Susuk

I went along to the premier of the long-awaited Susuk yesterday, co-directed by Amir Muhamad and Naeim Ghalili and thoroughly recommend it to you all when it comes out on Aug 7th. The filming was actually done in 2006, but the post-production work delayed the film's release.

It's a very classy occult thriller,which looks at the lengths some women will go to become divas.

The title refers to the black magic practice of inserting gold needles and other precious objects under the skin as talismans, and the deeper, by far more dangerous version of the practice susuk keramat, which was initially used only by royalty.

I thought it very well cast - especially loved the two lead ladies Diana Rafar as Soraya and Ida Nerina as Suzana, and the wonderfully creepy Adlin Aman Ramlie as the magician. The cinematography was beautifully done - there was a real build up in the atmosphere of menace, and the soundtrack, by Hardesh Singh, excellent.

But the film launch was also a book launch for the two novelisations of the film, the Malay version by Nizam Zakaria, and the English version by Amir Hafizi, both published by Marshall Cavendish. It was great to see Nizam get his first novel launched at last but I was so sad that Amir H. didn't make it, I think because he was sick.

Both versions are (apparently) quite different, with Amir H. taking more liberties with the story, and Nizam's version following the film more closely. I wonder if this is the first novelisation of a local film?

Well done, anyway, to all concerned and I hope the film finds an audience not just locally, but overseas as well. Here's the trailer to whet your appetite :

Your Latest Dose of Spoken Word

Here's a couple of upcoming spoken word events for you to pencil into your diaries :

POETRY BLOW-OUT!

An evening of the sharpest talents of KL's poetry scene, fuelled with cheap alcohol and cheaper laughs, featuring live performances from:

Dizzy & The ... electro-poetry
Fatul ... live acoustic mesmerosity
Reza Rosli ... swoonster and dreamboat
Kathleen Choo ... fiesty dynamo wordwright
Catalina ... street-protester extraordinaire
Sheena Baharudin ... swingin soul mama
MoozaMohd ... goofy word shenaniganess
Hazlan Zakaria ... Poe meets a Tree!

International Sounds & Riddims by Mighty Jah-J! Sound System ... dubreggaeskapunkfunkhop.

Video projections by Clements of Austria.

Open mike slots available. Contact for slot. Spontaneous theatrical performances likely.

Entry by donation. Bring your own food and beer. Limited refreshments available ...

Oh, it's also George's birthday, so come watch him make a fool of himself ... again ...

Host: LostGenSpace
Type: Party - Night of Mayhem
Time : Saturday, August 9, 2008 at 7:00pm
Place : Lost Generation Artspace, 11 Lorong Permai, off Jalan Syed Putra, nr Brickfields Police Station, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Further info : 012345678, zapatabreadat hotmail dot com, and on Facebook.

Also - another in the series of Maskara readings organised by Sindiket Soljah :

on Saturday August 2nd, 8.15 onwards at Rumah Pena, Jalan Dewan Bahasa, KL. More details here.

Shamini's Success!

Here's another local author to give a big cheer to. Malaysian born, Singapore resident Shamini Flint has bagged a three book publishing deal with British publisher Little, Brown. (See article from Straits Times below and click up to full size.)

Here's the press release for the first of the books to be published under the Piatkus imprint :

A MALAYSIAN MURDER

By Shamini Flint

On death row for the murder of her ex-husband, Chelsea Liew fears never seeing her children again. She’s used to being in the headlines – beautiful Singaporean model, swept off her feet by Malaysian heir to a timber fortune; Chelsea Liew knocked about by millionaire husband; Chelsea and Alan in custody battle over children – but never before has she felt so tortuously exposed.

When Inspector Singh is sent from his home in Singapore to Kuala Lumpur to solve Alan Lee’s murder, he isn’t ready for the cultural and religious conflicts that transpire from such a high-profile case. But it is the conflicts within the Liew family that really test Singh’s judgment to its limit. His hunch says that Chelsea is innocent, but just how is he to prove this? And if Chelsea didn’t murder her ex-husband, then how is Inspector Singh, with the Malaysian police working against him, going to discover who did?

This is the first in an exciting and innovative new crime series, with each story set in a different Asian city. Shamini Flint has created an exceptionally endearing hero in Inspector Singh, who can only be described as the Asian Morse. Next stop Bali, then Singapore – this is a truly commercial series with enormous global appeal.

Shamini Flint began her career in law in Malaysia and worked at an international law firm in Singapore, travelling extensively around Asia. She has also taught law at the National University of Singapore. Shamini has written numerous children’s books including ‘Jungle Blues’ and ‘A T-Rex Ate my Homework’. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed ‘Sasha’ series of children’s travel books. She lives in Singapore with her husband and two children.

Imprint: Piatkus
Publication date: early summer 2009
US rights: diane.spivey@littlebrown.co.uk
Translation rights: andy.hine@littlebrown.co.uk

I got to know Shamini through her aunty Usha (who was one of the first friends I made in Malaysia, back in Raub in 1984!) and her mum, Lizzie.

Shamini actually came to me with the manuscript of the first crime novel, Partners in Crime, which she was intending to self-publish (and did) and I gave her some feedback on what was a generally a well-written novel. The best piece of advice I gave her was to bring into the foreground her wonderful detective, Inspector Singh, who in the first draft was languishing in the shadows somewhat, with egg on his tie.

I'm thrilled to bits that Singh (whom I really feel very fond of!) will now be taking a much wider audience by storm. (The dedication on the left means a lot to me.)

Shamini launched a second novel Partners in Crime, at the Singapore's Writer's festival in December. I suspect that this is the same book as A Malaysian Murder.

She had pitched the idea of a crime series set in this part of the world to publishers before, but was rejected. Having two self-published novels under her belt certainly helped her secure a five figure deal at the London Bookfair.

What Shamini has, I think, is the absolute determination to succeed even with odds stacked against her. (Make a note of that, guys. This is what it takes.)

As the article mentions, Shamini, a lawyer in a previous life who began writing and publsihing because it was a job she could fit in around being a full-time mum, is also the author of some excellent children's books - (I especially love Jungle Blues with its beautiful William Blake style tiger who accidentally jumps into a pot of indigo dye.)

We will be seeing her at Readings@Seksan soon ... most probably October. Meanwhile you can check out her website for Sunbear Publishing (for the children's books) and Heliconia Press (for the adult books).

The Booker's Dozen

And here. 'tis, the Booker longlist which is again this year a baker's dozen. (Should that now be a Booker's dozen?)

There are some very good choices which make me very happy as I wanted to read them anyway. I have the Rushdie and the Ghosh and Linda Grant's book, none of them read yet. The rest are still to be bought. (Booker watching is an expensive business!).

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
From A to X by John Berger
The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

Says Chair of judges, Michael Portillo :

With a notable degree of consensus, the five Man Booker judges decided on their longlist of 13 books. The judges are pleased with the geographical balance of the longlist with writers from Pakistan, India, Australia, Ireland and UK. We also are happy with the interesting mix of books, five first novels and two novels by former winners. The list covers an extraordinary variety of writing. Still two qualities emerge this year: large scale narrative and the striking use of humour.

The shortlist will be announced on 9th September.

More comment from Michelle Pauli and Mark Brown in the Guardian, and Boyd Tonkin in the Independent.

For more discussion and a useful list of the ones that got away, go join the debate on the Booker website.

The Brink of Booker

Today's the day the 2008 Booker longlist is announced. For me it's kind of like the starting flag - how many titles can I get read before the final winner is announced? I managed most of last year's longlist, barring a couple that were in hardback and just too expensive to splash out on. (Those gaps will be filled soon.)

It's fun because you know a whole lot of other people are reading alongside you and opinions are being debated ... you become part of the literary conversation. And no matter what the chosen books are, whether they actually are the "best" books or not, that debate about what makes a novel succeed is fascinating. (For me, anyway. Sorry guys, I can see your eyes glazing over on the other side of this computer screen!)

And of course, there's the excitement of having a little flutter on the horse or horses of your choice.

Eric has a wonderful list of novels he reckons are contenders. I know my reading for the next few months is going to be guided by whatever is decided today.

(BTW, let's give a wave to our friend Louise Doughty who is one of this year's judges.)

Robert Shares His Secrets

It was lovely to see author Robert Raymer on Saturday for MPH's Breakfast Club at the branch in Bangsar Village 2. These days he's so far away in Sarawak (teaching creative writing at UNIMAS), so it was nice that the launch of his revised collection of short stories Lovers and Strangers Revisited gave us the opportunity to meet up.

Remember how we talked about authors going back on earlier work to turn it into something much better? Well, our Robert is one such, and this is the third incarnation of the book. (In the picture, he's holding all three versions. The latest is published by MPH, and the previous edition by Silverfish.) His reason for rewriting is that when he started off, he was satisfied with writing for a local audience, but now want to take them to a higher standard and aim for an international readership.*

Robert is always very generous in sharing what he knows about writing, and in this session, he talked about how :

Ideas come from every place.

His short story Neighbours, now included on the SPM syllabus was based on a real-life incident. His neighbour had attempted suicide, and Robert drove him to hospital. (I don't think the guy made it.) When Robert got back, he found the neighbours gathered outside his neighbour's gate gossiping about him. Out came the note book, and the idea for the story was born. Another story came out of the strong sense of deja vu he felt when he visited KL's Station Hotel.

Then he talked about how important it is he finds the beginning of his stories and chooses the right point of view to tell the story from :

Each point of view is a different story entirely.

he says, and adds that if a story is going to go wrong (as it does for many of the students he teaches) it usually goes wrong on the first page.

In his stories he often finds himself inside the skin of a Malaysian character and in fact he says he once felt very flattered when a judge in a competition organised by the New Straits Times disqualified his entry believing it plagiarised, because how could a Mat Salleh write so convincingly about a Malay character?

Robert also talked about the importance of maintaining momentum :

Even if it's crap writing, stick with it. As parents we know that crap can be cleaned up. It's part of the editing process. When you've cleaned up that crap you find there's a cute little butt in there!

He reckons too that some of the stories that give you the biggest grief can be your best stories.

He urged his audience to take writing off the backburner of life and said write for yourself first before you do other things in the day (like answering email or checking your blog!).

Robert's hard work and commitment is clearly paying off, his novel The Lonely Affair of Jonathan Brady won 4th place in the 2008 National Writers Association Novel Contest (USA), there is going to be a play based on Lovers and Strangers, and he has a book about 20 years living in Malaysia coming out soon.

Those of you in Penang who would like to catch Robert can find him at Little Penang Street Market on August 31st, selling books on one of the stalls and giving a reading at 11am.

*Aiyoh! This got misinterpreted (thanks to my own clumsy writing) in the comments and Robert steps in to clarify how and why he rewrote his work.

Digital Literacy?

As teenagers' scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading - diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books.

But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager ... who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write.

At least since the invention of television, critics have warned that electronic media would destroy reading. What is different now, some literacy experts say, is that spending time on the Web, whether it is looking up something on Google or even britneyspears.org, entails some engagement with text.

Some months ago I posted a link to Matthew Kirschenbaum's article about the changing nature of reading in this wired age. Now Motoko Rich in the International Herald Tribune updates us on the debate being played out among educational policy makers and reading experts around the world.

The big question, does literacy need to be redefined?

Reader's Block

You've heard, of course, of writer's block, but yes, there is something called reader's block too!

Stuart Jeffries in the Guardian discovers that while Britons spend more on books than any nation in Europe, up to a quarter of them haven't read a single book in the past year :

This is depressing enough, but it does not tell the whole dismal story. Even among the remaining 75%, a lot of readers are stuck in books that won't yield to our reasonable desire for closure.

Reader's block, then is the feeling of stuckness, of bookish indigestion often brought on by a not terribly good read that we are valiantly struggling to get to the end of. The symptoms are a horrible lack of enthusiasm for picking up a book, and the employment of a whole lot of avoidance strategies.

Jeffries consults National Literacy Trust director Jonathan Douglas to get his tips for overcoming the malaise, and this is a very useful list (and worth passing on to your nearest and dearest) :

1 To read for pleasure you have got to be in charge of your reading and that means knowing that it's OK to stop reading if it gets boring. Lots of books drop off halfway through. For me, that includes Brideshead Revisited and Wuthering Heights.

2 Talk about books and ask friends for recommendations but avoid getting trapped in a tyrannical reading group for literary point-scorers. Life is too short to read books you do not like.

3 Have a varied reading diet. After a satisfying course of Philip Pullman, cleanse your palate with a sorbet of Heat or Grazia.

4 Make sure that the book you have got fits the time you have got to read. If your life is a frantic race and you only get to read on five-minute tube journeys or among the suds in the bath, do not start War and Peace. Grab one of the fantastic Quick Reads series that celebrity authors are now penning, or try a poetry anthology.

5 Read aloud. Importantly, 76% of mothers and 42% of fathers read bedtime stories to their children, but sharing a book is a wonderful way for anyone to spend time.

6 Try listening to a good book on tape or eavesdrop on Book at Bedtime on Radio 4.

Perhaps it is of some comfort that even famous writers suffer from reader's block occasionally, and Jeffries makes his own confessions about books left unread. One book he said he found impossible to read was Conrad's Nostromo, until he replaced a crappy penguin copy with a lovely OUP edition - there is a lesson there for sure.

I've just pulled out of a spell of finding reading a bit effortful and am now zipping through Junot Diaz's The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and discovering myself as a joyous born-again-reader.

A Master Storyteller

It’s amazing to read about Hindu beliefs and iconography – narrated, as it were, from the inside – in the national language. It makes you realise how free of iconoclasm, and therefore how neutered and ‘circumcised’, the language has been over the decades.

If Uthaya were merely a spokesman for his race, this would not make him an interesting writer. What counts for more: His supple and surprising uses of plot and perspective, his sense of irony and the absurd, his occasionally breathtaking endings.

Amir Muhammad reviews Uthaya Sankar's collection of short fiction Rudra Avatara: Kumpulan Cerpen Bahasa Malaysia.

Pneumatic Drills, Talking Books, and Subversive Chocolate Brownies

For last month's Readings@Seksan's we had the gentle accompaniment of the cutting of tree branches, this month we had the sound of the delightful melody of pneumatic drills as the pavement down below was torn up. Is there a conspiracy?

Then we couldn't open the wine bottle and had to send out an emergency call to the guy who sold them to us to come with a better bottle opener.

Then the microphone was giving grief, screeching away and soundman Reza, who has no idea of priorities, was away at his sister's wedding. I shudder to think how we will be jinxed next month.

Still, once we got going things began to go well. We kicked off with Dr Shih Toong Siong was first talked very interestingly for a few minutes about his his book Foochows : A Historical Perspective and told us plenty we didn't know about this community which settled Sitiawan in Perak. Want to know how Sitiawan got its name, or how its most infamous son Chin Peng became a communist? Buy me a coffee and I'll tell you (and probably more besides because I bought the book!)

Robert Raymer read from his beautifully observed short story Transactions in Thai which is included in the new edition of Lovers and Strangers Revisited and also appears in Silverfish New Writing 7. Torn between desire and conscience, expat men negotiate with a hotel owner for women to take with them to Pucket.

Kathleen Choo, a young poet who is working so hard at her craft and mobilising other versifiers through Poetry Underground read us a series of poems, moving between very lively pieces like her excellent slam poem about dead white males, and Jesus was a Black Man (a piece about skin colour and prejudice) to quieter more sensual pieces like the one about the "serpentine" sea.

This is Zain who is trying to rope us all in to take part in his wacky Read While Waiting project. I have a feeling we might just succumb to his charm!

Someone snuck in and left a plate of delicious brownies. Someone told me that they were from Amir Muhammad. Subversive brownies then, although fortunately not banned.

After the break Sheena Baharudin read a poem Keling about being taken for an Indian. Will give her a longer slot further down the lien because the poetry is bursting out of her and I am afraid she will explode if I don't. I am sorry I don't have a decent picture of her. She always turns out blurry in my photos!

Jason Leong was almost the one who got away. Advice to self when you invite someone to appear at an event make doubly sure you actually have invited them and then confirm it! Luckily his other appointment for the afternoon was a reading at MPH Megahell so I was able to persuade him to come along afterwards and read to us from his new book The Twisted Stethoscope about his experiences as a first year medical student in Dublin.

Young Nic Wong, on holiday at the moment from Columbia University has added another poetry award to his list - the 2008 American Poets award. His poems are complex and you sense layers and currents underneath the surface images.The first was Takemitsu's Kitchen, named for the composer, then Wu Gui ("after Kungfu Panda"), then The Arsonists and a new four page poem about the wonderful sex-changing clownfish.


Singer-songwriter Azmyl Yunor and actor (and much more besides) Fahmi Fadzil gave us their Wayang Buku performance (which I first saw at an event organised by KLue). It's a quirky sequence of sketches which begins with a version of the traditional puppet play with books as the protagonists, then has Fahmi as a talk show host interviewing celebrities represented by books (How do you concoct the Malaysian recipe for harmony?) and then has a hilarious dialogue in which Azmyl tries to persuade Fahmi to buy a thick book which can be used for every reason it seems ... apart from reading. Their performance ended up with a very laid back piece of A4 paper getting interviewed!

So, it was a very varied afternoon in all. My thanks to all who read and all who came and supported. Thanks Shahril Nizam for making the poster. Biggest thanks are due to Sek San for the use, once again, of this beautiful space.

I hope to organise readings next month for August 30th and already have a very strong list.

More pictures on Readings' Facebook page.

Preeta's Gorgeous Fabric

... even if the seams don’t match perfectly, Samarasan’s fabric is gorgeous. Her ambitious spiraling plot, her richly embroidered prose, her sense of place, and her psychological acuity are stunning.

Allegra Goodman gives a firm thumbs up to Preeta Samarasan's Evening is the Whole Day at the New York Times.

Update (29/7/08) :

Here's another snippet of Preeta news I will slip in here. She has another short story up on line. Sujata is being serialized this week at Five Chapters.

Readings July ("Stickyish")

Catch our next monthly writers' event:

Date: Saturday 26th July, 2008
Time: 3.30pm
Place: Seksan's, 67, Jalan Tempinis Satu, Lucky Garden, Bangsar (Map: www.seksan.com)

The readers for this month are:

Robert Raymer
Nic Wong
Dr. Shih Toong Siong
Jason Leong
Kathleen Choo
Fahmi Fadzil & Azyml Yunor with Wayang Buku

There will also be a lucky draw for free books.

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

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

This post will remain sticky-ish until the event. For more recent posts please check below.

All the Lonely People

I asked you a couple of days ago what you are reading and it's only fair I should reciprocate! I have a fair bit of catching up to do here. Here's a start.

The book I've enjoyed most recently is far and away No-one Belongs Here More than You, Miranda July's funny, sad, startling collection of short stories that won the Frank O'Connor last year. You may remember that the book comes with different coloured covers so that you can coordinate your copy with your clothes. I bought mine via Abebooks and got a bright green copy which clashed a bit with my wardrobe. (Just read on Eric's blog that he found copies at MPH Midvalley but he doesn't say what colour.)

Often bordering on the bizarre, these 16 stories of lonely misfits, injured by life, aching for love and acceptance would really hurt to read, but the characters are survivors, buffered by their rich fantasy lives.

The protagonist of Shared Patio longs to write for a magazine advice column and the story is sprinkled with offbeat advice. She builds fantasies around her neighbour which she gets close to fulfilling when he has an epileptic fit on the shared patio one day.

In Swim Team a woman coaches a swimming team comprising old people in her apartment and without the aid of water (although she does provide them with bowls when they need to practice breathing exercises!)

A woman dreams of an erotic encounter with Prince William in Majesty and awake plots how she might meet him.

In The Sister A lonely man is set up on a date with a colleague's sister who never turns up, and turns out never to have existed. Perhaps it doesn't matter in the end.

It's hard to pick a favourite, but Something That Needs Nothing is a love story that broke my heart. This Person is about how we will always go on sabotaging ourselves is as perfect a short short story as they come, and you can read the whole thing here.

I wonder it everyone reading the book will find themselves reflected in this book. Do you feel as lonely, as out of sync with the world, as uncertain, as July's characters?

It's frightening to admit, but I do sometimes. I really do! And if you say yes too, I think I will look at you oddly (as of course you will have to look at me). Maybe this is the great unsayable - we aren't as together as we'd like the world to think we are.

But when you look at Miranda July, who successful, young and beautiful, everything her characters are not, you wonder how the hell she channels these voices!

I feel like turning the book over and beginning it all over again. This is a collection that is staying on my writing desk to stir up my slothful own muse.

Here's a video from a really fun literary event organised around the book by Strangers in Seattle, and you can hear the author reading excerpts that are bound to have you rushing out for the book.

Just make sure you coordinate clothes and handbag and shoes.

Digital D-Day?

More ebooks vs trad book debate in the British press following the announcement yesterday that the Sony reader will be sold from September by Waterstones bookshop for £199 (which is a hell of a lot less than the cost of the iLiad favoured by Borders).

Every business on which the development will have an impact – from booksellers, publishers and e-tailers – will be watching how UK consumers take to e-book readers ...

the Bookseller notes while Graeme Neill on the Bookseller blog considers the knock-on effect for the British publishing industry, and wonders what Amazon.com will do now - they have thus far refused to discuss a UK launch date for the Kindle. (Are they playing a wait-and-see game?)

However, Neill points out :

... the most interesting thing that will happen over the 12 months is whether the public are convinced. A £199 price point is attractive to early adopters but according to our features editor Tom Tivnan, the only member of The Bookseller to use the device, it is clunky to use. With the likes of the Nintendo DS and iPod on the market, the public is used to beautifully designed products that scream 'must have'. Will the Iliad and Sony Reader capture the imagination in the same way?

John Sutherland muses about the advent on the ebook on the Guardian blog and its likely impact :

... my feeling is that the current batch of e-readers are still two electronic generations premature. We await the Model T. But the seed is sown, and we won't have to wait long - the market is too big not to be filled. Will it kill the traditional book? No more than TV killed the movies, or the movies killed the theatre. It will, of course, change the cultural constellation. But, having enjoyed 500 years of dominance, the codex book can't complain about taking a back seat for the next half millennium. ... What the e-reader means - in the not too distant future - is as much of a cultural explosion as the "rather unusual manuscript" brought with it in the 15th century. It's not a storage device but a portal, a Lewisian wardrobe, opening into new worlds. New possibilities in linkage and illustration will supplement facsimile type.

Sutherland's vision of the future of the ebook is just beautiful (and - ahem - similar to my own!) :

In a few years, you'll be able to hear the author's voice - should you so wish - or switch between script and oral versions, full-text or abbreviated text, or digest. You'll be able to "dialogue" the book, or its maker. Soundtracks will be as possible, and as enriching, as they are with movies. Media mix will create new realms of literary artistry. Perhaps even smells. ... In 20 years, we won't know how we lived without the thing.

Postscript (27/7/08) :

There's a very interesting debate about ebooks in The Observer. Author Peter Conrad makes the case against them :

My iLiad may have gobbled up the oeuvres of Jane Austen, Dickens and DH Lawrence, but somewhere inside that slim slab of grey plastic they had apparently dematerialised, waiting to be summoned from the ether, page by page. All those thick books, heavy with experience, were now weightless, like ghostly replicas of the tattered, dog-eared, much-pored-over counterparts on my shelves. ... The iLiad, I discovered when I tried it out, is itself a merely metaphoric book. What you read is 'digital print' - print without an imprint, hovering in a grey cloud on the screen, remote from the gravity of the printing press or the flourishes of human handwriting.

But novelist Naomi Alderman sees the ebook's tremendous potential :

What's most exciting about ebooks is not what they can do at the moment but what they may do in the future. The iLiad can connect to the internet: imagine reading Middlemarch and, at a touch of a button, being able to look at images of the same paintings and sculptures Dorothea looks at in Rome or, for academics, being able to see links to all articles which reference the passage you're reading. ... Works written specially for the ebook reader are an even more exciting prospect. A piece of 'ebook native' fiction may allow you to hear the birdsong while reading a romantic outdoor scene, or may automatically subscribe you to a fictional newspaper mentioned in a crime thriller. Some will consider such things gimmicky and a threat to 'proper' reading, but different kinds of text can co-exist. Audiobooks haven't killed the printed word, television hasn't killed radio. What we're seeing isn't the death of the book, but the creation of a new art form. ... That form is still in its infancy, but as a novelist I'm excited by the creative opportunities it will bring. Meanwhile, as a reader, I'm simply excited by the possibility of regaining some floorspace. The e-reader will never completely replace paper books, but it's got an awful lot to recommend it.

Strong Filippino Showing on Man Asian Longlist

The longlist for the second Man Asian literary prize has been announced. There's a very strong showing from Indian and Filippino authors this time, and three Chinese authors listed. But sadly (for us!) no Malaysians to root for this time :

• Melting Love by Tulsi Badrinath
• Ugly Tree by Hans Billimoria
• Sugar Land by Ian Rosales Casocot
• Banished! by Han Dong
• Neti, Neti by Anjum Hasan
• The To-Let House by Daisy Hasan
• The Afghan Girl by Abdullah Hussein
• To the Temple by Tsutomu Igarashi
• Something Wicked This Way Comes by Rupa Krishnan
• Leave Me Alone, Chengdu by Murong Xuecun
• The Story that Must Not be Told by Kavery Nambisan
• Love in the Chicken's Neck by Sumana Roy
• On the Edge of Pandemonium by Vaibhav Saini
• Midnight Tales by Salma
• Lost Flamingoes of Bombay by Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi
• Sweet Haven by Lakambini A. Sitoy
• The Last Pretence by Sarayu Srivatsa
• Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco
• My Friend, Sancho by Amit Varma
• Brothers by Yu Hua
• The Music Child by Alfred A Yuson

The shortlist will be announced in October, with the winner in November.

You can read about the authors here and should you wish to check out the rules so you can get your manuscript ready for next year, they're here.

Postscript :

Amit Varma explains on India Uncut how he was selected for the longlist on the strength of her first three chapters, and how he has to finish his novel in progress by August 1 to stay in the running. Work in progress is considered. Now that should spur some of you on!

Not for Adults

When is a novel an adult novel, and when is it a Young Adult novel? Margo Rabb at the New York Times finds that her new book Cures for Heartbreak, written for an adult readership, apparently slips :

... across a porous border.

And she ponders the sad fact that many people seem to look down on the genre :

For me, the thrill of my book’s having been sold outlasted my confusion over its classification. Then, as the publication date approached, I received a fellowship to the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. One morning in the dining room, another writer asked who was publishing my book; I told her that it was Random House, and that it was being published as young adult.

“Oh, God,” she said. “That’s such a shame.”

I couldn’t get her words out of my head. I spent a lot of time worrying about whether my book would be taken seriously. I noticed the averted gazes and unabashed disinterest of literary acquaintances whenever I mentioned my novel was young adult.

Again, I wasn’t alone. “There’s an enormous level of condescension towards Y.A. writing in the literary world,” said Martha Southgate, whose first novel, “Another Way to Dance,” was Y.A. She followed it with two adult novels. “My first book often gets literally left off my bio,” she said in a telephone interview.

Mark Haddon, who wrote numerous novels for children before “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” said in an e-mail message that he recalled “a number of people looking down their noses at me when I explained what I did for a living, as if I painted watercolors of cats or performed as a clown at parties.”

Many YA novels have of course made the cross-over, classic examples being Mark Haddon's Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime, Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy, and the Harry Potter books. I really hope Margo Rabb's book does make it back over the border!

Over to You!

I'm going to be pretty busy today running a creative writing workshop for IKIM (my third). So I'm just going to leave you this space to tell us - what are you reading? And is it any good?

I promise that I will be back to answer the question myself later!

Turkish Readers

Take comfort (!) in the fact that Malaysia isn't the only country with dismal reading statistics. ('Tis indeed a world wide phenomena.) Turkey Zaman reports [found via] :

Statistics shows that most Turks do not read on a regular basis. In fact, the average Turk spends only $10 a year on books. According to the United Nations 2007 Human Development Report, Turkey ranks 101st among 177 countries for its level of adult literacy. While Turks spend an average of five hours a day watching television, they devote only six hours in an entire year to reading. Furthermore, only 4.5 percent of the population reported that they are regular readers.

The article talks about some initiatives aimed at getting people to read more. This I thought was great :

Some judges have also gotten into the act by ordering minor offenders to read books. Murat Şenol Demirci, who was convicted for firing shots into the air at a celebration of his friend's enlistment, was sentenced to reading four books every month for one year.

Not surprisingly, the offender seemed very happy with his punishment!

Chin Chai!

Here's an invite for you to an event you might enjoy which features art with a literary twist!

Dear Sharon,

Sharon Chin and I are having an art exhibition, "Chin Chai" (after our surnames), at Sek San's from 9 - 23 August 2008.

We'd love for you and your readers to come for the opening event on 8.8.08 at 8pm (Friday).

During the opening event, we'll be launching our accompanying book to the exhibition, also titled "Chin Chai". It features new writing by KL writer Simon Soon, Auckland-based artist Kah Bee Chow, some poetry by Sharon and a short fiction piece by myself. The book will be 'sold' by donation.

We're very excited about this and would appreciate people spreading the word about the exhibition and book launch. Attached below is the full press release with more info about the exhibition and ourselves.

Thanks, Sharon.

Regards,
Lydia

Event: "Chin Chai"

Dates: 9 - 23 August 2008 (opening event 8.8.08, 8pm)

Venue: 67 Jalan Tempinis 1 Gallery, Bangsar, KL (see map)

Opening hours: 1pm - 7pm (Mon - Fri) and 11 - 5 (Sat - Sun)

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:

"Chin Chai" is a joint exhibition by artists Sharon Chin and Lydia Chai. They met in art school and became friends. Now Sharon lives in Kuala Lumpur while Lydia lives in Auckland. In an ambitious series of drawings, installation and video, they explore ideas of distance and friendship in relation to artistic collaboration. "Chin Chai" is the invented landscape of two very different artists living far apart, engaged in conversation with each other and the world around them.

We warmly welcome you to the opening event on Friday 8 August 2008, 8pm, where an artist book will be launched in conjunction with the exhibition.

There will be a screening of Werner Herzog's "Mein liebster Feind" (My Best Fiend), followed by a discussion of the film and the exhibition on Saturday 9 August, 3pm.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Sharon Chin was born in Kuala Lumpur in 1980. Working with text and sculpture especially in site-specific installations, her work looks at how we negotiate geography, history, human relations and language in the contemporary imagination. Recent solo exhibitions include Fourth World at the Australian High Commission (2006) and SENSORS: Banned Books and Other Monsters (2007) at Central Market Annexe. She is the recipient of the Krishen Jit ASTRO Fund grant as well as Australian High Commission Visual Arts Residency. She also writes regularly on art.

Lydia Chai grew up in Petaling Jaya and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland, New Zealand, where she is now based. Her recent work ranges from chinese ink and watercolour paintings to socially interactive projects. These works are based on the form and idea of roots and footnotes, their rhizomic qualities, while extending the metaphor to relations between people. She recently exhibited in the group show Tell Me To My Face (2007) organized by The High Street Project and curated Footnotes: Walking Backwards Toward Meaning (2007) in Off The Edge magazine. She has her writings on art published now and then, while working on fiction privately.

Book Critiques and Freelance Editors

A week or two back, I discovered that one of the people who had joined in the discussion on a post here was freelance book editor, Rob Redman. Never one to miss an opportunity, I persuaded him to write a post for us about what a freelance editor (sometimes, especially in the US called "a book doctor") actually does, and what you need to bear in mind when you choose one.

I reckon that this is very useful for those of you who write to know about, as good editors who can give you proper advice that will help you to develop your manuscript are few and far between in Malaysia.

Here's Rob's piece :

This is how the story goes. Freelance fiction editing began to bloom a couple of decades back, when downsizing publishers sacked many of their in-house editors. Publishers were now more reluctant to take on manuscripts that were in need of development, and there were dozens of experienced fiction editors in need of work. It was only a matter of time before those editors began to advertise their services directly to hopeful writers. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, where more prospective authors than ever before compete for the attentions of fewer publishing houses, hiring an editor is seen as one way to increase the chances of success.

I think this has led to a slight misconception regarding the role of freelance editors, and it's one that the less scrupulous editors are all too ready to exploit. You see, editors aren't really there to help you sell your book, but rather to help you improve it, to develop your abilities as a writer, and progress towards that point where you can sell your book for yourself. Personally, I'd say that 90% of the critiques I do are about helping writers in the early stages of their development, rather than polishing almost-perfect manuscripts before they're submitted to agents.

It's best to think of an editor is as a writing coach, and the process of the critique as a focussed writing course, based around your novel.

HOW TO CHOOSE A GOOD EDITOR

You'll find plenty of opinions online about what makes a good editor. All good editors should have worked in a publishing house, or have an MFA in creative writing, or have published novels themselves, or... Ultimately, that's all rubbish. Any one of those might be a good founding for an editor, or it might not. What you should look for in an editor are: an understanding of the way fiction works; genuine enthusiasm for your manuscript, whatever its level; a willingness to exchange ideas, an ability to communicate clearly; and a working knowledge of your genre, both in terms of the classics, and what's happening in the market now.

The best way to find out how an editor matches these criteria is to request a sample edit. Many editors offer these for free, others charge a token sum (say £10-£20, or US$20-40) for editing the first few pages of your manuscript. I don't think there's any harm in charging a token fee for this, as it does help to weed out time wasters, but be wary of anybody who charges anything more substantial, or doesn't offer a sample edit at all. (If you end up hiring the editor, you can often get the fee deducted from the price of the critique.)

Critiques themselves can vary hugely in terms of both price and style, so look closely before making your choice (and don't be afraid to ask questions). To give you an idea of the sort of differences involved, both of these are real critiques, from real editors: For a critique of a 70,000 word manuscript, Editor A charges £175, while Editor B charges between £525 and £700. Both critiques come with a report, of about 6-10 pages, which examine the manuscript according to a checklist of factors: character, plot, opening, language, etc. At first, it looks like Editor A is the one to go with, and editor B is some kind of shark.

However, Editor A actually farms its manuscripts out to subcontractors, to whom it pays about half its fee. These guys skim through the manuscript and then fill in the form in the space of an afternoon. Meanwhile, Editor B spends a week or two with each manuscript, annotating it throughout. After the critique, Editor B is available to discuss their comments, while Editor A is not. The services are entirely incomparable, but both have the same name. In fact, Editor B is the professional, and Editor A, well, I wouldn't hire them. This is one of the reasons why it pays to shop around, and to check the small print. The critiquing business is entirely unregulated, and the only way to know what you're getting is to ask, every time.

Here are some things to consider when shopping around for an editor:

Do they offer a sample edit? (either free or for a token payment)
Do you get just a report, or a report and annotations to the manuscript?
Is the editor available to discuss their suggestions with you after the critique?
What's the editor's experience?
Does the editor work in your genre?

(Regarding this last question, my website's called "The Fiction Desk", but I still get a surprising number of requests to edit non fiction. I've even had a request to edit a hip hop video!)

Don't ever hire an agent or a publisher for any kind of critique or reading. The same goes for self-publishing outfits, who have an interest in making you think your book is publishable when it may not be.

Draw up a shortlist of two or three editors who look like they meet your requirements. Send them an email asking for the sample edit, and don't be afraid to ask any other questions you might have. (Requesting more than two or three sample edits at a time isn't really fair, because these do eat into editors' workdays, but if your first round doesn't turn up anybody you'd like to work with, you can always try again with more editors.)

When the editors reply, they'll probably have some questions of their own, about your story, who you're writing for, that sort of thing. It really is worth trying to answer these, because they'll help the editor to do a better job for you. It's also worth getting into the habit of writing professional, responsive emails about your work, because you'll need to do this when you're looking for an agent or a publisher. Sometimes an editor will turn down the sample edit request, simply because it's not their genre. That's okay.

Once you've got your sample edits back, compare both the edits and the emails you've received, and decide whose working style suits you best. If none does, start looking for another couple of editors. (If you decide not to hire an editor, it's nice to send them a quick email to let them know, and to thank them for the sample anyway.)

If you find an editor you like, ask again to confirm the details of the edit, what you'll get and when, then sign up!

Rob Redman offers editing services and advice through his website, The Fiction Desk.

He has promised to drop by and answer any questions you may have about freelance editors, so please go right ahead and ask. And some of you might have experiences of your own to tell us about.

BiblioIncendiary!

Burning books is the most extreme expression of censorship, isn't it? The book pyre an extremely emotive image. We think of the Nazi's burning works of philosophy and literature in 1933 (below), of the burning of Rushdie's The Satanic Verses in Bradford in 1989. (Wikipedia has a very detailed list of book burning incidents through history.)



So emotive and potent is the image in fact that here Sisters in Islam recently protesting censorship of books had images of books being burned on posters and postcards ... even though books have never been physically burned by the authorities here!

Australian antiquarian bookseller Matthew Fishburn was so fascinated by the fiery subject as his topic for his PhD thesis, which has now been published as Burning Books, and he says in an interview with The Australian that there are many other reasons beside censorship why books get burned.

Simply getting around the problem of disposal for unwanted books, is one example. Or folks making a symbolic gesture that they have moved on with their lives, as these lads are doing :



We have also met on this blog the bookseller who is burning his own books as a cultural protest:



and the author who tried to burn his own novel (and who asked for another of his works to be burned posthumously.)

John Sutherland who reviews Fishburne's book in the Times and calls it a fascinating chronicle wonders whether book burning might be about to come to an end with the intervention of technology? :

In modern times, as Fishburn notes, book burning has faded from the scene. Partly it's the improved technology of pulping. Partly it's that Goebbels has given the practice a bad name. Partly it's obsolescence: how do you burn an e-text? How will some future Caliph Omar be able to destroy the great Google Library (some five million texts), available to us (at a price) later this year?

If you want a taste of Burning Books do check out Fishburne's blog of the same name, there's some fascinating stuff here including illustrations that didn't make it into the book.

How Indian Is Indian Writing In English?

The other day Uma raised the issue of why our published-to-critical-acclaim- overseas-Malaysian-authors :

... seemed to be everywhere else. To be anywhere but here.

The same is true of course of Indian authors. (And Pakistani authors, and Bangladeshi authors, and Sri Lankan authors, and Nigerian authors and ... the list goes on.)

Abhinav Maurya writes a very interesting piece about the phenomenon in LittleIndia [found via] :

The next time you walk into a bookstore to browse English books penned by Indian authors, try this little game. Turn to the author biography to see which continent he currently calls home. If you are pondering established names on the literary scene, chances are that nine times out of ten, you will hit upon the phenomenon of the Indian English writer in self-imposed exile.

He ponders the reasons for this, muses on the effects on the writing :

The multiculturalism evident in the works of émigré Indian writers is a result of the alienation they have suffered from both cultures, Indian and western, and their struggle to bridge the gap between the two. It is often because of the distance these writers must contend with between themselves and the milieu of their stories that a certain longing and sentimentality often creeps into their works. Though this element of nostalgia has often been debunked by the critics, it may well be seen as the hallmark of an emerging class of Indian writers.

And in the end recognises :

Whatever the reasons, the exile has done more good than harm to the Indian literary scene, with publishing houses and literary agencies setting up base in India, in recognition of the growing importance of Indian writing in the global scene. The press has been flooded for some years now with stories of major publishing houses like Penguin, HarperCollins and Random House flocking to India in expectation of a literary boom in the country. This in turn has helped many English writers living in India find good publishers and recognition for their work.

Not to mention of course the encouragement for writers inherent in seeing someone from your own part of the world succeed globally.

By the way, I take issue with Maurya saying that Hari Kunzru is an Indian author settled abroad! He was born in Britain and brought up in Britain, but yes has an Indian father! Does everyone need to be pigeon-holed neatly into boxes that identify them as exclusively this and that?

His Record is Toast, Says Rushdie.

Don't challenge Salman Rushdie to a duel of the book-signing pen!

Wine writer Malcolm Gluck had the audacity to question whether Rushdie could possibly have signed as many books as he had claimed, or whether he had just scribbled his initials. According to Maev Kennedy in the Guardian :

Gluck's claimed record is 1,001 copies in 59 minutes, set at a wine warehouse in London in 1998. Gluck achieved this with the help of a team of three men, one fetching the copies, one opening them at the blank page, and another whisking the signed copies away.

Rushdie said he had signed 1,000 copies, on his most recent tour promoting the Enchantress of Florence, in a books warehouse in Nashville in 57 minutes.

A crack team of bookstore staff is apparently essential to facilitate the process and Rushdie is apparently right up there in the company of President Jimmy Carter, the novelist Amy Tan as one of the world's fastest book-signers. (Although the article adds that thriller writer Ken Follett could be a serious contender. He signed 2,050 copies in three-and-a-half hours at a book fair in Madrid earlier this year, beating his own record of 1,600 last year at a fair in Italy.)

Btw, I really wish bookshops here would get authors to sign stocks of their books when they are in town! The only author who did this as far as I know was naughty Nirpal. Peter Carey was the biggest one (as far as I am concerned) who got away.

Perfect!

Is there ever such a thing as a perfect novel?

I enjoyed this piece on the Paper Cuts blog, but must confess I am of the same opinion as the commenter who contributes Randall Jarrell's definition :

A novel is a prose narrative of a certain length that has something wrong with it.

Some of the novels for which perfection or near perfection are claimed by blog readers here are The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lolita by Nabokov, David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green, As I Lay Dying by Faulkner, and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee among many many others.

(I would perhaps have added Ian McEwan's Atonement, Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day and Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.)

This is an excellent list of reading recommendations and whether any of these books really are "perfect" or not doesn't really matter, does it?

(Pin-up boy is of course Robert Redford in The Great Gatsby. Luscious.)

Another Literary Saturday

Heavens above! Once again we have a single Saturday crammed with activity of the bookish kind. I'm talking about 26th which kicks off with MPH Breakfast Club (11.00a.m. to 12.30p.m.) featuring short story writer Robert Raymer, whose collection Lovers and Strangers Revisited has just been republished by MPH. (More about Robert and the event on Eric's blog.)

I've been hoping for some time that Sarawak based Robert would find his way back over here again soon, and that I would be able to nab him for Readings@Seksan. And so it has come to pass.

This then is the second great event of the day, running from 3.30-6 p.m.) and the poster will be up on this blog as soon as I have finalised the line-up (or as far as I can, given the inherent unpredictability of this kind of event!).

Saradha Narayanan will be at Silverfish at 5.30 p.m. to talk about a little about her experience with writing and then read selected passages from her book, Freedom of Choice. (Should be possible to hop from Seksan's to Silverfish in time to catch this if you need a double/treble dose of book events.)

Meanwhile, over at Rasta Restaurant in Taman Tun (5.30-8.30), the lovely Farish Noor launches his new book Dibalik Malaysia. The hilarious Harith Iskander will be MCing and there's food! (Click the poster up to full size to see details and map.)

Can you cram in four events in one day? This is the ultimate lit-lovers challenge.

Poetika

Do you like poetry?

Do you love it?

Do you like it better than shopping?

Think Plath and Auden were your real parents?

Would your life be totally meaningless, worthless, hopeless and unbearable without it?

Do you dream of having your own poetry published so much so that you stay up late at night, night after night, writing your bestest poem ever?

Then you need PoetiKa!

JK

If you saw yourself in that intro, don't be shy about sending your work to Jerome and the other guy whose art you can see atop. The submission guidelines are here. There's also a Facebook group.

Wigfall's Win

Claire Wigfall, the youngest writer on the shortlist and a relative unknown, has won the BBC's National Short Story award with The Numbers, which Lyndsay Irvine in the Guardian calls :

... an eerie tale of life on a remote Scottish island

You can listen to it here.

Wigfall is also the author of The Loudest Sound and Nothing.

Jane Gardam was named as runnerup for The People on Privilege Hill. The other shortlisted stories were Guidelines for Measures to Cope with Disgraceful and Other Events by Richard Beard; Surge by Erin Soros; and The Names by Adam Thorpe.

The award is the world's largest for a short story and worth £15,000, and all the shortlisted stories are to be compiled into a single volume by Short Books.

(Phot0 by D.G. Jones on Flickr.)

Singapore Swordfish

Kee Thuan Chye's play critically acclaimed new play The Swordfish, Then the Concubine :

A bitingly comic satire that blends ancient myth with contemporary politics. A highly theatrical production of an exciting epic.

is being staged in Singapore from Wednesday, August 6 to Sunday, August 10, 2008 at The Drama Centre, 100 Victoria Street, National Library Building Level 3.

The play is directed by Ivan Heng and accompanied by live orchestration by Gamelan Asmaradana.

Here are links to my previous posts about the play and the Facebook page for the event is here.

Murder Most 'Orrid

This year's Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction has been won by In The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale, which takes for its subject a notorious 1860 murder case in which Saville Kent, a three year old child from a respectable middle-class family disappeared from his bed. His body was later found stuffed down the privy (outside toilet).

As Charlotte Higgins explains in the Guardian :

The Road Hill House murder provoked national hysteria, and inspired writers such as Charles Dickens and that great exponent of the Victorian sensation novel, Wilkie Collins.

Chair of Judges, Rosie Boycott described the book as:

... one of those great non-fiction books that uses the techniques of fiction to magnificent effect. On first reading, it is an absolute page-turner. Then, when you reread it, you realise how many levels it has, how much it tells you - about the founding of the police, the Victorian study of physiognomy, the inherent snobbery of the time that meant that the police wouldn't touch anyone from the upper classes, because they 'couldn't' have committed a crime. ... And then there's the way the case became a media event, in a very McCann-like way. The newspapers of the time started spinning stories of who might have done it.

There's a really whizzy website for the book, complete with interactive map of the house where the murders took place. And you can read an appetite-whetting extract here.

There was a very strong shortlist for this year's prize and the other books that were nominated are :

Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart by Tim Butcher
Crow Country by Mark Cocker
The Whisperers by Orlando Figes
The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul by Patrick French
The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross

Malaysians for Ubud

Fancy a book-lover's dream holiday?

This year's Ubud Writers & Readers Festival will take place from the 14-19 October and has the theme Tri Hita Karana, which refers to Balinese concept of balancing Man, Nature, God.

There are plenty of literary superstars going to be there including Vikram Seth (be still my beating heart!), Indra Sinha, John Berendt, Camilla Gibb and Alexis Wright.

Malaysians will be out in force, represented this time by Preeta Samarasan, Chiew-Siah Tei, Faisal Tehrani, Amir Muhammad, and Bernice Chauly. Sharanya Manivannan, now living in India, is also invited.