Double Preeta

I picked up two magazines today which both contain articles I've written on Preeta Samarasan. And both also have a plenty more great book related stuff to read.

Preeta is cover girl of MPH's Quill magazine (free to cardholders, RM8 to others, at branches of MPH) with a gorgeous portrait photo taken by top New York-based photographer Miriam Berkley who talks about her work and about what makes a great author photo inside.

The piece on Preeta here is an e-mail interview in which I ask her about the starting point of her novel, how far the family in the novel is based on her own (perish the thought!), how doing an MFA helped her and whether writing from outside the country gives her more freedom to write honestly. Do go pick up a copy to find out the answers! Preeta herself writes a very interesting piece - No More Dirty Laundry : In Defence of Fiction.

In other pieces I enjoyed, Chet writes about her "torrid affair with digital books" (!) ; Lydia gives poor, mistreated books a voice; Amir Muhammad (who seems to have the scary ability of getting everywhere these days!) reviews Adibah Amin's Glimpses; Daphne Lee writes about one of my favourite Scottish folk heroes Tam Lin; Yang May Ooi talks about her encounters with British food and Saradha Narayanan talks about hanging up her stethoscope to become an author.

The other magazine is Off the Edge and my piece about Preeta here is a review of Evening is the Whole Day. I am so happy that Jason Tan gave me the space I needed.

There are the usual thought-provoking articles about politics and the arts, and the more literary things include another episode in the life of Kam's Datuk, and the second extract from Kee Thuan Chye's The Swordfish and Then the Concubine, as well as reviews of two recent publications from The Edge Publications, Shape of a Pocket by Jacqueline Anne Surin, and Tipping Points : Viewpoints on the Reasons for and Impact of the March 8 Election Earthquake. Benjamin McKay reviews Shanon Shah's play Air Con.

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah is the cover boy here, and the subject of a very lengthy interview with Jason. I wonder if he will still be able to mount a challenge for the presidency of UMNO and really hope so.

* (The piece is not online at the moment - but may be later.)

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.

Kam Does Radio

Author Kam Raslan is interviewed on BFM89.9 and shares some of his favourite music with us.  Totally agree with him on the choice of Joni Mitchell track - one of my favourites too.

Singapore's Fiction Famine

One of the great conundrums of local writing - how come Singapore produces so many excellent poets but comparatively few writers of fiction? And why does that situation seem to be reversed in Malaysia? Of course it is something of an oversimplification, but on Eric Forbes' blog, poet Ng Yi-Sheng suggests some reasons :

... the easy answer is that poems take less time to write. Singapore’s a busy country. Most of us have day jobs; those of us still in school often have night tuition. It’s hard to carve out a chunk of time to write the Great Singapore Novel, or even a full-length play. It’s much easier to scribble out a poem on the bus in between stations, or while waiting for our systems to defrag.

Another answer is that communities of poets have developed. The seminal moment for this was the Singapore Literature Prize in 1995, which allowed unpublished poetry manuscripts. The official victor was Roger Jenkins’s From the Belly of the Carp, which has faded into literary obscurity, but the runners-up were a band of 20- and 30-somethings, eager and determined to develop Singapore literature anew.

The Class of ’95, as they call themselves, were Alvin Pang, Aaron Lee, Boey Kim Cheng, Yong Shu Hoong and Heng Siok Tian. They organised readings, lobbied bookshops to stock their works, travelled overseas for literary festivals and put together grand, ambitious anthologies (e.g. No Other City, a collection of urban poetry where names of poets were relegated to the index, so that laureates and neophytes rubbed shoulders to form a polyphonic national epic).

I was lucky enough to be present in those early years: an awkward, closeted schoolboy, chanting my free verse at Chijmes, the old National Library, Borders and the old MPH bookshop. What was really great was that these guys were approachable and inclusive, paying for our dinners at mid-priced Indonesian restaurants while they discussed politics and culture, bringing us along on overnight train rides as part of poetry delegations to Kuala Lumpur. Without their encouragement, I might never have dared to print my verse.

And today, it’s the same story. The Class of ’95 and the poets who followed them continue to be the crusaders of homegrown lit. There’s Cyril Wong and Toh Hsien Min, who run online literary journals Softblow and Quarterly Literary Review of Singapore respectively. There’s Chris Mooney-Singh, who hosts poetry slams and coaches students in performance poetry. There’s Enoch Ng, a Chinese-language poet, who cranks out award-winning volumes of verse in Mandarin and English from his one-man publishing house, Firstfruits.

Poetry in Singapore is alive and well, not just because of our preference for bite-sized creations, but because poets are working hard to make themselves heard. Thus, we’ve got communities, not only of writers, but also of readers, willing to support us as well as the newer poets who emerge year after year.

He makes the point though that the media in Singapore largely ignore the poets (but were very keen to pick up on short story writers Wena Poon and O Thiam Chin after the Singapore Literary Festival).

But, he says, he can't think of :

... a single other Singaporean fiction writer who’s emerged and published in the 2000s ... it's a fiction famine ...

He reckons though that there is hope for the future :

The literary agency Jacaranda Press is actively seeking out Singapore fiction for a global market. There’s a new grant from the National Arts Council called the Arts Creation Fund, supplying enough cash for people to actually to take a long-term break from their jobs and churn out a humongous tome. November has even been declared a NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month, an exercise wherein participants are committed to churning out 50,000 words of fiction in 30 days. ... Not surprisingly, the Class of ’95 has also leapt to the rescue. Poet Alvin Pang has teamed up with The British Council in Singapore to set up a week-long writers’ retreat on the island of Pulau Ubin, with novelist coaches from the UK’s Arvon Foundation to goad us into writing fiction. I attended the retreat myself in October 2009, one of 12 participants gathering in pondoks with laptops and notepaper, five of whom were fellow poets. I’ve borne witness to the workshops, and I can assure that there’s some great prose bundled up in some of us, waiting for a moment to break free.

(This piece will be appearing in the next edition of MPH's Quill magazine.)

Shahriza Hussein Passes Away

I just received the sad news from his daughter, Narissa, that Legacy author Shahriza Hussein passed away on the 23rd January following a fall. He was admitted into ICU under sedation and then passed away two days later. Narissa says that the ultimate cause of his death was attributed to heart failure, and he passed away peacefully.

Shahriza had been unwell for some time, and those of you who came to Readings@Seksan in June 2008 will remember how frail he was then and how his friend, Yew Lie, read for him.  (Mind you, he was chain smoking in the background.)

My love and condolence goes to his family. I had not known him or his wife Sermsuk long, but they became immediate friends when I went to the house to collect a copy of his novel. I liked his slight curmudgeonliness (which reminded me of my own grouchy, but funny, other half), his keen intelligence, and the mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

Legacy remains HIS legacy, and it is a local novel well worth reading.

The plot is set in motion by the killing of Birch, and his pocket watch falling into the hands of Mastura, a member of the Perak royal family, who vows to return it to the rightful owners. It follows Mastura and her descendants through 80 tumultuous years of Malaysian history, culminating in Independence. 

One of the great pleasures of the book is the way it brings alive real historical characters and pivotal scenes from Malaysia's past - here's Birch marooned on a sandbank in the Perak River,  here's Swettenham at Carcosa, here's a meeting about the drainage problems of Kampong Baru.  The novel is meticulously researched and he quite effortlessly opens a door and lets you slip back in time. I learned such a lot and am deeply grateful. 

But it is no stuffy historical tome, and there is plenty of dramatic incident to keep the plot rolling nicely. There's also a very pleasing old school correctness about the prose - the author cared deeply about his craft and for the English language.  (Incidentally,  was also an educationalist and wrote the 322 Communicative English language syllabus that was used in all secondary schools.)

If there is a problem with the book it is that the plot is rather tugged along, because of the authors desire to cover all significant historical events. My own feeling is that it really should have been published as two books and more time and space given to fleshing out the characters. "Pare back, and deepen" is what I would have said to Shahriza if I'd been sitting on the other side of the editor's desk. Sometimes too the book doesn't wear its historical didacticism very well - there are substantial chunks of background at the beginnings of each chapter which are a bit indigestible.

But I do think that this is one of the most important locally written books of the past few years, and I hope that in the long term it wins the recognition that it deserves.

You can find an extract here and Amir Muhammad wrote an excellent review of the novel.

I still have some copies of the book to sell, the money goes to Sermsuk, and I will bring them to readings on 30th January.

Jasmine's Struggle

A young lady called Jasmine Yow wrote to me the other day to tell me about her new book Behind That Shiny Resume, which tells of her struggle with depressive illness, and I invited her to write a post for this blog. I know that you are all going to want to wish her well when you read this :

Behind the writing process of That Shiny Resume

When Sharon kindly offered me a space on her blog to share about my recently published book, Behind That Shiny Resume, I realized that I didn’t really know what I wanted to write about. I hate doing the “I was a top student” background introduction, I feel uncomfortable “promoting” myself as someone who has survived cyclothymic depression, and yet I wanted to let you know that this book was written from my heart, to comfort and encourage students with similar struggles in school.

From the Facebook notes and interviews that I’ve written and done, I gathered that what people would appreciate most would be a 20 year old’s thoughts on how she pieced together a book on a deeply personal and painful experience during two difficult years of her life.

There were many things I considered while writing the book, an effort I undertook in secret for a long time before I dared to tell anyone:

Firstly, my parents (whom I used to blame for causing me so much stress). Now I really, really believe in honouring them—but I also believe in being real! So I constantly had to ask myself: do the readers need to know this? If not, it's out. I had my aunt and both my parents read it to ensure I painted a fair picture of things...although there were suggestions I didn't heed. Haha.

Secondly, my, erm, condition. Bipolar. I just wanted to write enough for people to get a glimpse. I didn't want it to be in the spotlight, and I didn’t understand it all that well either. My observation is that parents in their sometimes overbearing love, panic and conclude that there's something wrong with their child so easily. I did not want my book to contribute to that! But many people also needed to know that it's OK to have depression or mental illness, and it's perfectly OK to seek professional help. If your child is like that, the worst thing you could ever do is to be ashamed.

Thirdly, trying to fit everything into a book my publisher said "can be read in one sitting". How do you choose from all your memories that seem equally important? In the end, I realized it's an art that needs so much thought, time and practice to develop.

Fourthly, my life! I can imagine how utterly foolish I would look if one day in the near future, I collapse into burnout again: if I lose control, lose heart, lose purpose. What would my readers say! At that moment (which I am determined not to see), it would take me double, triple the courage to stand up again. But writing the book at this stage sends an important message--I don't know if people get it: it means that it's perfectly OK not to know everything, it's OK to be uncertain and a little lost because we're all on our journeys of discovery. I don't have to "make it" or have a success story before I can be secure: I can find that in God’s love. : )

Lastly, I had to consider how many real names I wanted to expose. What a headache! Which alma mater should I include? Which school, which individuals would not want me to print their names? One of my roommates gladly said yes, another preferred a pseudonym. I changed every single name to a fake, and then reverted a few to their real ones. The process went on till I decided every real name I put down was justifiable.

The book has now gone into its third printing and is available in major bookstores in Malaysia and Singapore. I have learnt so much from the publishing process, and every time a reader writes back to thank me for writing the book, I tell myself that yes, I made a good decision venturing out into the unknown world of publishing. Yes, it was worth the effort. I hope you will smile, cry, gain insight, encourage yourself, and be blessed because of my story.

New Stuff from Asiatic

The new issue of Asiatic published by the IIUM English Department is out and includes articles about local literature, book reviews, new poetry fiction and even a short play by Kee Thuan Chye!

Don't forget, this is a good place to send your own work too!

Encouraging Writing in English on Both Sides of the Causeway

English matters. As a medium of communication, we reach the world with it and the world reaches us. That’s a fact we can’t ignore. Hence, Malaysians writing in English is a bridge for us to connect with the global audience. ... And, since English is a widely spoken language in the country, it’s a medium for us to connect with each other as well. ... Malaysian literature in English is unique to us. We wrestle with demons uniquely our own and our works reflect that. But are we seeing enough Malaysians write in English?

asks Rizal Solomon in today's New Straits Times. He says that he was stung into feeling guilty by Wong Phui Nam's words at the Singapore Writers' Festival KL press launch : wasn't he himself guilty of not really paying attention to local writing talent? He took the opportunity to talk to writers from both sides of the causeway at the festival.

Veteran novelist K.S. Maniam says (and I personally really applaud this) :

I think they have to break down this wall between writing in the national language and writing in English, Tamil and Chinese. We have to say all writing is Malaysian.

Maniam mentions some of the factors which will really help and encourage local writers - much more translation, workshops, competitions and awards.

Singaporean Wena Poon tackles an attitude problem:

Many Singaporeans complain there is no point producing art because there is no audience in Singapore; people won’t buy tickets or books. They assume the readers’ lack of sophistication and everybody gets depressed. That’s a non-constructive view ... Even in America, the typical layman doesn’t give a damn about the arts, poetry, theatre or novels; so don’t expect a heartlander to shell out for a book. You play to a certain audience, in every society. If you, as an artist, care about ticket or book sales, then it’s your job to figure out what readers want ...

Writer/artist Sonny Liew (whom I am ashamed to say has slipped beneath my own radar despite being nominated for the prestigious Eisner Award, while the recent French translation of his graphic novel Malinky Robot won the 2009 Prix de la meilleure BD award), quite rightly points out that things are changing for the better for writers with the Internet :

... which allows easier networking and online publishing, means there’s less isolation and less dependence on traditional forms of distribution and publication

Amir Muhammad says :

I never believe in ‘scenes’, just in individual writers. And on that note, there are a few rather strong writers indeed. Among fiction writers, Brian Gomez and Shih-li Kow are world-class and inimitably local.

As Rizal says at the end of his column, really it is up to all of us to give out local authors a chance!

I must add that I find it greatly encouraging to see space given to this discussion in the NST and hope there will be much more to come. Now that's a great way to boost local writing!

Malays Moving Forward

I invited Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad to guest blog about his new book and launch tomorrow :

Alhamdulillah, my first book is now out. It is published in English and Malay as Moving Forward: Malays for the 21st Century / Mendepani Zaman: Melayu untuk Abad ke-21. It is published by Marshall Cavendish Malaysia. Having written various essays for many publications, I have long dreamt of writing a book. This effort itself spanned a few years (even before 8 March 2008) but I finalised the draft this year. The discourse on Malays in Malaysia is shifting in the 21st century. I argue about how Malays must move forward to survive and succeed in facing today’s challenges: the emerging new politics, forging a people’s economy, resolving the education question, the position of Islam in a multiracial society and the unravelling of the social fabric. While race will remain important as an identity, Moving Forward challenges the assumption of the racial zero sum-game as, ultimately, the future of the Malays cannot be separated from Malaysians in general. The book is dedicated to my parents. YAB Tan Sri Dato’ Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, the Menteri Besar will launch my book tomorrow. The details are as follows: Date: 8 December 2009 (Tuesday) Time: 3.15 PM Venue: Itudio Studio, 31D-2 Kelana Mall, Jln SS 6/12, 47301, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia (map at http://www.itudiostudio.com/about-us) Contact: Saifullah 0378063660 / saifullah@niknazmi.com Dress code: Smart casual / office attire The book can now be bought at RM24.90 at major bookstores including Kinokuniya KLCC and Popular Bookstores. Distributors can contact the publisher through Michelle Low tel: 03-5628 5928 or michelle@my.marshallcavendish.com.

I plan to go and maybe will see you there?

Malaysia's Answer to Harry Potter?

Demand has been so hot for this local series that Popular Bookstores now takes up to 500 copies of its new releases, as opposed to its usual practice of ordering a maximum of 10 copies per title for each outlet....The first batch ordered always exceeds 4,500 copies, and all will be sold within a month. ... To date, the first book titled Seven Days has sold more than 30,000 copies since its release in 2006 – even at the relatively high price of RM20 per copy. ... The success of the series has stunned everyone from writers and editors to publishers, all of whom thought books with 80,000 to 100,000 characters sprawled over 300 pages without illustrations would never get the attention of young readers.

It was so nice to read about the runaway success of a local Chinese children's author, Khor Ewe Pin, in a piece by Yip Yoke Teng in today's Starmag. This teacher and textbook writers says that he noticed that there seemed to be a literary void for older children reading in Chinese. He studied how Rowling's novels were written ... and it seems that some of the magic dust rubbed off on him too.

Quietness

... quietness seems to be the trademark of Guat Eng’s collection of short stories. The click of the computer. The brush of a lace handkerchief against the skin. The ‘soft scrabbling noise and the small chirrup at the window’. Her characters – especially the women – are thoughtful and composed. Thoughtful in their concern for others and thoughtful in that they reflect, ponder and slowly masticate what they take in with eyes and ears. And in the quiet of their own heads, they suture together the disparate snatches of information from their imperfect worlds. Though what they learn or guess at may be shocking and deplorable – the unspoken incest in the story ‘Seventh Uncle’ and ‘Two Pretty Men’, child abuse in ‘The Old House’, infidelity in ‘Almost the Worst Thing’ – they keep these discoveries close to their breasts. And as suddenly as these realizations rise to rage, sadness sways and smothers all. No confrontations. No noise. ... Guat Eng’s fiction captures a cultural suppression that continues to hold true.

There's an excellent piece by SH Lim on the work of Malaysia's first woman novelist in English, Chuah Guat Eng, in Time Out KL October edition. Do go read. More about Guat on this blog here and her blog is here.

Farish in the Madrasahs

Congratulations to Farish Noor who this week launches his new book Qur'an and Cricket : Travels Through the Madrasahs of Asia and Other Stories at Silverfish.

Catch the event at 7.00pm on Friday, 6th November, 2009 at Silverfish Books, 58-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 448 449 37 Email: info@silverfishbooks.com. Admission: Free

Here is the blurb :

Farish A Noor, academic, activist, traveller extraordinaire, visits, lives and interviews students (and others) in 'jihad factory' madrasahs (Islamic seminaries) from Patani to Pakistan and from Kashmir to Cairo, and comes away dazed and confused. In attempting to make sense of it all, he ends up confronting his own demons and nightmares.

and a taster from the book :

However, in the course of the same research I have also visited some rather dodgy institutions that can hardly be called madrasahs. Once in Pakistan I had to interview some students while in the corner of the room played a videotape of the gruesome murder and decapitation of the American journalist Daniel Pearl. The boys I was speaking to were between seven to ten years of age, and were smiling and laughing -- while others lay asleep. I tried to look away as long as I could, resisting the urge to puke.

Farish is one of my favourite writers. I really value his intelligence, his calm rationality and careful research.

Silverfish was kind enough to send me a copy, and I am really looking forward to reading it.

Au Reveals All!

Au, hero of Katz Tales, speaks. As Au’s language is too sophisticated for some audiences, he allows his personal servant Ellen Whyte to write the columns and the book in her own way.

However, as a rare treat, Au types his own message for Bibliobuli :

Helo reederz. i dont do intervoows ewesualy but as Sharon sends homidge often i haf graceeousli agreed to tak two yoo. And too tipe it myself. There is no need to fank me; just send a rost chikkin.

Sharon aksed me to shair my eksperiences as a faymus kat. Wel, what kan i say? i have always been a top kat so i am used to kontinual adorasyun.

Anyone hoo nos me, howevver, wil tel yoo i am a verry low-key kat. i have just too devoted servants, wun male and wun feemale. They make shure the big grey boks in the kitshun is stakked with treets and the kat biscuit barrel is all ways ful. Wen they perform reely wel i alow them to squizle my chin or play a game. Sum strikter kats wud say i spoil them but what kan i say, i am a just a verry kind kat by nature.

Wen the feemale began witing abowt me, i wuz in two mines.

On the wun paw i pweffer to keep a low pwofile becuz it makes it eazier to katch mice. Also, i don like peeple fawning al over me. i no my beauyooti, wit and grasiousness ar a magnet for the rabble, but al that hommage kan git verry tiring verry quikly.

However, the feemale promissed me that her storees wud enshoor a perminent flow of treetz. She also promissed i wud have to make no pershunal apearanses. Plus, she pointed owt that not evriwun nos what it is like to live with sumone as wunderfool as me. This final point perswayded me.

What the feemale had not mensioned wur the foto shoots.

I wuz verry patient wen she tuk my purrtrait for the buk cuvur but i objekt to those kandid pitshures she splashes al over the place withowt eeven asking my permizion. i meen, how wud yoo feel if sumone fotograffed yoo sleepin and eksposed yoor prozpiroos tummy to the nasion? i am not a poleetiseeyon!

But the feemale has been verry good abowt keeping my fans away. Wen they visit i luk at dem and deeside if they ar worthy of an audienze. Okkasionaly, if their hands ar kleen and they ar properli respektful, i wil alow them to stroke me. i beleef wun must enkorage wuns infeerreeors in everry way, eeven if it meenz sum pershunal sakrifice.

Allso, she has kept me properli suplied with treetz. Wich reminds me: i havent had wun in abowt 20 minootes. Before i go and poot in my order, i wud like to say wun thing: buy the buk! Not only is it filed with wunnerful stories al abowt me but 10% of the feemale’s share wil go to help owt kitties hoo ar living withowt the benefit of pershunal servants.

Bye now. I haf too eet a treet.

Katz Tales, Living Under The Velvet Paw is out in bookshops now. Price RM28 ISBN: 978-967-3035-64-9. For a free sneak peak and free sample story, visit http://www.lepak.com/katztalesbook.html

Rebecca for Readings Too!

Oops! One of my readers I accidentally left off my list for tomorrow's Readings@Seksan's is children's author, Rebecca Loke who will be introducing us to her new book Great-Grandma's Hair Loss Remedy.

The book was inspired by Rebecca's son, Ethan, who has alopecia universalis - a condition which leads to the loss of hair, not only on the head but all over the body, including the eyebrows and the eyelashes.

As Rebecca notes on the book cover, there is meagre understanding of the condition in the community at large. She says in the foreword :

At times when Ethan goes out without covering his head, people stare at him. Some even do a double-take. Some tease and call him botak-head. Others assume he has cancewre and offer words of comfort. A few people have asked 'What did you do to make your head so smooth?'

Hopefully the story about an 8 year old called James will make folks more aware of the issues. The book is the first in a planned series called Children’s Concerns.

Rebecca and her son were featured in The Straits Times of Singapore last month, and you can read the piece here.

The Challenge Ahead

The development of serious literature in Malaysia is inhibited because the level of discussion in society is not high enough. In general, we are not a reading society. ...

Malaysia's new literary laureate is interviewed again, this time by Andrew Sia in Starmag.

Inspector Singh in Cambodia ... and then India!

Congrats once again to the highly prolific Shamini Flint who now has a further two book deal with Little Brown, bringing the number of Asian adventures featuring Inspector Singh to five!

Singh has already annoyed the other policemen in Malaysia , Bali and Singapore . Now our favourite inspector will be flying off to the killing fields of Cambodia ...

reads the publicity info I received today :

Inspector Singh is in Cambodia – wishing he wasn't. He's been sent as an observer to the international war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, the latest effort by his superiors to ensure that he is anywhere except in Singapore. But for the first time the fat Sikh inspector is on the verge of losing his appetite when a key member of the tribunal is murdered in cold blood. The authorities are determined to write off the incident as a random act of violence, but Singh thinks otherwise. It isn't long before he finds himself caught up in one of the most terrible murder investigations he’s witnessed – the roots of which lie in the Cambodian killing fields… And in Book 5 he’ll be whizzing off to India ... The Guardian says about this series that ‘It’s impossible to not warm to the sweating, dishevelled, wheezing Inspector Singh’ and the Daily Record that Singh is ‘An unconventional new crime hero who has the potential to be as compelling (and successful) as McCall Smith’s Precious Ramotswe.‘

Meanwhile the second volume of the series, A Bali Conspiracy So Foul, is hitting the stores here. It was launched at the Ubud writers' and Readers Festival, and will have another launch at the Singapore Writers Festival. Volume 3, Inspector Singh Investigates: A Singapore School of Villainy, is due out next February. Worth reading - Adrian Turpin in The Financial Times considers Shamini's first novel alongside other writing he feels are in the mould of Alexander McCall Smiths novels featuring Precious Rabotswe.

Singapore Writers Fest Pays us a Visit

It is really nice to see the organisers of the Singapore Writers' Festival reaching out to Malaysian authors and book lovers. They were in town Thursday for a press conference at MPH Mid Valley.

Singaporean lawyer and award-winning author Philip Jeyaretnam (fourth from left) is the chairperson of the SWF 2009 Steering Committee)talked about the interface between Singaporean and Malaysian writers and how an exchange of readers between the two countries was very much needed. (You can read more about what he says about the festival on Eric's blog.)

Phan Ming Yen (second from left, above) Assistant General Manager of The Arts House, gave an overview of the festival, beginning with the history. He talked about the richness of the literature coming from the region (some of it works in translation) and how it deserves to be better known worldwide.

He explained that the theme of the festival - unDERcover - could be interpreted in various ways - tucking yourself under the bed covers with a good book; exposing silenced voices; uncovering works that had not been available before.

(The theme) has allowed SWF to present readers a rich diversity of authors whose works - ranging from horror through crime to 'serious fiction' - are at once accessible and fun but yet serve as a metaphor for social and humanitarian issues.

The festival this year spans 9 days of events; features 100 participating writers and 150 events on the programme; and has a 60-40 ratio of Singaporean writers to overseas writers. (Check out some of the writers and what they think about coming to the festival on Eric's blog, and also here.)

The biggest name, as far as local readers are concerned is Neil Gaiman, and the organisers have had to move the event to a bigger venue because of the enormous demand for tickets.

Khor Kok Wah, deputy chief executive officer and Director, Literary Arts of Singapore’s National Arts Council (centre) spoke of Malaysia's cultural links with Singapore, naming for example the Second Link theatre performances, and the fact than our new writer laureate's works are studied in Singapore schools. He also pointed out that many Singaporean writers were born in Malaysia and there was crossing of the border on a personal basis, and a deep sense of sharing between the two countries.

Then it was over to the Malaysian authors. Anwar Ridwan (right) spoke about the need to identify new writing talent and about how we needed to know each others writers well.

KS Maniam (left) talked about the relationship with Singaporean writers, particularly in his own case with Edwin Thumboo.

And of course Malaysian poet and playwright Wong Phui Nam, of course, provided us with the biggest surprise of the afternoon. One which I'm still mulling over. (As, it seems from the comments on that post, so are you.)

Malaysian Writing in English is Dead!

Malaysian poet Wong Phui Nam declared Malaysian writing in English dead yesterday at a press conference to publicise the Singapore Writer's Festival, held at MPH Midvalley (about which more later) :

We should be looking at young writers - their absence shows that the tradition of writing in English is dead. ... Why are writers in English dying out in this country? In 10-20 years time Malaysian writers in English will be an adjunct to Singaporean writing.

He also talked about how other writers in English had "run away" from Malaysia, and how the greatest of them was Shirley Lim.

I respect Phui Nam very much (An Acre of the Day's Glass is the Malaysian poetry collection that has most excited me, and I wish that they made more writers in his mould!) but I don't agree with him on the above. I don't just think it is a case of me being unrealistically optimistic - perhaps it is more a question of perspective.

In organising Readings@Seksan, I am constantly coming into contact with Malaysian writers (new and not so new, young and not so young) whose work excites me, and who work confidently and well in English. Writers in English are not even an endangered species, I'd say. (What do you think?)

And as for the overseas writers having "run away" ... well, anyhow, I have already blogged all I have to say on the topic here.

Something else that Phui Nam said that was very interesting :

I am not writing in English. I am writing in EMS : Educated Malaysian English. We speak the language in a different way, a subdialect of the English language.

Malaysian English of the acrolectal variety (linguistic term for standard educated form of a language) is a distinct variety of English and should be every bit as acceptable internationally as any other (UK, American, Australian, Indian etc). I wrote about the issue in this interview for The Star.

Postscript :

Daphne Lee also blogged (very powerfully) about this, and concludes :

Wong spoke about how Malaysian writing (in English) is stillborn, a result of our education system. Having identified this problem, I should think Wong has his own theories about how the deadening effect of our schooling can be countered and/or reversed. Does he and others like him have a part to play in helping aspiring authors produce writing that has a chance to grow in effectiveness and beauty? Perhaps Wong just does not think it is his battle to fight.

BTW there is an interesting comment on the blog about how Readings@Seksan could be perceived as "cliquey". I responded at length and would value your (honest) comments too.

(Someone else did yell at me not so long ago "What does Readings achieve? Nothing at all.")

Postscript 2:

Zedeck Siew at Klue magazine writes about Phui Mam's speech :

Doom and gloom, then. But we're sorry if these dire pronouncements sound bitter to us. Yes, official support for English-language writing is practically non-existent. That said, things seem to be on the mend, actually.

Writers are soldiering on. Brian Gomez's excellent pulp -- but supremely relevant - novel Devil's Place was published last year. This year, Kow Shih-Li's Ripples and Other Stories was shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor Award - the most lucrative prize for short fiction. Further back was Kam Raslan's Confessions of an Old Boy.

How about the anthologies: Silverfish Books' regular efforts, or the queer collection Body 2 Body? And non-fiction, such as the excellent (and bilingual) New Malaysian Essays series? Literary readings happen with acceptable regularity: Readings and CeritAku; or Say Goodnight, Twitterverse. Amir Muhammad (of Matahati Books) has hosted organised the KL Alternative Bookfest twice, to much success.

There is a second problem with Phui Nam's complaint. KLue itself is an English-language publication - but even we don't prize the lingua Brittanica's purity that much.

The Malay-language book business is booming, from mainstream romance to the fringe. Its literature is in rather ruddy shape: new small (but significant) ventures like Oxygen Press are springing up all over the place. Sang Freud Press's works deploy an urban form of Malay that doesn't shy from displaying its obvious syncretism.

The language of this region has always been a Creole, mixing Bahasa Melayu, English, the Chinese dialects and Indian languages. Phui Nam appeared aware of this when he said that "we speak [English] in a different way." He, of all people, should know - since his full name is Mohammed Razali Wong Phui Nam, and his latest plays Malay/Cambodian takes on Antigone and Medea. No need to be so precious lah.

Anwar Ridhwan on the Malay Literary Landscape

I am happy that a few young writers such as Faisal Tehrani, Nisah Haron, Mawar Shafie and SM Zakir are still producing serious literature but I would like to see more youngsters doing so. ... [They aren't because] That is the influence from the popular culture. Today, people want recognition fast. People want more royalty. So they prefer to produce popular rather than serious literature. When you write serious literature, you have to be patient before recognition comes your way. ... It is also related to our school system, our reading habits and the level of discussion in society. All of them have not come to an intellectual level where it stimulates good writing. So it is difficult to get writers who can think seriously about life, people, the environment and culture.

Bissme S talks to Malaysia's new literary laureate, Datuk Dr Mohd Anuar Rethwan, alias Anwar Ridhwan in The Sun about the problems facing the Malay literary scene, and why there are so few non-Malays on it. Asked whether Malay literature can appeal to the international market, the author says :

We have very good Malay literary works. But producing good work is not enough. You need to translate these into English and other foreign languages, and most important of all, you need to promote and advertise these works. We have been translating some works but we have not been promoting these books aggressively outside the country. Mark Twain said, “Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”

On Dewan Bahasa's not playing an active role in promoting Malay literature, he says :

To be fair, DBP is trying to be effective. But most of their staff are young and inexperienced. I believe they should work with outside publishers so the quality of their books can be improved. ... They should not only work with Malay publishers and distributors. They must also work with Chinese and Indian publishers as long as these publishers are willing to publish books in Malay. ... I have worked with DBP and I know the responsibility put on DBP is very heavy. They must have good in-house training for their staff. They must also learn to work fast. When they get a manuscript they must publish it within three to six months. But this is not the case. Some writers have to wait from one to two years to see their work published.

I would so like to see good Malay novels available in translation - not only for the international market, but in our own bookshops here too. The Sun also has this very interesting guide to laureates past (Click to full size.) :

Crime Pays for Shamini

... crime fiction is a great prism through which to explore the tensions within modern Asian society because it is inevitably about conflict—and the starting point is, of course, murder. The genre allows for the interaction between people of different social stratas, race and religion to be explored at length. I find the idea of reflecting contemporary Asian society in crime writing exhilarating. From racial and religious divides in Malaysia (Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder), terrorism and social dysfunction in Bali (Inspector Singh Investigates: A Bali Conspiracy Most Foul, due in September 2009), to greed and exploitation in Singapore (Inspector Singh Investigates: A Singapore School of Villainy, due in February 2010), there are the plots for a dozen novels in any Asian country. I certainly hope that more Asian writers will turn to crime fiction writing!

In an essay up on Eric's blog and written for the Singapore Writers Festival version of MPH's Quill magazine, Sharmini Flint asks why there is no real crime writing tradition in Asia ... and why the region actually lends itself to the genre.‘