Shared History, Shared Culture

History helps us understand who we are and where we have come from. This, in turn, allows us to appreciate other races whose ancestors too may have come from afar. And all of us, their descendants, are lucky enough to meet and mingle on this soil which we call home. ... Our forebears may have journeyed here centuries ago but it is the inward journey, one of mutual respect and trust, we should continue today.

I wish a very happy Merdeka to all Malaysians today, despite the sadness that many feel (including but certainly not limited to this.) It is so nice to See Malaysian authors featured in the National Day Special Supplement in The Star today. Tunku Halim talks about how Malaysian history that belongs to all while Lydia Teh talks about food and festivals and the other things that make Malaysians of all races Different But Same. Incidentally, Hal has a fascinating Merdeka piece on his blog about how an Englishman Tuanku Simon Mackay was appointed Malaysia’s 10th Yang DiPertuan Agong.

The Merdeka Miracle

Three Malaysian writers, Robert Raymer, Tunku Halim and Lydia Teh have collaborated on a short story for the Malaysia Airlines in-flight magazine Going Places. The Merdeka Miracle was written to celebrate Malaysia's Independence Day and each writer took it in turns to contribute their paragraphs.

Shirley Ng of MPH was kind enough to send me scans of the pages which you can click up to size:

Tunku Halim Abroad

Author Tunku Halim is profiled in the Malaysian Abroad column of The Star today, and talks about his love of hats, his history books, and his writing of what he terms "dark fantasy" novels.

Something I entirely agree with him about :

He credited Hobart, and Australia in general, for providing a conducive setting for writers. ... “In Australia, they have many writers’ centres which offer various writing courses and also guide you on how to get published,” he said, lamenting the fact that Malaysia lacks such resources.

Tunku Halim Anthologised

Tunku Halim wrote to tell me that his story Biggest Baddest Bomoh is included in the soon-to-be published The Apex Book of World Sci-Fi.

It is an anthology of genre short stories from around the world. Edited by Lavie Tidhar, the book focuses on Asian and European writers, and includes stories from China, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Croatia, France, and the Netherlands.

It can be pre-ordered from the website.

Our congrats, Hal!

History for Kids

Daphne Lee writes about history books for kids with a local flavour in her Tots to Teens Column in Starmag today.

She writes about Tunku Halim's A Children’s History of Malaysia (which he was kind enough to give me a copy of some time back)and goes on to review his new book The History of Malaysia: A Children’s Encyclopedia which she says she would :

... highly recommend ... to parents, teachers, and librarians as a marvellous reference and teaching tool.

Halim is also profiled in New Man this month*. (Click up to size to view.)


(*Thanks Shirley for sending this to me.)

Postscript :

I must say thanks to Halim for whizzing me a copy of the book within a few hours of blogging this. It is a very handsome book, and since I failed the quizzes at the back of it, I clearly have much to learn!

I like the way the book is written at just the right level for younger readers and could see it being very useful in the classroom (at least in English lessons). And I was intrigued by the non-linear, thematic organisation.

A job well done, Hal!

Tunku Halim's Free Writing Workshop

King of Malaysian Horror, Tunku Halim, is back for another creative writing workshop in conjunction with The MPH-Alliance Bank National Short Story Prize 2009. Learn from the master of macabre to get you started on writing. Limited seats available for participants age 13 years and above. The theme is How to Win a Writing Competition.

Date : Sunday, January 18, 2009
Time : 10-1 pm
Place : Booker room, MPH Megastore, 1 Utama, Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya.

Here's his blurb for the event :

I'll start off with some tips about winning a writing competition. Then we'll go through an extract from Juriah's Song and we'll discuss getting ideas, setting, character, plot, dialogue and description. This is a workshop, so we'll all be doing some reading, writing exercises and having fun too!

Interested participants MUST register at MPH Megastore, 1 Utama Customer Service or call 03-7726 9003 or email csoneutama@mph.com.my

(Found via Facebook)

Blog Reflections

In a piece called Of Blogs and Reflections in the Malay Mail today - Gabby Goh asks three litbloggers, myself, horror king Tunku Halim and Eli James of Novelr about our favourite web discoveries this year and our hopes for next. Here's what I said (with a couple of bits bolded so you will take note of them). Sorry if I've gone all nerdy on you - I'm surprised myself! :

For me, 2008, has really been the year of Facebook - the application has put me in touch with old friends and made me new ones, been a useful place to pick up news and share ideas, but most of all it has been the best avenue to reach a large potential audience for the events I organise. I have set up a group for readings@seksan and look forward to another exciting year of live literature!

This has also been the year I really started to find my feet in the vast virtual world Second Life (which I initially heard about from librarian friends who have established a strong base there). Now that I can fly and teleport and have a good wardrobe of pixelated clothes, I'm busy looking around for ways the metaverse can be used to promote reading and writing activities and making connections with others from around the world interested in the same. (For a taste of what's possible take a look at http://www.writtenword.org.uk.). I've been attending poetry readings and writing workshops and see so much potential for bringing practitioners of all the arts into this very creative space. The complete beginner can avoid the traps I fell into by reading Second Life for Dummies. But the best book to help you understand the history and evolving culture of this community is The Making of Second Life by Wagner James Au. Au reckons, by the way that virtual worlds like Second Life will, in time, become our interface with the internet.

I'd like to send my thanks to all my readers for sticking with me for yet another year, and for helping to make bibliobibuli such an interactive blog by commenting on posts and emailing me links and feedback. The bookshops, local publishers and distributors have also been a tremendous support, passing me copies of free books and sending me hot items of news. I am inviting anyone who feels they would like to contribute a post on any aspect of books or writing to guestblog for me. (Get in touch with me at sharonbakar@yahoo.com). September 2009 will mark my 5th blogiversary, so I am thinking of ways to celebrate this in style!

A very Happy New Year to all of you!!!

Happy Third Birthday, Readings!

Saturday marked the third anniversary of our first ever Readings, which has run more or less monthly since then, providing a much needed platform and meeting place for local writers.

Our first readers was Shih-Li Kow (and apologies for spelling her name wrong earlier) who read the title piece from News from Home, a collection of short fiction which showcases the work of three new writers published by Silverfish. It is a very enjoyable story which came over very well.

I've been wanting to get Tunku Halim ("Malaysia's Stephen King") to Readings for a long time, but he isn't in the country very often (he lives in Tasmania!) so I was really happy when he said he was back and could come along. He read a story called Blue Glass from his new collection Gravedigger's Kiss very spookily. (Though members of the audience commented afterwards that he isn't as scary in person as they thought he would be ...).

Bernice Chauly launched her new collection of poetry and prose The Book of Sins. It is so nice to see that pieces we've hear her read on other occasions have now been collected together and a whole work given shape.

Subverting the concept of the seven deadly sins, Bernice comes up with a list of her own (Pride, Greed, Wrath, War, Gluttony, Love, Betrayal and Lust) which becomes the organising principle for this intensely personal book, which ends with her poems about her mother's death and forgiveness.

During the break it was time to get down to the business of celebrating our birthday with a chocolate cake. Bernice and I blew out the candles, made wishes, and cut the chocolate cake.

Is this a party, or what??

Poor Chua Kok Yee got to read with a big red stain on his shirt. No, Tunku Halim hadn't stabbed him. He had been attacked by a wine bottle while bravely struggling with a recalcitrant cork!

He took the presence of the large picture of piggies on the other wall as an omen that he should read his short story about three little pigs from News From Home - a funny and clever piece.

Chuah Guat Eng was once upon a time my writing teacher and I am very grateful to her for her help and encouragment. Guat's first novel, Echoes of Silence was launched in 1994 and her poems, short stories and articles have appeared in many publications. She has also recently finished her PhD.

Today she was launching her new collection of short fiction, The Old House & Other Stories and she read three extracts connected with the theme of how we use of language which gave us an excellent taster of the book.

Last up was journalist Gerald Chuah whom I first met when we were both doing a telephone interview with self-help guru, Jack Canfield. (He came along prepared and I benefited!) Gerald's book In the Eye of the Tiger:Survival Principles from Sylvester Stallone's Life and Films is pretty unique, and I think Rehman Rashid describes it best:

It is the uber-fanzine ... the product of an obsession that might be certifiable were it not channelled and refined into this ageless document ... genre-defying ... he’s penetrated the vacuity of Hollywood to tap the heart within.

Gerald still seems overwhelmed by the fact that he managed to achieve his dream and write the book. (And it is a beautifully produced book too.)

My thanks to Seksan for the beautiful space. To all who read and all who came. To my friends who set things up and cleared up so well.

Postscript:

BP has an excellent write-up here, and Ted has great photos too.

Tunku Halim's Writing Workshop

Horror writer Tunku Halim will be in KL next month and is running a workshop for teens. The info from MPH:

Event: Creative Writing Workshop with Tunku Halim
Venue: The Booker Room at MPH Megastore 1 Utama, Petaling Jaya
Date: 20 January 2008 (Sunday)
Time: 11:00a.m.-3:00p.m.

Ever wanted to write a short story, a longer tale or perhaps even a novel? Tunku Halim, novelist, short-story writer and author of such books as A Children’s History of Malaysia, 44 Cemetery Road, Gravedigger’s Kiss and the soon-to-be-released Juriah’s Song will show you how. By using an array of tools such as setting, dialogue, plot, description, economy of words and creative flow, you’ll not only get started with full confidence but you’ll also see your work flourish off the page!

If you’re interested and between the ages 13 and 18 years old, you can pre-register at MPH Megastore 1 Utama’s customer service in early January 2008. Registration fee is RM20 for MPH members and RM30 for non-MPH members with lunch provided.
Course structure:
11:00a.m. – 12:30p.m.: Point of view, Plot, Character, Dialogue
12:30p.m. – 1:15p.m.: Lunch
1:15p.m. – 2:30p.m.: Creative Flow, Description, Economy of Words, Setting, Rewriting, Editing
2:30p.m. – 3:00p.m.: Discussion

Participants will stand a chance to win an autographed copy of Tunku Halim's Gravedigger's Kiss courtesy of MPH Distributors!

Sinker Stinkers

Writers are you up for this? Yang May Ooi wrote with a fun idea:

All the furore about Hal's book started me thinking - why don't you get as many writers as you can to donate one bad review of their book? To start you off, here is one review of my first novel The Flame Tree that has nothing good to say AT ALL. The reviewer misses the point, though, that the book is not a whodunnit but that's just me being picky...

"The opening lines reads straight out of a sex thriller by Jackie Collins. Its a put- off. Extolling the virtues of the rapid development in Malaysia and a devoted paragraph to Malaysia's first car the Proton Saga, reads like an article straight from the Far Eastern Economic Review and a government propaganda piece. The plot-line gets completely lost and the build-up to the murder and corruption that the author is trying desperately to lead the reader to the end, does not capture the reader's imagination or interest.The murder takes place at page 219, but the whodunit is no where in sight and the plot gets completely lost in the heat and jungle. The author's attempts to introduce Malaysia to the rest of the world, with excerpts on its history, a former British colony etc - reads like a Lonely Planet Guide. We don't need such trite information. The Flame Tree is nothing more than a cheap soap opera and it fails badly. For her first novel written in 18 months, she needs to go back to the drawing board."

The reviewer is of course anonymous and something tells me he/ she is a Malaysian.... I wonder what gives that away?

You can see it for yourself on Amazon.co.uk - where, luckily, there are also other reviews that are more favourable (which saved me from slitting my wrists right there and then...).

Enjoy!

Yang-May

I'd say that no matter who you are and how good your work, if you're talking about reviews on Amazon, someone is bound to rubbish your work (if you are lucky enough to get reviews in the first place!). Sift through the reviews of any Booker prize winner and you'll see what I mean.

And to be honest I've expressed my own frustrations about certain books on Amazon in less than kindly terms, though never anonymously (and it is not possible to do so anymore).

Anyway, if do you have a review that's a stinker, do post it here.

Bashing the Reviewer

I'm probably opening up a bag of worms with this post but still ...

The most interesting thing in the Sunday papers is the letter from Tunku Halim in the Star because I think it throws up interesting questions about how local books are reviewed and what we expect from reviewers, and I hope I'm not sticking my neck out by bringing the topic up. (Both author and reviewer are my friends, and I hope they both still are after this!)

Michael Cheang's review of Tunku Halim's latest book 44, Cemetery Road appeared last Sunday. It is a compilation of previous stories from his previous collections with three new ones. I haven't read the book yet (drowning in books I have to read for review) although hope to do so soon, so this personal jury is out, for now, on the merits and demerits of the book. My argument then is a general one.

The review was largely a very positive one, but a couple of the criticisms were leveled by Cheang against the writing. He also had issues with the writing style in one story:

... words leaped out at me like a vengeful spirit. Elaborate descriptions, overdone superlatives and textbook-style plotting abound ...

But it was the charge that he had used “very similar plot devices” (similar to each other presumably) and some of his earlier stories were “predictable” that got up the author's nose.

This is a serious allegation indeed against any writer and I wish to state my case. Here it is and right to the point: the stories are NOT predictable, nor are they similar in terms of plotting.

If Cheang thinks otherwise, he should have elaborated, pointing out the offending stories and also to explain why. Such a flippant comment can easily be thrown in, particularly by a reviewer who readily admits from the start that he regards horror stories as often “cheesy”. Yet what he claims is “predictable” is extremely difficult to justify unless we do a test. After reading say 25% of the story, Cheang should then tell us what exactly is going to happen. I doubt he can. This also leads me to the question of predictability or, its opposite, the unexpected ending. It is the journey rather than the destination that matters. If you watch any Hollywood movie you more or less know the good guys are going to win. Yes, predictable. But how? The journey that gets them there is what counts. That’s what you enjoy. It’s the detail of the story, the suspense, the action, even if you know the outcome, is what makes for good entertainment. So predictability should not be an issue. Having said that, my stories are not predictable.

As a reviewer myself, I have to say that the author is not the one to make a judgment about whether his work is predictable or not (no matter how concerned he was about avoiding predictability when he was writing it). It is a judgment entirely for the reader. And in this case for the reviewer. Now a review is a personal opinion. Reviewers differ greatly on how they perceive a book. One loves it. One shreds it. But none of them has the final word.

Just look at how different the reviews of On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (I take this example since I've just finished reading it) are in the New York Times "a small sullen, unsatisfying book" and in The Washington Post where Jonathan Yardly enthuses that it "reaffirms (his) conviction that no one now writing in English surpasses or even matches McEwan's accomplishment".

Who is right? Both.

And neither.

These are personal reactions to the novella, and the fact that readers can react so differently to a text is large part of our engagement with literature.

Cheang should have elaborated? Could he have included more specific examples? Perhaps so. But actually he was already 167 words over the limit (according to recent guidelines for Star reviews in which the word limit was cut from 800 words to just 500).

It's unfortunate in a sense that Cheang and Halim opened up such a bag of worms because no local publication gives space for the in-depth discussion of literature that it deserves. There is no forum for in-depth discussion or analysis of texts outside academia. And writers do need to know what they are getting right and what they aren't so that they can move forward.

It's good that an effort is being made in the Star to review local books, and I hope to see other titles on the book pages.

The reviewer doesn't like the genre? That there are so few competent people willing to review books is undoubtedly part of the issue here. Besides, does not liking a genre actually diminish the value of the review?

But the reviews cannot, and should not, always be positive ones. They should be fair and authors should understand this.

Tunku Halim to his credit says that he does, and writes some further thoughts about the review on his blog. He adds that he feels:

... that local reviewers have a pre-conceived idea of local writers which is “it’s local, so it can’t be much good”. The reviewer looks through blinkers, searching for negatives, not the positives. This means the local author necessarily has an uphill battle from the start. He or she has to convince the reviewer that despite being local the work is great. But take heart, this attitude will change with time.

This is certainly something we should examine our reviewerly consciences for.

What We Need

The StarMag team have done an excellent job with the ReadsMonthly supplement again. Tunku Halim (dubbed Malaysia's Stephen King) is on the front page, interviewed by Daphne Lee. His new book 44 Cemetery Road is a compilation of 21 dark tales previously published in other collections, and three new ones.

It's nice to have a prince as a pal who comes round to tea (!), and Halim is the youngest son of Tunku Abdullah of the Negri Sembilan royal family. He told me that it is his grandfather's portrait (did I get that right?) on the front of all the ringgit notes. He now lives with his wife and children in Tasmania, but we've been lucky enough to see him back in KL a couple of times this year. He's yet another Malaysian lawyer turned author, writes full-time now, but also deals in real estate.

What Halim says this about the needs of our local writing community really strikes a chord with me:

"There is a vibrant writing culture where I live. ... There is a writing centre that organises talks for budding writers on how to write and to get published. There is a lot of sharing and encouragement. The community spirit is strong, which is important as writing can be a lonely activity, and yet the fruits of writing depend on others’ notice to thrive."

He feels that Malaysian writers could benefit from a stronger writing community to support them. He suggests the formation of a “writers society”. “Through such a society, ideas and skills can be exchanged. It will be supportive of local writers and their writings. The society can, once established, also offer writing courses to members.”

Halim feels that a variety of writing courses should be offered. “Not just a standard creative writing course. How about offering courses for the short story, the novel, non-fiction, poetry, popular fiction, plays?”

He laments the fact that in Malaysia, budding writers don’t really have much to aspire to. “Their work gets scant publicity,” he says. “Unlike fine art and theatre, local writers and their books seem to be hidden in the background. When was the last time a local writer gave a talk at a school near you?”

Halim remembers entering a writing competition organised by the New Straits Times and Shell. “I didn’t win but it was exactly the spur I needed to get writing. Young writers need incentives like that.” (The competition ran for several years but is now defunct.)

As for already published authors, Halim suggests a “best book of the year award, from a recognised body, even if it’s only at a municipal level, for example, the local library.”

He also believes in mentorship. “It would be good for experienced writers to work with those who are just starting out,” he says, adding that local publishers may be able to act as “networking vehicles for all writers”, putting published and experienced writers in touch with those who are still aspiring to the craft.

He is willing to help other authors in any way he can and has set up a blog, Write lah! expressly to share writing and publishing tips with younger, less experienced writers – specifically Malaysian writers, as the blog’s subtitle is “Writing for Malaysians”.

I talked in a blog entry way back about how I would love to see a writers' centre set up here, half wistful thinking, half manifesto. A while back, my friend Jean sent me a poster showing all the activities for writers in Perth ... courses, workshops, meet-ups, talks ... and I felt sick with jealousy! We so badly need this here.

Update

One can never predict which way the discussion in the comments should go, but I think those in the book trade (publishers, booksellers and distributors) should take a look at the conversation that resulted from this post. Your feedback to the comments very much welcomed, because there are some serious issues to address! (And c'mon lah, I KNOW you read me!)

Bookish Stuff Wot Others Blogged

Here's a few things from other blogs I've enjoyed and you might like to explore.

More local writers build a home in cyberspace. Antares needs no introduction and is someone who I admire for living life very much on his terms. He has long had a fascinating and sprawling website Magick River, and now has a blog of the same name with thought-provoking and very well-written content. (Am personally not at all sure about this 9/11 conspiracy theory but he makes the most convincing case I've heard for it!) You can of course catch Antares reading on Saturday at Seksans from his new book Tanah Tujuh which was launched at the litfest. (More about the book in another post.)

Shahril Nizam is a poet and illustrator (he designed the cover for Silverfish New Writing 6, and Dina Zaman's I Am Muslim, among others). His blog pelukismelukis is a treasure trove of absolutely delightful things. His art ... just melts me, and his poetry has a whimsical magical quality which reminds me of ... Edward Lear, Lewis Carol ... I would love a whole coffee-table book of his work!

Kenny Mah of course keeps popping up on everyone else's blog and at literary events.

He's an incredibly nice guy (and nice people always leave this grouch feeling most confused). His blog, Life for Beginners, has posts about the local lit scene, his training to become a Body Balance instructor, and much more. Best of all, he has put up a collection of short-fiction and poetry Broken Mornings, which you can download for free. Kenny, of course, is also reading this Saturday at Seksan's.

And elsewhere:

There is as always much good stuff on Deepika's blog read@peace. I particularly enjoyed her post on meeting Neil Gaiman when he was in Singapore. (I've started reading American Gods and hereby declare myself another fan!)

Zafar of Dream Ink has a fascinating piece on how to write a good bad review! And much more good stuff, of course.

Eric Forbes has an excellent piece on publishing and has posted up some great poetry from a whole variety of poets.

Books Love Me blogger Josette does the round of Penang bookshops ... but likes Borders best.

So many books, so little time. Dari Jiwa Rasa gets mindboggled by the maths and asks, how many books can you finish in a year. He also links in this post to the story of Chang Wei Han who read 558 books in just 15 months. Who says Malaysians don't read!

Tunku Halim writes about why Malaysian writers are actually much luckier than their counterparts in the West - and he's absolutely right. Halim's new book 44 Cemetery Road is now out too.

Sally Ann has some great pictures of Benjamin Zephaniah visiting her school and her enthusiasm for poetry shows just why making this kind of encounter happen is so important!

I'm sure to have missed something important, so please slip me a note in the comments if you know of anything ...

Pascakolonialisma in Pink

The latest issue of Quill is yours for free if you flash your MPH card, and a mere RM8 if not.

It's crammed with so much good stuff I don't know where to begin.

I loved Eric Forbes' article on the short story, chock full of excellent reading recommendations which I would love to see the bookstore promoting! He also gives sterling advice about how to submit your manuscript.

It's a Long way to the Floor author David Byck explains about how he got started. Tan Twan Eng talks about the writing of The Gift of Rain, and FireWife author Tinling Choong (who will be visiting Malaysia in July) is interviewed at length.

Dina Zaman and Tunku Halim debate about whether you would take a look at the book a person reads before you decide to get married to them. Pragmatists both. (I think books are windows to the soul ... should have thought twice when I found only war stories on my beloved's bookshelves!)

The Ambassador for Mexico, H.E. Alfredo Perez-Bravo reveals his love for Octavio Paz, Marques, Vargos Llosa and Carlos Fuentes (good for him!) and talks about Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose as the ultimate airport novel (CSI Medieval Italy!).

There's a long interview with Farish Noor, and Dr. Faridah Manaf writes a very interesting piece about gender, race and nationalism in post-colonial Malaysia. Am most impressed that the Malay word for post-colonial is pascakolonial, which I will now slip into conversation with the gardener.

Yours truly writes about why Writers Need Friends which I dedicate to my scribbling running mates. (Saras, Mercy, Soo Choon, Leah - you're famous now!). My pics of the Night of the Living Text event are in there too.

But as I told you, my article on book banning ironically got censored out.

That doesn't surprise when the PM himself graces the cover, holding the book of tributes for his wife Datin Paduka Seri Endon who died of cancer in October 2005. The book A Bouquet of Jasmines. (Yes, "jasmines" with an "s"! - a big fat grammar blooper in the title!) was launched at a grand gala evening where everyone who is anyone wore pink and drank pink drinks (think Barbie!).

(Sorry, sorry ... I don't know where such cynicism comes from.)

Registering Bloggers

A report in this morning's Star that Deputy Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor said in parliament yesterday that bloggers using locally hosted websites may be required to register with the authorities.

But we have a couple of champions: opposition MP Lim Kit Siang, pointed out the vast benefits of blogging and Johor Baru MP Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad (the only UMNO MP to have a presence in the blogosphere, as far as I know) said bloggers were very aware of their own ethics and responsibility for content on their sites.

Which I believe too. And I think I've hung around online a lot more than most politicians. The internet polices itself. You say something fallacious, daft or defamatory and you get descended on faster than a mouse click by the other fellas wanting to put you right. I'm not even able to get away with a misspelling!

I'm not a political animal and generally can't even be bothered to read parts of the newspaper which aren't book pages or the funnies, but I am concerned about freedom of speech which is a basic human right whether the words are printed on pages in a book, or on our computer screens.

The authorities clearly need to decide whether Malaysia is in the Information Age or not. So far they've done very well. But forcing bloggers register is a retrogressive, knee-jerk reaction ... and to what, exactly? (I really would like to know and at the moment I'm afraid I don't. Not from the newspapers anyway.)

And as for the technicalities of registering bloggers here - how many bloggers have .my at the end of their addresses? And I reckon most bloggers host their words overseas anyway! (And more will probably join them now.)

Before I lose my rag entirely, it's timely to point you in the direction of this essay by Hari Kunzru about why dissidents must be protected from internet censorship. It's mostly about China, but many of the points made are relevant universally.

Meanwhile Tunku Halim is proposing a different form of protest: a collection of blog articles called Bloggers are Liars! He wants YOUR entries!

Update:

Readers' reactions to this report, from the Star. The people have spoken!

Rocky reports on the setting up of the National Alliance of Bloggers.

The Visitor sent me a very interesting article which addressed the question "Can bloggers be considered journalists?"

KLILF Hanger

Yesterday, of course, the media launch of the The KL International Literary Festival (which now goes by the acronym KLILF!) at Bangsar Village which is to be held in various venues in Bangsar 28th March - 1st April.

The guest of honour was YB Dato' Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Minster of Women, Family and Community Development, who also happens to be the MP for Lembah Pantai (the constituency which includes Bangsar). She turned up a fashionable one hour late, as Ministers are always wont to do. For me the time was well spent, though, chatting to Saras, Dina, Adam, MPH's Dato Ng and others, and getting a Starbucks caffeine fix to propel me through the morning.

Here is Shahrizat making a grand entrance. The others are (left to right) Professor Lim Chee Seng, Raman, Tunku Halim with his back to the camera, Datuk Shanmugalingam (with the beard) and (in the corner) Dato' Ng Tieh Chuan of MPH.

Professor Lim introduced the event, and then Ronald Quay Ong Guan (above) the President of Bangsar Baru Business Council made a speech ... not only pointing out that Bangsar is a great venue for the festival but also asking for a community library for the area.

Ronald is the proprietor of the pub Ronnie Q's - the sporting pub where all my rugger bugger friends hang out on match nights. Now it's going to be transformed into a venue for Literature!

Dato' Seri Shahrizat's speech was nicely delivered and natural. It seems that she, Raman and Prof. Lim were all students at Universiti Malaya's Fifth College, at the same time. She also talked about the intellectual depth of Bangsar residents (haha!) which made the area an ideal one a litfest.

Professor Lim then read some favourite poetry ... and what a nice thing to have happen midweek just outside the supermarket! We had a sonnet by Petrach in Italian, Shakespeare's Sonnets 18 and 130, a Chinese student read poems by Li Po and Su Shi. Prof. Lim added a little John Donne, Tagore and Usman Awang much to the bemusement of pass-by shoppers, and then it was time to eat.

The lovely food was catered by the Hilton, but I was so busy gossiping to a whole range of people that I didn't eat much and went home hungry afterwards. Above, Raman with Eoin Duggan, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Ireland.

I'm glad Raman and Prof. Lim decided to use Bangsar as a venue (which I suggested to them both way back - common sense, innit?). The venues there should be more relaxed and informal than in some impersonal ballroom of some stuffy hotel, and dropping out to have a nice coffee or meal and gossip will be easy too. I'm glad too that the dull academic part of the festival has been dropped and there is no utterly confusing pricing structure this time.

In fact I'm looking forward to the festival. Have you registered yet? Get in before March 15th to get an Early Bird discount.

There are incidentally much better pics on Raman's site. Watch the slideshow and see how many faces you can name.

Oh and yes, here's the flier to pass on and stick on your blogs. Doesn't seem to be on Raman's site yet.

Good Stuff On Elsewhere Blogs

This is where I suck you all in to a whirling vortex of local litblog news and spin you out in all directions again.

Deepika is just back from the Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka (here and here ... with more to come) where she interviewed Booker winner Kiran Desai.

Another Malaysian writer has begun blogging - master of horror Tunku Halim. I met him for the first time at MPH Writer's Circle the other day, and he wasn't at all what I expected ... much younger and a lot less spooky. Am looking forward to reading his new collection of stories, due to be launched soon.

I hadn't realised that short-story writer and long-term Malaysian resident Robert Raymer has a website, until one of his former students (Yan Yi at Marshall-Cavendish) told me about it. Robert previously taught creative writing at Universiti Sains Malaysia, and is now based in Sarawak. He was the editor of Silverfish New Writing 4 and has a collection of short fiction, Lovers and Strangers Revisited (both avaialble from Silverfish). Robert has put up some very useful tips and exercises for writers.

Eric, as always, has much good stuff on his blog, but this superb list of reading recommendations for the short story is well worth printing off and keeping as checklist.

Daphne Lee has had her first four children's books published (congrats!) and is taking criticism on the chin.

Ted gets steamed up about the ignorance of local teenagers who haven't realised that - yes, there actually is a writing scene here. There is! There is!

Lydia reacts to a comment made by Glenda's daughter that writers websites tend to be self-absorbed and whiny.

Amir is spot on when he talks about how to read like a writer. (Caution though, easily offended sensitivities and young minds should stay clear of this blog entirely.)

Then there are book reviews: YTSL has applauds Adibah Amin's new novel This End of the Rainbow. I was surprised to see a book review on Malaysian Medical Resources, a consistently informative and yes, even entertaining blog. Palmdoc recommends Michael Crichton's Next for stressed out doctors and medical student in need of a good diversion from work!

Okay then, what bookish things have I missed? Fill me in in the comments.

Oh, the frustrations of posting here at the moment! I began this post several days ago but my internet connection kept going down. My internet provider I am rechristening Screamyx. Is it still that cable problem? Very inconsiderate of the Taiwanese to host an earthquake.