Sharanya Struts Her Stuff at One World Cafe

Our friend Sharanya Manivannan if featured in the current issue of One World Cafe, and you can hear her reading her poems, including several you will be familiar with if you have come along to KL live literary events. If you've never heard Sharanya read live, prepare to be seduced. If you've never seen what the big deal was with poetry, be prepared to change your mind.

Sharanya tells me that her first collection of poetry (apart from the beautiful little chapbook she produced) entitled Witchcraft will be launched in India in June, and we hope that there will be copies for us to buy here too.

Rafidah and the Poet

Sharanya's stirring up controversy even in her absence.

Thanks Animah for bringing my attention to this story in the Nation section of the Star yesterday:

Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz was shocked during a recent work trip to India to find a newspaper there carrying a front page article that claimed that Malaysia was practising apartheid against Hindus.

Holding up the DNA newspaper of Nov 28, the International Trade and Industry Minister said that the article quoted a 22-year-old Sri Lankan-born poet who had spent 17 years in Malaysia, as saying that she fled Malaysia last month to escape “systematic racial harassment.”

“Fleeing Malaysia? Oh my goodness gracious. Can you imagine? This is really telling lies,” Rafidah told reporters yesterday after chairing a Wanita Umno meeting.

The Wanita Umno chief said that the poet, Sharanya Manivannan, had also claimed in the article that there had been cases in Malaysia of “body-snatching” of Hindu corpses by the authorities so that the deceased could be buried according to Muslim rites.

She said that the poet, however, had never mentioned that these men had converted to Islam.

Rafidah added that Sharanya had said in the article that “countless (Hindu) temples have been demolished and idols smashed – oftentimes in the middle of prayer sessions and devotees attacked”.

“What a lie. Words like this are terrible. The article really hurts,” she said.

Here's the original article from DNA, and of course the link, of course, to Sharanya's blog where she talks on all these issues at greater length.

At this rate the girl is going to be very famous (infamous?) even before she gets her first volume of poetry published!

Am hoping to bump into her this weekend at the Singapore Writers' Festival.

Sharanya's Goodbye

Just found this on an e-group posted by Bernice Chauly:

Readings at NoBlackTie presents a smorgasboard of Malaysian writers/poets/musicianswho will bid farewell to friend and poet Sharanya Manivannan.

Sharanya, who hails from Chennai, has been a vivacious and integral part of the KL literary scene for the past four years. For those who have yet to hear her read her stunning poems, this is your chance. Come hear your favourite local performers and more! For those who would like to read or sing a thing or two, please contact me directly. (mulutmata at yahoo dot com)

My heart is so sad because we are losing Sharanya, one of our most talented local writers. I wish I could be there, but have to send my love from a distance.

Sharanya, I wish you all the best, and hope that fate will work in mysterious and wonderful ways to bring you to a place where your work will be fostered and appreciated, published and promoted as it deserves to be. Hope too that you will be back here as a frequent visitor as your loss will be so keenly felt.

The Tyranny of Immigration

Am so very sad. Just heard that Sharanya is leaving the country and for good. It will be Malaysia's loss as she is undoubtedly among the best young writers we have here and that at the beginning of her career.

Sharanya holds an Indian passport, but has lived here for much of her life, studying at secondary school and college. Her partner is Malaysian.

She became one of the most prominent performance poets on the literary scene. Her work's been published. When British Council was looking for a local writer to grace an official conference dinner, she's the one they chose. And she has always called herself a Malaysian writer.

(Correction added later - she contacted me to say that she thinks of herself first and foremost as an Indian writer ... I guess that because we have taken her to our hearts that we see her under the umbrella of Malaysian writer.)

But such are the ways of immigration. You can't simply want to be part of a country. Bureaucracy has to sanction it. And it doesn't matter if you have something important to offer the country or not.

(I sympathise with this as I have had my own problems with immigration over the years. My application for PR presumably sits at the bottom of a dusty pile, and I want it actually for no more than the symbolic acknowledgment that I have, through marriage and over twenty years of teaching and training teachers here, become part of things.)

I know Sharanya has been deeply worried about her immigration status since her course has ended, and that she sees her forced departure as a relief in some ways, since she says that

... the strain, stress, pain and inertia were playing havoc on my peace of mind and relationship ...

She hopes that by the middle of next year she will have settled somewhere else, probably Singapore.

I wish there was some way we could appeal, some rope we could pull, but I fear there isn't.

(Photo taken during the KL Litfest by Shahril Nizam.)

Sunday Night at No Black Tie

Missed most of the live lit events this weekend but did manage it to make it to No Black Tie for the episode of "Readings" Bernice organised, Sunday night.

The lady herself.

Jit read an excellent memoir piece on "sexuality and religiosity". Funny and honest. Beautifully written but with a real Malaysian voice. Hope this material gets collected and published. I still have some of the pages I found on the floor later. Will keep them for posterity.

Canadian Jordan MacVay was a big hit at Seksan's when he read an extract from the non-fiction novel he's working on. He's further along now, and read the complete chapter four in which Rizal and his friend are floating in a raft in the sea after the tsunami, and encounter a group of naked girls drifting in the branches of an uprooted tree. Again, I was very moved by this material and want to shout out to publishers across the world that this novel needs to be put out into the world!

Young Nicholas Wong, now growing his hair back after his National Service stint. Nic will be heading off to Columbia University later this month. He read a poem about a cleaning lady; Nicobar Pigeon; Son-net; and then "a triptych" (lovely word!) of philosophical poems - the first on beauty dedicated to Sharanya. He also played the piano - and he is good, really good. (I feel that it would be fairer if talented were more evenly distributed.) He had his mum, dad and little brother there to cheer him on.

After the break, playwright Ann Lee read a wonderfully surreal peace called Perpustakaan (Library). I never knew that stage directions could be so poetic. She was going to read another piece but it was getting late so we didn't get to hear it. (Another time, I hope.)

I had to leave before midnight as I had to get up very early for work, and so sadly I missed Sharanya and Bernice read.

I must say I like the venue very much ... but why do all cab drivers in that area seem to want to charge three times the fare even before midnight??

Ochre As The Earth

Sharanya bravely dares to step where (as far as I know) no local poet has dared to step before and I salute her for her courage. She's putting on a solo spoken word performance this Sunday at No Black Tie. Full details are on the poster which you can enlarge with a click. There's also a blog for the event. Please pass the message on.

Poetika is Back!

You might remember a little poetry zine called Poetika which you could pick up, free of charge, some years back from the counter of Silverfish (and I suppose other venues). It was not much fancier than a flyer, a photocopied sheet folded to form four pages - but the writing, especially the poetry was very good, and it provided terrific encouragement to young writers . I first came across Jerome Kugan's poetry in Poetika, and I think it was where Sharanya first saw her work in print.

Now Poetika is back, about to grow into a more substantial publication, and Jerome is asking for submissions of fiction, short prose pieces and illustrations. The project has a blog.

The submission guidelines are:

Poetry
1. Subject matter, style, form open.
2. Not more than 30 lines.
3. Send 3 poems max per issue.

Fiction Prose
1. Subject matter, style, form open.
2. Not more than 400 words.
3. Send 1 prose piece per issue.

Illustrations
1. Subject matter, style open.
2. Black & white works preferred.
3. A4 size max.

How I wish I'd kept those early copies of Poetika! But never mind, because Jerome says the first of the new editions will be a reprint of the previous issues, with a brand new issue due to come out in June.

The Young Ones

Would you believe our slam has made the papers yet again? This time it's mentioned in a very nicely written piece about our young performance poets by Syarifah Syaliza Alia in the Youth section of today's Star.

Syar interviews Sharanya (photo left, by Leon Wing), as well as Project OMG's Pat Low and Priya K (below) and Nicholas Wong.

I love Priya's can-do attitude, which is really Project OMG's whole attitude:

Anyone can hold a reading, even if I don’t like to admit it ... You just need the commitment, how much you’re willing to put into it.

Just do it lah, don't wait for permission.

And here's a quotable quote from Nic:

I think young writers nowadays are quite self-absorbed in their art ... They see it (their poetry) as a means of expressing themselves primarily and not see it as a collective responsibility to speak for others, to others.

If young guys like these represent the future of poetry in this country, then let's just say, it's in excellent hands.

How to Cook a Wolf

I nicked this from Sharanya. (Please click to enlarge.) She's heading down South to read alongside Singaporean poets and you can read more about it on her blog.

Some Litfest Photos

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

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

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

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

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

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

Litbloggers Breakie!

The inaugural Breakfast with the Litbloggers kicked off on saturday at the new branch of MPH I Bangsar Village Two. I wasn't sure beforehand how it would all turn out, and whether a discussion in a very open bookshop bookshops space would work and whether anyone at all would get up on a saturday morning and come along ... but it all worked out very well. Quite a number of people turned out to support many of them writers and wanna-be writers and bloggers ... many of them the strange folks who comment on this blog!

The only problem was little kids who gravitated towards the musical books ... One Two Three Four Five Little Indians ... but Renee handled them very well without resorting to infanticide.

Here then are the social pages ...

Here's novelist Yang-May Ooi with Eric Forbes, MPH editor, bibliophile bibliomaniac, and litblogger extraordinaire. Eric did a great job of organising the event.

This here's Janet Tay who drops by this blog on occasion. Janet is just about to start work as an editor with MPH, working alongside Mr. Forbes. She got roped into helping with this event even before she was officially in harness, so to speak. She is doing a Masters degree in Literature at Universiti Malaya part-time and enjoying it very much.

Two UK published novelists together! Tan Twan Eng dropped by.

This smiling guy is Kenny Mah who made the great poster for the event. It's so nice to meet him in the "real" world!

Sharanya reading an extract from her novel-in-progress Constellation of Scars and poems from her chapbook, Iyari. Kenny summed it up best when he broke the silence after the reading saying "What I need now is a cold shower!"

A crowd scene. Anyone you recognise?

More to come, but I thought I'd better post this all up quickly before you all think I've died or left the country. The computer was sick, not me. Thanks for phone calls and SMSes!!

Updates:

Do go and listen to Yang-May's phone blogging experiments to hear about Saturday's events from her view points and there's so much good stuff here about Malaysian writing.

Kenny Mah's account of the day is so good I think I could be out of a job.

Xeus' thoughts on the morning and the setting up a critiquing circle ...

Sharanya has a lovely photo up with Yang-May ...

Bookish Events at Bangsar Village Two

The new MPH is Bangsar Village will be the venue for events for booklovers.

I'm helping Eric Forbes with The Breakfast Club for LitBloggers on the 4th Saturday of the Month from 11am - 12.30pm. The first one kicks off this coming Saturday February 24th, 2007 with guests Yang-May Ooi, the author of The Flame Tree and Mindgame and poet Sharanya Manivannan, who is working on her first novel, Constellation of Scars, as well as a full-length collection of poems.

Another event worth checking out is Kidz Read! The Reading Group for Children facilitated by Daphne Lee, who writes the Tots to Teens column in StarMag. This session meets every last Sunday of the month from 4 - 5pm, and is for children aged between 9 - 15 years. This session is in line with MPH's effort to promote and encourage reading among children. The February session will focus on The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate Di Camillo, as well as The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams, The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban, and The Racketty Packetty House by Frances Hodgson-Burnett.

For more information or to be placed on the mailing list for MPH events contact Sharifah Aliza Syed Alwi Tel: 03 7781 1800 x 119

(Poster designed by Kenny Mah)

February "Readings"

Would be grateful if you could pass on the news of our next "Readings".

Here's the info:

“Readings”

Our series of monthly readings continue next Saturday with the aim of encouraging new writing talent.
Time: 3.30pm
Date: 24th February 2006
Place: 67, Lorong Tempinis Satu, Lucky Garden, Bangsar (for directions check www.seksan.com)
Readers for this Saturday include:
Yang-May Ooi
Eileen Lui
Datuk SHANmugalingam
Haris Zulkfili
Pat Low
(and one more still to be confirmed reader)

"Readings" is the birth-child of Bernice Chauly, lovingly fostered by Sharon Bakar. We are grateful to Seksan for sponsorship.

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

I feel like I'm chasing my tail at the moment trying to round up enough good readers to keep the crowd well entertained. Thanks, Raja Ahmad for helping me: he is getting back to me soon with the name one of another of his Suara-Suara protogees!

Still haven't managed to sort of the wine sponsorship so will be chasing up my friends in La Bodega as soon as CNY is over. We will have bottles there one way or another.

Novelist Yang-May Ooi will be out first guest (with Sharanya Manivannan) for this Breakfast with the Litbloggers thing in the new branch of MPH in Bangsar Village 11a.m. - 1 p.m. so we will be moving from one event to the other with just a little lunch in-between. It should be a good literary Saturday.

Sharanya's Launch at Indie Scene Cafe

There's been a lot going on this weekend. and I'm only just getting round to blogging it!

First Sharanya had a do at the Indie Scene Cafe Fiday night to launch her prety chapbook, Iyari. The event was supposed to start at 7 p.m. but it was a total nightmare to get down there with all the jams and it was after 8 when I arrived ... and that after running from the top of Bukit Bintang because I couldn't stand any more crawling in traffic.

Luckily (for me!) the start of the reading was delayed by the carolling "Santarinas" in the foyer of Piccolo Galleria. Sharanya had got a great crowd of friends there, and the atmosphere was just so warm and supportive. Even before anyone began to read, I was glad I had got my lazy self out of the house.

Sharanya has posted everyone's biodatas on her blog, so please go there for more information on her invited "talents". But here follows the pics I took.

Sharanya looked gorgeous in a black sari with gold trim and with big white roses in her hair. (She had also grown a few inches thanks to her platform shoes!) She did her job as host very well indeed - the open mic readings falling between her own readings. it was very special to hear her read poems that I've only seen on the page before.

Hafiz performed a beautiful song called Dengarkanlah (Please Listen) with lyrics by Nizam Zakaria (below). (You can download a demo version of the song here.) I didn't snap Hafiz because I was busy eating pizza!

Roy read a piece about being stopped at a police road block when neither he or his friend had a valid driver's license and ... er ... coming to an arrangement with a policeman.

Datuk Shan and Faridah Manaf did a nice little duet with a poem they had bounced back and forward by e-mail the night before.

Tshiung Han See read his poems ...

... and Priya K read a short piece ...

Nicholas Wong is distressingly talented for one so young (17) and has already won awards for his writing and had his poetry published. He's off to Columbia University in September to read Comparative Literature and Creative Writing.

Another very talented young man ... known simply as KG! His cousin also read a piece.

Somewhere in there too was me. Sharanya introduced me as the matriach of the local writing scene. Aiyoh, that sounds very scary!

I read a short short about an old couple warring over a dining chair that ends up abandoned and ruined in the garden. I wrote it some months ago and still haven't got polished to the point where I'd feel happy sending it out. Maybe after this I'll revise it again.

Thanks to Sharanya for inviting me and putting such an enjoyable evening together. Thanks too to Jasmine and Nicky for making this excellent little venue available to us. Indie Scene Cafe closes at the end of the month. How nice it would be to have a more permananent home for it ...

Poet Mong-Lan at Indie Scene Cafe

Award-winning poet Mong-Lan performed yesterday in the intimate space of Indie Scene Cafe.

We kicked off and ended with a few open mic readers:, Jasmine Low (below), KG, Sharanya, and meself ('cos i knew Jasmine wouldn't let me run away from it again!).

While Antonio Banderas look-alike flamenco guitarist Nick Razman strummed chords to capture the duende of the poems, Mong Lan read from her two collections Song of the Cicadas and Why is the Edge Always Windy ... and a series of love poems to cafe au lait, green tea, spinach, red chilli and taufu!

I had told the audience about Mong-Lan's expertise in the tango, and how she wowed the crowds by dancing at Ubud Festival. Now since Nick doesn't play tango, Jasmine asked "Can you dance flamenco for us?" And you know, she did just that!

After the performance I went to have dinner with Mong-Lan and husband Joe. We went exploring for a little local colour and found it plentifully in Jalan Alor. The seafood was excellent
and Mong-Lan fell in love with yet another dish: kangkung belachan. Expect a poem about it soon!

I was admiring Joe's artistic tie, and it turnss out that Mong-Lan hand paints all his ties!


I recorded Mong-Lan's poem Overhearing Water from her second collection so even if you weren't there, you can have a little taste!



P.S. Don't forget to check the Doppelganger website for news of more events organised by Jasmine.

Indie Scene Cafe

A feature in today by Michael Cheang about Jasmine Low, Nikki Yeo and the exciting venue for words they have set up, Indie Scene Café at Picolo Galleria, between KL Plaza and Lot 10 in Kuala Lumpur. It's not your typical "cafe" though, but a temporary new home for a whole range of independent arts events.

Jasmine (on the right) and Nikki, who also organise events as Doppelganger KL (and I've written about them before as part of the team that organised the Troubagangers events in conjunction with the British Council) were offered the use of shop lot free of charge for the month of December and plan to use it as a space for performance, art, music "or anything else". They will also be selling indie music CDs, chapbooks, handmade jewellery and much more.

So what's cooking at the cafe?

Well one event close to my heart and here follows an ad for it.

Vietnamese-American poet Mong Lan will be reading on the December 17th at 5 p.m.

I met Mong Lan at the Ubud Readers' and Writers' festival a couple of months back when I moderated a session featuring two poets who are also artists. (Fate must have chucked me into it, because I am fascinated by the connection between words and art.)

The first poet was Amol Titus, who introduced his poetry and wonderful art project, Darkness at Bamiyan, and the second was Mong Lan who showed slides of her very impressive paintings which have been exhibited at major galleries in the US, and then read some of her poetry. I particularly loved a series of sensual love poems ... for food. You can get a good taste of all the things she does at her website, so please do go and explore.

But not only can Mong Lan deliver words on the page, it turns out she's a pretty mean performer of her work.

At the Ubud festival there was a poetry slam with some pretty big name poets from across the region and across the world. Mong Lan wowed the crowd and won the crown. Sadly, I missed the event but I did catch her performance the next night at Jazz Cafe where she read over the strains of a guitar. And then she stepped out in style with husband Joseph to show us what the Argentine tango is made of!

I told Mong Lan that if she ever found herself in KL, she should do a reading for us because we are trying to grow a culture of poetry in performance.

A week or two later (so fast!) I got an email saying she was coming to KL and asking if I could arrange a venue. Thanks to Jasmine and her Indie cafe we can.

(Click and click to enlarge, and then put on your reading glasses.)

Another event to watch out for is a poetry workshop for kids, lead by Sharanya:

POETRY WORKSHOP
for 7 to 12 year olds
conducted by Sharanya Manivannan

APPRECIATION
WRITING
PERFORMANCE

When?
DECEMBER 27th-28th 2006 (Wednesday, Thursday)
2.00 pm - 6.00 pm
with a small presentation on
DECEMBER 28th 2006 at 7.00 pm

Where?
Indie Scene Café,
Piccolo Galleria, Bukit Bintang
(between Lot 10 and KL Plaza)

Deadline for application: December 25th 2006
Places are limited so don’t disappoint your child, apply early!

More information is available on Sharanya's blog.

And then there's the famous Doppelganger KL Open Mike session every Friday where everyone is welcome to strut their stuff.

Check the Doppelganger website for news of what's going on when.

It should be an exciting month ... and hopefully the beginning of something ongoing.

Puisi Poesy Posies and Posers

If you haven't dropped by our poetry blog recently why not take a click's trip over there?

I've just added (a little late, I'm sorry) a favourite poem of mine: Louis MacNeice's Prayer before Birth in which the horrors of the modern world are seen through the eyes of an unborn child.

Machinist adds a couple of intriguing anagram poems by Kevin McFadden based on OuLiPo principles. (I'm trying to get my head around OuLiPo about which more another time.)

Sharanya has found a haunting poem called When I Cut My Hair by Cherokee poet Rayna Green, and gives a fascinating insight into what happened in Malika Booker's workshop.

On a lighter note, Dreamer Idiot takes the woman's side and gives us a very enjoyable poem about Bloody Men by Wendy Cope:

Bloody men are like bloody buses -
You wait for about a year
And as soon as one approaches your stop
Two or three others appear.

DI is, of course, a new man of astounding sensitivity.

And then there's a "prose poem" which I put up last time - The Love Motel by Indonesian poet Lakshmi Pamunjac - to open a debate about whether there really is such a creature (as a "prose poem" I mean: Lakshmi's very real!) Whether it's a poem or a story, never mind, the real issue at stake in this piece is - which is more important, sex or food?

Incidentally something has been bugging me ever since we started the blog. As you know, we take it in turns to choose a poem we love or that interests us and write about it. Well, over the past year I've noticed that the guys (Leon, DI and Machinist) tend to be much more interested in the technical aspects of the poem, the women (myself, Sharanya, Dina, Sham) in how we relate to it and whether it speaks to us emotionally. (Not that both aspects aren't vitally important when discussing a poem, but it's more a question of emphasis.)

I asked Malika when I interviewed her, about whether this reflects her own experiences and she says she thinks it is ... and also that men and women also seem to approach the writing of poetry somewhat differently! Are we two different species even where poetry is concerned?

Now then, would you like to contribute a post to the blog? You don't need to be "an expert", or be able to speak lingua poetica or have an SPM in advanced versification ... just have a poem you love and would like to share with the world.

Contact Dreamer Idiot or myself if you do.

(I nicked the very nice logo from someone else's blog and can't remember the address! Please let me know and I will credit you.)

Self-Published and Proud of It

Wait for the world to discover you and publishers to beat a path to your door and you'll wait forever.

You've got to get your words out there ... somehow. And then maybe ... just maybe ... the world will begin to sit up and take notice.

And then maybe ... just maybe ... ask for another serving.

At the reading on Saturday I acquired a couple of self-published books.

The first is a hand-made chapbook of poems by Sharanya Manivannan: a beautifully produced little publication. The work is attractively laid out on the pages, there are illustrations and a front cover trimmed with sari ribbon. There are even quotes from other poets on the back ... glowing recommendations for her work. Saturday afternoon she sat during the reading gluing the whole thing together, so I guess my copy was "hot off the press", and I'm going to treasure it because one day Sharanya will be famous.

If you want a copy you can pick one up at the Indie Scene Cafe in Bukit Bintang, and directly through Sharanya.

The second book ... well I felt just like teacher spotting something being passed around at the back of the class. It turned out that Vovin had brought along a few copies of a self-published book called Kudeta.

Don't speak Malay? Say it out loud. There you see, you got it.

This nicely produced little book is a compilation of fiction (what they call centrilog, short for cerita entri log) written by six bloggers who I guess are bent on world domination. It costs RM15. You can check out their work online:

Bukunota
Vovin
Op
Amir Mukhriz
Sinaganaga
Jigo

Vovin, if you're reading this, please stop by and tell us a bit more about how the book came into being and how the world can get copies.

I like the idea of writers selling their books at the readings, so bring those copies along in future.

Malika's Poets at The Food Foundry

The fruits Malika Booker 's workshop yesterday made public last night at The Food Foundry. Malika had got the group writing about "a single moment, narrow and deep". The writers flung down raw words and crafted them into a finished piece, which they then practised to the point of before-the-mic-total-confidence. The result was material from the heart and well delivered: a long way to have come in a couple of hours, especially for those who had never written poetry before.

Anyway, here's some photos snapped.

The writers took the mic in groups of four. Faridah Manaf is in the centre, and that's a bit of Reuben on the right. (Who is the lady in white?)

Rauf Fadzillah in mid flow.

Elza Irdalynna.

Priya ...

... and her notebook. (A study in creativity!)

Where there's poetry there must be Sharanya.

Malika wrapped up the evening with a short performance of some of her work ... the story about her mother giving away the cat before she was born, the story of a silver bracelet ... and a colourful monologue telling the story of a shipboard romance ...

Patricia Low, Reuben (front) and Branavan captured after the performance. Young playwrights and performers for The Oral Stage, and now adding "poet" to their CV's!

There's more to come about Malika soon. I interviewed her yesterday for Starmag and it was a chat that left me much inspired ...

Update:

Lainie has a video of Malika on her blog!