the writer who has read more frequently at Readings than any other and  we have followed his Datuk Hamid from his first tentative fumblings with a Swiss milkmaid,  appearing in his own column in Off The Edge, and finally getting a whole book - which the Malaysian public took to their hearts - dedicated to his adventures.  Now it seems that there is a sequel in the pipeline, and the extract that Kam read was as endearing and as funny as ever.  It had the Datuk in a department store attempting to choose a perfume for The Wife's birthday, when a whiff of a fragrance called Betrayal sets off a train of Proustian memory ...

I  had to put Rahmat Harun last, because he is just such an impossible act to follow.  And of course the famous  Keranamu Malaysia had to be the centrepiece of his performance ....  This guy is a force of nature!

Thanks very much to Seksan for the wonderful space (though I was a bit sad that for the first time there was no art on the walls), to all who read and all who supported, to Aishah and Saras for cakes, and to all those who helped set up and clear away.  Nothing happens without you all.

The Time I Couldn't Make Readings

As most of you know, I couldn't make it to Readings@Seksan on Saturday. I had it all set up and was looking forward to it, but then the dreaded lurgy hit on Friday with symptoms too horrific to speak of. I thought I'd have to cancel the event at the last minute, but then I sent out an SOS via Facebook and friends rallied round to save the day.

Reza came by my house to pick up the sound equipment; Pater Hassan Brown MC-ed; saras and Damyanti organised the drinks; Chet and Leon were there to set up and make sure everything went smoothly. And I'm sure other people lent a hand too. To all of you, a big thank you!

And thanks of course to Seksan for the wonderful space.

I found Leon's photos on Facebook and have put up a few below. Peter sent me this very nice note:

I hope you are better now. I'm afraid I was rather scatter-brained on Saturday and kept forgetting things I should be saying. (Dear Peter, I am always scatty and forget things I should say!) But people were there to prompt me. But it was a fun afternoon, I enjoyed it and I think everyone else did. It was a very 'equal' readings and I thought it was one of the best, although it wasn't the same without you. The Kata Mata group brought along quite a few supporters and they were quite charming, all three that read. The 'Queer' lot were very good too. Jim read a play with an Indian girl he brought along who was a good actress. Pang was very amusing, Cheryl was charismatic and serious and I got along well with Justin who read from a promising sounding novel. So good Saturday afternoon readings once again

But I would like to know more so please if you were there, add anything else you think is interesting in the comments.


Thanks to all who asked, I'm feeling a lot better now.

Why Did the Chicken Come to Readings?

How did I manage to forget the little chicken who came to Readings@Seksan on Saturday? Kenny Mah has a lovely write-up and the photos by his friend Steve Steve capture the atmosphere of the gallery so well. Appreciated this :

Sharon Bakar. The White Queen is the Queen of Hearts too. How else do you explain the lady patron of this monthly series of readings, adopted from the original Red Queen herself, Ms. Bernice Chauly? Year after year, month by month, I never figure out how Sharon manages to continue to find new writers and old to read their work and secure venues and snacks and chairs and wine and hope for the audience of would-be-writers or poets or musicians or performance artists or burnt-out lawyers or simply editors sweeter than any of their authors may deserve — readers and readers and readers all.

(Answer to how I find writers, is by BULLYING people! Haha!)

Everyone who comes comes for the words. ... The words and a sense of community that is casually shaped and fragile and tightly-knit at the same time. I return, after more than a year away, I think, and I still recognise some of the regulars. Chet. Eric C. Forbes. Amir Muhammad. Leon Wing. New faces all the time, which bodes well, but the old faithfuls? I guess this is what keeps “Readings” going. ... The words make a family here you can return to, you vagabond child you.

Thanks Kenny and I will get you reading again soon ...

Saturday's Star Studded Cast of Readers

Yesterday's Readings@Seksan went off well - the audience a bit on the small side though, mainly I think because many people are still away because of the school hols, and because there are a lot of Hari Raya parties going on. Haslina Usman couldn't make it (but will another time) and I was lucky that I managed to co-opt in a couple of last minute readers.


First up was Karina Bahrin who recently had her first story, the quirky A Woman in Five Pieces, published in Urban Odysseys. She read part of a new story The Unofficial Wife and it sounded excellent. She is currently working on a short story collection, which I think is very good news for all of us.

Sufian Abas (below) turned up with his new protogee, a young poet called Mimi Morticia (above) whose first collection Tangerin & Nicotin (the title is virtually the same in English) he has just published. The official launch is actually today at Central Market Annexxe.

I was so happy to be able to rope her in for the event. She also read a very short short story from Sufian's new collection Matanya Teleskop, Hatinya Kapal Dalam Botol Kaca (badly translated as His/Her Eye's a Telescope, His/Her Heart's a Ship in a Glass Bottle.)


Uthaya Sankar (below) is an award-winning writers of short stories. (He says he prefers the form because he has a short attention span, which seems as good a reason to me as any!). He last read at Seksan's last August and today gave us part of his story Nayagi, Mistress of Destiny in Malay and his friend, Monash lecturer Symala Dhoraisungam Samuel (pictured below after Uthaya) read the English version which appears in an anthology called Sea of Rainbows, edited by Muhammad Haji Salleh and translated by Institut Terjemahan Negara Malaysia.


Shanon Shah (below) is an award-winning singer-songwriter, a passionate human-rights advocate (particularly when it comes to issues of gender, sexuality, HIV/AIDS and Islam). He has written for both print and online publications (including The New Straits Times, Kakiseni.com, and Muslim WakeUp.com). He is also a playwright - his debut play Aircon has now had two sell-out runs.

Two of his essays have recently been published in collections : The Khutbah Diaries appears in New Malaysian Essays 2, and today he read the opening of Muslim2Muslim, his very powerful piece that appears in the anthology Body2Body, which starts with the furor surrounding Animah Wudud's appearance at an international conference in KL.

I am twisting Shanon's arm to come back and sing for us another time!

Remember me telling you some time back about the rather "Graham-Greenish" (my desciption, not his) novel Ioannis Gatsiounis was working on? I read a draft of it some time back, and am very happy to learn that in a much trimmed back form it appears as a novella called The Guest House in his new collection of stories Velvet and Cinder Blocks: I'm really looking forward to re-encountering it. Ioannis read us his story The Rat Tooth - extremely good.

Amir Muhammad, bless him, when he knew that we needed a last minute reader ran off to a nearby cyber-cafe to print off an extract from his new book on Yasmin Ahmad's films to read for us. Although of course the main focus is on the films, I like the fact that the commentary in the side bars takes off in interesting directions.


Afterwards, Chet, Leon and I went over to D'lish for a bite and to toast our birthday boy, Eric Forbes (above).

Thanks to all who came and the brave souls who read. Thanks to Seksan for the beautiful space, and to Jess and Kenny who came early to help me set up.

Keep your eyes on this space because there will be Readings again soon - just I may be away end of Oct because of the Singapore Writers' Festival so dates may have to be moved round.

Readings September 09

Sorry I'm so late with the announcement about this month's Readings@Seksan's - only just confirmed the venue (no change this month).

Date: Saturday 26th September, 2009
Time: 3.30pm
Place: Seksan's, 67, Jalan Tempinis Satu, Lucky Garden, Bangsar

(Map www.seksan.com)

The readers for this month include :

Haslina Usman
Shanon Shah
Ioannis Gatsiounis
Uthaya Sankar

Admission free and everyone very welcome. Please help me to spread the word. (For enquiries contact Sharon 017 -2644956, sharonbakar@yahoo.com)

It's going to be a pretty multi-lingual readings. Haslina Usman is the daughter of late Malaysian Laureate Usman Awang and will be accompanied by friends to read some of her father's poetry across five languages! Uthaya, noticing my blank incomprehension when he read in Malay last time, has had one of his stories translated into English and read by Shyamala Dhoraisingam Samuel from Monash University, so we can hear extracts in both languages.

Uthaya has a new collection of stories out - as does Ioannis! Shahnon's work has recently appeared in both Body2Body and New Malaysian Essays 2.

Books will be on sale and in addition to those by authors reading, I will be selling copies of some books by and about Anthony Burgess including The Malayan Trilogy and Earthly Powers at a 30% discount. (I'm making no profit at all on this but I wanted to shift a few more copies for Pansing before I return the rest of the books we had for the Burgess conference.)

If you have any Hari Raya goodies to share please feel free to bring them along.

Could I also ask if anyone would be prepared to help me by coming early to arrange chairs, drinks and help clear up. My stalwarts have all dropped by the wayside it seems and I hate running round like a headless chicken seeing to everything.

Keep your eye on this post in case I have any more news about the event to add later.

Postscript :

Karina Bahrin will also be reading.

Thanks once again to Shahril Nizam for the poster.

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

August Ceritaku@Readings

Hurray, Bernice has organised another night of readings and storytelling next Sunday (30th at 9.30) at No Black Tie with a stellar line-up. There's a RM30 cover charge.

No Black Tie is at 17, Jalan Mesui, KL.

Space and Sound Reading

Forwarded to me by Prof. Dr. Ghukam-Sarwar Yousof via Datuk Shan :

In conjunction with 3rd Group Show by Satu: Collective Visual Art Group and in collaboration with The Asian Cultural Heritage Centre Berhad and supported by Soka Gakkai Malaysia

SPACE AND SOUND:MULTI-LINGUAL POETRY READING

A Programme of Poetry from diverse Cultures and in different Languages from various parts of the world.

Date: August 15 2009 (Saturday)
Time: 10:00 am to 12:30 pm.
Location: Wisma Kebudayaan SGM, 243, Jln Bkt. Bintang,55100 Kuala Lumpur .

This programme will be facilitate and presented by Prof Dato' Dr Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof , a well-known academician, expert on culture and poet. He will present his own poems as well as the work of other foreign poets in several languages. It is expected that several other local poets will either present their own work, or have it read by representatives.

The programme is open to all persons interested to either read selections of poetry or to just listen to and appreciate the power of the Word. Due to limited time, it is expected that each reader will be given no more than five minutes on the average for perhaps two or three poems with brief explanations of the gist or translations.

Those interested in actually reading are requested to send their names to the following persons by email, if possible with copies of the poems to be read attached.

For further information do contact us:

Dr. Ghulam Tel: 012-4740786 email: gsyousof@gmail.com
Satu email: senisatu@gmail.com Facebook: Satu Gerak
SGM ( Ms. Joanne Foo & Ms. Vicky Ho Pei Ying) Tel: (603) 90756876 email: sgmpro@sgm.org.my

Where possible readers are encouraged to present their own work, or, if this is not available, some of the best in the languages they are able to handle.

Light refreshments will be served.

Amanda at Times with Diamonds

Over ten years ago, Amanda sat on a plane for Bangkok, on the way to her Times grandmother's cremation. She had not been back since childhood and she finds the city of her youth is disappearing...

Author Amanda Kovattana will be talking about her new memoir at Times Bookstore at Pavilion KL, this Friday (31st) 4-6p.m.

According to the blurb on Horizon's website Diamonds in My Pocket is a her story of growing up:

Only child of a beautiful blond English expatriate and the brilliant scion of an upper class Thai family, Amanda Kovattana came of age in the long-vanished world of aristocratic Bangkok. In this exquisitely-rendered memoir, Kovattana produces a chiaroscuro canvas full of sights and sounds and smells, of daily lives textured by honor and tradition, of a family ruptured by deceit and jealousy. Caught in a web of tensions between her mother and father, between East and West, the Old World and the New, the author finally uncovers the long-buried secrets of her own soul.

The author describes herself on her blog as :

... a free range writer who offers fresh, organically grown perspectives while cultivating a fruitful living as a professional organizer. She was born in England, raised in Bangkok and lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

For the upcoming talk, Amanda shares her thoughts about identity and the tension between the individual and society (two of the underlying themes of Diamonds in My Pocket). She will talk about the experience of growing up in a third culture—an experience many Malaysians are familiar with. And there will be a Q&A session after the talk.

Quite apart from being interested in Amanda the author, I think I desperately need to hire her personal services!

(Thanks Han for the invitation to the event via Facebook.)

Antique Ad

Chet sent me this rather interesting invitation for a very long ago literary event held by Oxford University Press in Kuala Lumpur in the mid-1960's. (She says she found it in the Vol IV, 1965/66 issue of the Journal of the Historical Society, University of Malaya). As she says the Readings @ Seksan's monthly event may have had a predecessor we didn't know about!

Anyone remember these coffee mornings?

Postscript :

Found this account on a forum thread by someone who used to work there :

My very first job in 1964/65 was with Oxford University Press at Loke Yew building in KL. For most of the time I was at their Editorial Department under WM Martin who was the Chief Editor. Raymond Brammah was the big gun who managed OUP in Malaysia and Singapore but he was based in KL. There were rows and rows of books at the OUP showroom in Loke Yew building and even more books at the warehouse in Segambut. Like you I like the feel of books, especially the new ones .... but beware of paper cuts :-) I must have read 90% of the books displayed in the showroom. Most of the books stocked by OUP KL were of course their own publications but they were agents for Faber and a couple of other publishing houses which specialised in children's books.

While there I also had the opportunity to meet famous authors like Han Suyin and Wang Gangwu who came over periodically to discuss the drafts of their ongoing manuscripts. I interviewed Han Suyin for OUP's in-house magazine and one of the things she told me was that the characters in her books were all based on people she knew or met in real life. And she added that if she found me interesting enough, I would probably appear in her next book, "A Mortal Flower" ...... or was it "The Crippled Tree". I read both books and I suppose i did not make it to her "interesting persons list" :-(

I learned a lot at OUP and enjoyed my stint there very much.

Postscript (25/7/09):

Oh dear, oh dear. Pity the poor young lady who turned up at Bangunan Loke Yew this morning for this meeting! I felt so guilty as i explained on the phone what the ad was doing on my blog ...

Social Networking, the Bookstore, and the Bloggers

I have novelist Yang-May Ooi's latest book* in my hand ... but this time it isn't fiction. With co-writer Silvia Cambié, she has written International Communications Strategy : Developments in Cross-Cultural Cummunications and Social Media and is published by Kogan Page. (Listen to the authors talking about how they came to write the book here.) And I got such a surprise when I came to the chapter called Authenticity and Trust, because one of the case studies ... was about MPH Breakfast Club and how it brought together bloggers and writers and bookstore in an extremely positive way, connecting both online and in the real world. (Here's Tang-May's blog entry about the events she took part in.) I love this description of Eric Forbes :

He is clearly regarded as a local expert of publishing, writing and high-quality literature and has become widely known through his blog. In person he is approachable and unpretentious, reflecting the style and tone of his blog ...

Quite! Also mentioned (ahem!) :

Other literary events, such as 'Readings' run by Sharon Bakar, have also been thriving both on the blogs and in other trendy venues around Kuala Lumpur. Would-be writers encourage each other and enterprising young publishers have been forming new imprints to showcase local short stories and essays. many new writers have added their works to the body of Malaysian writing and a few more have been publsihed overseas. ... The key to success has been strong personal networks ... strengthened by the social media.

It's really good when someone recognises what you are doing, as well as the way that a terrific network of encouragment and support exists in KL now. I wonder where Breakfast Club has got to, though? Now that MPH in BV2 has closed, does it still have a home? (*Thanks a lot Yang-May for the copy.)

Seksan's in June

Sorry. You must have wondered where the write-up of Saturday's Readings@Seksan had got to. Here 'tis with photos nicked from Azwan Ismail's Facebook album.


Michelle Gunaselan is a freelance journalist and her articles have appeared in Off The Edge, Tell, New Man, and KLUE (where she has a monthly column). She is also involved with Project Malaysia - an online journal of issues.

I've been pushing Meesh (as she is better known) to read for a while, and I'm so glad she let herself be bullied into it. Both her pieces were heartfelt and personal. The first piece was about the prejudice she suffered going out with a boy of another race. The second a very beautiful piece meditation on the subject of hands.


Michelle was followed by poet Alina Rastam who last read at Seksans two years ago, when her first collection Diver and Other Poems was launched. Now she was reading from her second book, All the Beloveds, launched in March.

She linked to Michelle's piece on hands beautifully with her poem My Lover's Hands, and her second poem To Poetry was dedicated to a young man called Tim who came along to Readings for the first time, and had told Alina how he was torn between the course his parents wanted him to do and his desire to pursue a writing career. She also read Persephone's Song from the second collection.

Jerome Kugan is a poet and one of my favourite singer/songwriters (listen to him here) and played five songs for us, two before the break and three at the end of the afternoon, mixing older and new material and one delicious cover On The Street Where You Live. I'm happily anticipating Jerome's forthcoming album.

Robert Raymer, over from Kucing to help judge the MPH Short Story Prize, read a couple of very amusing extracts from his latest book is Tropical Affairs: Episodes from an Expat's Life in Malaysia which is due out later this year with MPH.


Chuah Guat Eng has recently relaunched her first novel, Echoes of Silence (first published in 1994) on her own imprint. Loved the way that she gave us a taste of the novel, dipping in to give us a medley of extracts which had upset readers when the book first came out. (They included a rather nice sexy bit.)

We finished early so that those who wanted to go to the tenth anniversary party at Silverfish could pop over there ... and the rest of us ended up at La Bodega!

Many thanks to Seksan for his ongoing kindness, lending us the space. Thanks to all who came and all who read. Thanks to Shahnim for washing glasses. Thanks again to Shahril Nizam for the poster.

Hope to hold the next Readings@Seksan on July 25th when guests will include Shamini Flint who can finally read us a bit of her Inspector Singh novel, poet/editor Dipika Mukherjee, and (at long last!) Yusuf Martin.

June Readings

Admission free and everyone very welcome. Please pass on the invitation to anyone else you think might be interested. There’s also a free book giveaway.

Many thanks to Shahril Nizam for designing the poster.

CeritAku@Readings June

This month we feature a stellar lineup of Malaysian writers who will be reading and storytelling at No Black Tie, 9.30pm, Sunday 7th June :

Tash Aw
Clarissa Tan
Charlene Rajendran
Hishamuddin Rais
Zedeck Siew
and
Farish Noor

Tel: 03 2142 3737 (reservations recommended)

www.noblacktie.com.my

Cover: RM 20
Books will be sold. (20% discount for Tash's books unless you have the 25% The Star coupon.)

ceritAku@readings is hosted by Bernice Chauly.

Spread the word. See you there!

--------------------------

bernice chauly
writer/photographer/actor
www.bernicechauly.wordpress.com

hp +6 012 323 0929
fax +6 03 7493 1573
kuala lumpur, malaysia

Slam Bam Thank You Ma'am

The theme of this month's Poetry Slam is Pantun (which of course can be interpreted in any way you like). The event takes place at Lepaq Cafe No.22, Ground Floor, Jln. 28/70A, Desa Sri Hartamas, K.L..

If you are interested in taking part you should register before 7:00pm on the 25th. Early Birds can register via FaceBook or email Elaine (elainefoster78@gmail.com).

Want to brush up on your performance skills? Need an introduction into group slam techniques? Come to the Slam workshop on Sunday 19th April from 3pm to 5pm at Seksan's*. George and Elaine will put you through a two hour poetry meat grinder guaranteed to squeeze something out of you! Bring poems, original or otherwise, which you'd like to bring some life to.

The workshop is free. Space is limited so RSVP to Elaine now!

(*Seksan Gallery, 67, Jalan Tempinis 1, Bangsar.)

KL Poetry Slam Rides Again

After a hiatus, the KL Poetry Slam is being resurrected. This message from Elaine Foster came via Facebook, and she's happy to have it passed on to all of you :

Hey guys. By now I'm sure you have all heard that George, Han , Sheena and I are co-organising the KL Poetry Slam with Chris and Word Forward. The event is 99% confirmed to be held at Lepaq in Hartamas on the 25th April. I hope you guys will all consider taking part, if not in the slam it self but in the open mic section. More details will be released soon regarding the theme and feature poets.

Also, George and I are interested to hold a mini slam workshop before the slam itself, maybe the weekend before. If you are interested pls let me know asap so we can arrange space and time. I think if anything, the so-called 'slam workshop' will be a really cool opportunity to get together, practice, see what we've all been doing, polishing up our performance skills and maybe learn something new. Please let me know, oh and please spread the 'word' and 'forward' this message to anyone you think would wanna take part. Fresh blood fresh blood!!!!!!!

Kindest Regards
Elaine

You can contact Elaine Website via Facebook or at theloudgirl at yahoo dot co dot uk