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.

The Multi-Talented and Environmentally Conscious at Seksan's

Saturday's Readings@Seksan was fun, and featured a lot of very talented people.

Shanthini Venugopal was telling me a very funny story as we cleared up after a previous event, and I told her it was too good to waste - write it down.

She did, and the story about how she lost her car in a shopping mall carpark was so hilarious I had to invite her to read it. She has such a finely tuned sense of the comic, such an ability to laugh at hersewlf, and an absolute love of hyperbole. I hope we will be hearing more from her.

Shanthini is a singer, actor, and director and founder of The Jumping JellyBeans theatre company for children ... among much else.

I encountered met Umapagan Ambikaipakan through his column in the New Straits Times when he opened up debate about The Great Malaysian Novel and we discovered a shared love of books. Uma was covering the American elections for the newspaper and caught the emotion of event very well indeed in the pieces he read for us.

Apparently he has written a novel, though he wasn't ready to share any of it with us yet, but we will be inviting him back soon ...

Now, this fellow is Brian Gomez who went missing in action last Readings. He read from his first, self-published novel. Devils' Place is one of the most exciting works of local fiction I've picked up recently.

It's funny, pacey, unpretentious, keenly observed, totally irreverent (how many more adjectives can I pile on here?) and features a large multiracial cast of characters in a complex and frequently farcical plot all of which he manages confidently.

If further evidence of Brian's talent is needed, please go and watch Lingam : The Musical on his blog. (Non-Malaysians will need some background to the affair.) I was laughing so much I almost choked.

Peter Hassan Brown and Markiza played us out of the first half, beautifully, with a song about a poor old polar bear coming to Malaysia and trying to find refuge from the heat in the air-conditioning.

Then we shared birthday cake and mandarin oranges, and many books were signed and sold. Yvonne Foong, who needs to raise funds once more for her medical treatment, was there selling her book and her latest Heart4Hope tee shirts. (You can read Yvonne's account here.)

Iain Buchanan showed us the original paintings for Fatimah's Kampung and read just one strand of the story - about the tiger. He talked about how dire the situation is for the planet, and how he hopes to spread the message more widely through this book than he managed to do as a university lecturer.

I made the mistake of saying the book was "almost too good for kids" but 84 year-old Gwen Smith leapt up and took me to task there and then. "Children deserve the best," she said. My words were eaten immediately without the benefit of chilli sauce.

(Daphne also picks me up on it here! Oooops.)

Here's Amir grinning away as only one who has already sold the first two print-runs of his latest book to a bookshop chain! (Malaysian Politicians Say the Darndest Things Vol. 2 will have a very sticky lauch on Valentine's Day and you are all invited.)

The book is a second compilation of politicians' quotes - many of them chuckle-worthy, all of them telling, and the excellent illustrations are by Fahmi Reza. (You can pre-order the book here.)


Saiful Nizam bin Shukor is a very hard-working young writer, working in the fantasy genre and hungry to get his work out into the world. He read us the very dramatic ending of one of his (as yet unpublished novels).

The multi-talented Saiful works as a freelance writer, scriptwriter, singer and is also a practicing medium!

After a couple more songs from Peter and Markiza we probably finished a bit later than we should have, but it was a very enjoyable event. I thanks sincerely all those who came and cheered writers on and bought their books, and all those who read or performed for out entertainment.

I thank Seksan for his magical space.

Also those friends who helped clean up. And whoever brought the pineapple tarts and crisps.

I hope to organise the event again on February 28th when among others we will have Marina Mahathir reading. Watch this space anyway for details!

Postscript :

Sufian's photos of the event are amazing!

Riveting Readings

Yesterday's Readings at Seksan's went wonderfully well. My biggest thanks go Reza who took the time and trouble to go shopping for a portable sound system for me, and came up with the perfect solution. For the first time, we were amplified. And what a difference it made! No longer did we have to strain to hear. No longer did we have to much the words of the quietest writers.

It has to be said though that Seksan's doggy (recovering from distemper) decided that he had things of his own to say - though addressed to his friend over the back wall rather than to us. Fortunately, when Amir Muhammad stepped up to the microphone, he settled down to listen too.

Amir is of course a famous indie film-maker whose work has won international critical acclaim, although at home all he's won is controversy for The Last Communist. His next banned film is Apa Khabar Orang Kampong and is due to premier at the 57th Berlin Film Festival next month. Amir is also has a column in the New Straits Times on Thursdays. (You may not be speaking to the newspaper anymore, as indeed I am not, but Amir's column is a must-read.)

Amir read us some of the pieces that his editor thought unsuitable and very funny they were too. There was a spoof review of M - The Opera; a news item about folks who move into a house but find themselves under seige by the former occupant who constantly criticises what they are doing to the property; and also a piece entitled (topically enough!) Should I Sue for Defamation? Apparently, Amir keeps receiving letters from readers who are unclear on the concept of satire, and take his columns at face value. Duh!

I'm still practising saying Thaatchaayini Kanantu's full name! I met Thaatch at the launch party for Silverfish New Writing 6, and very much enjoyed the extract from her novel in progress. She had agreed to read In God's Belly later in the year, but when Hsiung Han See called at the last minute to say he wouldn't be able to come, I roped her in for this month ... and she sportingly agreed. Very many thanks, Thaatch!

I like what she wrote on her blog about writing:

I have 7-tonnes of memories resting in a million buckets and I have no idea how they got there, why they are there and what potential use they have.

Well we know now that sitting in those memory buckets is plenty of raw material for more evocative stories ...

Another writer from SNW6 - Peter Hassan Brown. I've known Peter for years, but as half of the singing duet Passion with his wife Markiza. Peter read from his short story Dysfunction, introducing it by saying he had been afraid of a negative reaction to his portayal of the family in the story (the girl lepaks* at the LRT station, her brother is a drug-addict who steals from the mother to finance his habit), but I think it's a very well-observed piece that really comes alive for me. I loved too his poem Fritters - about the food and about frittering one's life away in the most enjoyable way.

Peter is now working on a novel.

Yes, I know I shouldn't keep banging on about this guy being just 17. What does age have to do with anything? Least of all with the ability to write really well. kG's poems are honest, sexual, often deeply painful and beautifully crafted. He also read an extract from a "long short story".

Okay then, 17 going on 28.

It was great to finally meet Jordan MacVay, after months of reading each other's blogs and exchanging e-mails. Although he confessed to "sweating like a whore in church" with nervousness, he read really well, the piece beautifully chosen.

Jordan has been working with Rizal, an Achenese tsunami survivor, to tell his story. This extract was amusing in places - especially with the - almost surreal - incongruity of Rizal and his friend floating in the sea and encountering six naked girls floating on a tree. And also deeply moving. (Read Jordan's account of the afternoon here.)

Burhanuddin Baki has a place on the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia for later in the year. And having heard him read his fiction - am not at all surprised that he was selected. What did surprise me was how funny his work is - I'd imagined he would write in a very literary, very serious way from his very learned comments on my blog and from his business card (he has first class degress in Maths and Philosophy! Scary!). The reference to "the giant millipede" (am sorry, won't explain the context for the more impressionable minds reading this blog) was unexpected - and hilarious! Well, Burhan, just hurry up and give us the whole novel!

What else? It was a very hot afternoon, and I think we were all melting. We had a larger than usual crowd there (around 30), and because of the sound system, they tended to spread out a bit more into all the arty nooks and crannies. The wine this month was rubbish because I bought el cheapo plonko myself (RM15 a bottle - doubles as drain cleaner) - the La Bodega sponsorship has to be renewed and I'm onto that ...

Thanks to all who read and all who came. (I'm sorry I did not have more time to chat.) Thanks to Seksan once again for the beautiful and inspiring space. Thanks again to Reza for his help. Thanks to Nic for letting himself be bullied into washing glasses and opening wine bottles ... and for keeping me calm ('cos as he noticed I have this tendency to panic and see in my mind's eye everything that could possibly go wrong ... but doesn't).

Update

Just as well I escorted Lainie, and Danny off the premises! kG's thoughts.

Glossary

*lepak = to hang out, but has a very negative connotation, especially in the Malaysian pressL

Silverfish Swarming

One of the beacons of hope Amir Muhammad saw burning for local writing in English in the Kakiseni article I linked to yesterday was Silverfish New Writing. Five years on, the annual anthology is still going strong, and Silverfish New Writing 6 was launched last night at the Impiana Hotel, KL. The event, like the book, was sponsored by HSBC (under its HSBC in the Arts banner). Here are my (blurry as always) photos of the event.

Guest Ioalanda Capodanno with Professor Quayum, co-editor of Silverfish New Writing 3

From left: Datuk Shan (whose stories have appeared in earlier Silverfish collections), New Writing 6 editor Dipika Mukherjee, my buddies and writing running mates Saras Manickam and Soo Choon.

Thaatchaayini Kananatu, who wrote the story In God's Belly signs my book ...

... as does Peter Brown (Dysfunction). (Peter is a singer-songwriter and I've often enjoyed listening to his band Passion.)

A bit blurry, but this captures Raman quite well, doesn't it?

Phek Chin (far right) and Usha (centre) of Silverfish with a friend.

There were speeches from Deputy Chairman and CEO of HSBC Dato' Zarir J Cama, who told us that P.G. Wodehouse had also been a banker with HSBC (bet you didn't know that!), Raman (who quoted the Paul Auster speech about the uselessness of literature and talked about how we all need stories), and then a short word from Dipika Muhkerjee who had flown all the way back from Holland for the event, before the grand unveiling of the book.

The writers and editor up on stage with artist Shahril Nizam Ahmad who designed the cover, next to Raman.

Saras, relishing being a published writer at last, signs copies.

Junaida bte Hassan (A Whistle in the Night) took time off work to travel all the way up from Singapore.

I met many other interesting people and had a very enjoyable evening. I will write more about the book later when I've finished it.

Postscript:

Raman's much nicer photos of the event are here.