So here's the line up of writers and poets for the "Readings" event 8.30, February 7th at Central Market Annex!
Roger Robinson is a poet, short fiction writer and lyricist who lives between London and Trinidad. He has performed worldwide and is an experienced workshop leader and lecturer on poetry. His performances often incorporate words and music, and his one-man shows are:
The Shadow Boxer; Letter from My Father’s Brother; and
Prohibition (all premiered at the British Festival of Visual Theatre at Battersea Arts Centre). He was also chosen by Decibel as one of 50 writers who have influenced the black-British writing canon over the past 50 years. He has published a book of short fiction,
Adventures in 3D (2001) and a poetry collection,
Suitcase (2004), and is currently working on a full-length novel.
Up to 2000, Roger Robinson was programme co-ordinator of
Apples and Snakes. He was one of 30 poets chosen for the New Generation Poets collection at the National Portrait Gallery.
Louise Doughty is a novelist, playwright and critic. She is the author of five novels:
Crazy Paving,
Dance with Me,
Honey-Dew,
Fires in the Dark and
Stone Cradle, and five plays for radio.
She has worked widely as a critic and broadcaster in the UK, where she lives, including a spell as Theatre Critic for the
Mail on Sunday and presenter of several books and arts series for BBC Radio 4. In June 2007, Simon & Schuster UK will publish her first work of non-fiction,
A Novel in a Year, based on
her highly successful newspaper column of 2006. Throughout 2007, she will be writing another column for the
Daily Telegraph's
Saturday Review entitled
A Writer's Year.
Isagani R. Cruz writes plays, essays, and short stories in Filipino and English, for which he has won numerous awards, including a SEAWRITE award, a Centennial Literary Contest award, and a Gawad Balagtas award. He has been named to the Hall of Fame of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards in Literature. He has written or edited more than 30 books.
He is also the Former Philippine Undersecretary of Education, the Director of the Teachers Academy of Far Eastern University in Manila, a Visiting Lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University, and a Professor Emeritus, a University Fellow, and the Executive Publisher of Academic Publications of De La Salle University Manila. (A much longer version of his CV can be found
on his blog!)
Tan Twan Eng was born in Penang, but lived in various places in Malaysia as a child. He studied law through the University of London, and later worked as an advocate and solicitor in one of Kuala Lumpur's most reputable law firms. He also has a first-dan ranking in aikido and is a strong proponent for the conservation of heritage buildings. He has spent the last year travelling around South Africa, and is currently living in Malaysia. His first novel
The Gift of Rain is to be published in the UK by Myrmidon Books in March 2007.
Kam Raslan is a writer and director, working in film, TV and theatre in Malaysia. He is a columnist in
The Edge weekly and
Off The Edge magazine. Some of his writings were previously compiled in
Generation. He also writes for Instant Café Theatre and will one day make his feature film. His first novel
Confessions of an Old Boy has been serialised in
Off the Edge and will be published in book form in March 2007 by Marshall-Cavendish.
Dina Zaman writes both fiction and non-fiction, and is interested in "religion, society and what makes Malaysians tick". She has a B.A. in Mass Communication and Creative Writing from Western Michigan University and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and has been published abroad and locally. Her first collection of short fiction was
night & day, published by Rhino Press (1997), while her play
Harakiri was produced by
Chakra Works in 2003.
She began her career in journalism with her column
Dina's Dalca in the
New Straits Times. She has also written for other publications including
Men's Review,
Marie Claire, and the
Rentakini section of online newspaper
Malaysiakini which she also edited. Her new book,
I Am Muslim is due to be published by Silverfish Books in March 2007.
Postscript:Ruhayat X is in the process of making me a sexy poster for the event which I will post tomorrow.
Please note that, sadly, Edwin Thumboo who was on the list earlier, will not now be reading.
Roger Robinson was just the best opening act we could have hoped for, and he set a standard (particularly in terms of dramatising his work!). He read a very funny prose piece in which there was a character called Sharon, also known as Virgin Island (so of course, this Sharon now has a new nickname). Would have loved the opportunity to hear more and vow to track down Roger at a reading when I'm back in London.
... Tan Twan Eng, whose immensely readable first novel (I know'cos I couldn't put it down!) The Gift of Rain, set in Penang, is out in hardback on March 8th, and paperback May 20th. This was Twan's first public reading. He choose the opening pages of the novel which hint at great mysteries to be unravelled. This audience should be hooked enough to buy it!
Louise Doughty read from her short story Doikitsa which appeared in New Writing 13, (also, I think she said, part of her Novel Fires in the Dark about the European Roma ) in which an elderly woman lies dying in her wagon.
Our second Malaysian author of the evening, Kam Raslan, read a couple of naughty passages from Confessions of an Old Boy and created a lot of laugher.
Then Dina Zaman was up to read from I Am Muslim. Post-David Frost experience perhaps, this is a much more confident Dina than I've seen read before. Enjoyed the voices in her pieces, especially the piece was the possessed masseuse.
Isagani Cruz read a condensed version of one of his plays - a monologue about a zarzuela (traditional Filippino music theatre) performer. Very nice indeed! And I particularly loved the way his character has a little gossip about a certain writer called Isagani! (And we were talking only the other day about writers who put themselves into their fiction.)
Taiwanese poet Ke Hua Chen ended the evening for us with a poem in Mandarin with English translation. (And we finally got a chance to hear his version of the poem as song lyrics on CD when Pang came back from talking to friends outside to press the right button!)
Was at a cocktail reception last night organised by the British Council in conjuction with its Reading Across Cultures: Teaching English Through Literature conference. Was too busy gossiping with old teacher-training buddies and conference participants to make serious inroads into the lovely food, but also did some useful networking and met up with the writers who will be reading at my Night of the Living Text event tonight: Louise Doughty, Roger Robinson and Isagani Cruz. We also have Taiwanese poet (doctor by day) Ke Hua Chen to add to our list, which is great.
Roger Robinson is a poet, short fiction writer and lyricist who lives between London and Trinidad. He has performed worldwide and is an experienced workshop leader and lecturer on poetry. His performances often incorporate words and music, and his one-man shows are: The Shadow Boxer; Letter from My Father’s Brother; and Prohibition (all premiered at the British Festival of Visual Theatre at Battersea Arts Centre). He was also chosen by Decibel as one of 50 writers who have influenced the black-British writing canon over the past 50 years. He has published a book of short fiction, Adventures in 3D (2001) and a poetry collection, Suitcase (2004), and is currently working on a full-length novel.
Louise Doughty is a novelist, playwright and critic. She is the author of five novels: Crazy Paving, Dance with Me, Honey-Dew, Fires in the Dark and Stone Cradle, and five plays for radio.
Tan Twan Eng was born in Penang, but lived in various places in Malaysia as a child. He studied law through the University of London, and later worked as an advocate and solicitor in one of Kuala Lumpur's most reputable law firms. He also has a first-dan ranking in aikido and is a strong proponent for the conservation of heritage buildings. He has spent the last year travelling around South Africa, and is currently living in Malaysia. His first novel The Gift of Rain is to be published in the UK by Myrmidon Books in March 2007.