Imran and the Post 9/11 World

(Moving this to the top of my blog to remind you all.)

Imran Ahmad whom I met at the Ubud Writer's Festival in 2008 is in town on business and has kindly agreed to give a talk. He's a wonderfully warm and funny speaker and I enjoying his book very much at the moment :

Imran Ahmad author of Unimagined – a Muslim Boy Meets the West will be giving an entertaining and insightful talk entitled Islam and the West: Living, Travelling and Getting Published in a Post 9/11 World.

He will give a personal account of his experiences growing up in the Cold War era, dreaming of being a writer, and the profound changes he experienced after 9/11. His emotions during his frequent business travel to America transformed from joyful anticipation to nervous apprehension. He discusses the ‘lazy tribalism’ which drives us towards polarization, dehumanization and demonization, and the need for a ‘re-humanization’ of the relationship between the Islamic and Western worlds.

His hilarious account of his journey to publication reveals how the motif of ‘Islam vs the West’ is very hard to break – especially when it’s profitable. Also, how following your dream entails doing the necessary work and getting some good luck along the way.

Last year, Imran Ahmad embarked on a 14,000 mile drive around the United States in a hybrid car, conducting 41 speaking events in 39 cities, as part of his ‘re-humanization’ mission.

Venue : Instant Cafe House of Art & Ideas [CHAI], No. 6 Jalan 6/3, 46000 Petaling Jaya
Date : Saturday 24th April
Time : 5.30-7.30
Cost : Minimum RM20 donation towards the running costs of CHAI
Contact : Tel/Fax: +603 77848792 www.instantcafetheatre.com
info@instantcafetheatre.com

Eddin's Bloodlines

News of a very interesting event at CHAI House :

MIGRATION SEASON at CHAI April - June 2010.

MIGRATION SEASON at CHAI begins with poet and journalist Eddin Khoo's exploration of his family album.

~BLOOD LINES: Poetry, Memory and the family album~

"What began it all was the bright bone of a dream I could hardly hold onto..."

(Michael Ondaatje)

What is the nature of a family memory? How is that nature evoked in the encounter with a photograph? What do family histories conceal and how are family myths constructed? How is literature crafted from an unravelling of these?

For a decade, the writer has been collating photographs that piece together the family memory for a series of prose and prose poem remembrances.

In BLOOD LINES: Poetry, Memory and the Family Album he shares examples of photographs from his family album, explains the methods of use, reads excerpts from his assemblage of prose and prose poems and discusses the curious nature of memory and autobiography.

Eddin Khoo is a poet, writer, translator and journalist. Founder-Director of the cultural organisation Pusaka, he most recently collaborated with the late, critically acclaimed artist Ibrahim Hussein to complete the artist's autobiography, entitled IB: A Life ~ The Autobiography of Ibrahim Hussein.

Entry: Donation to CHAI Min RM10

Free Entry to CHAI- Wallahs*

* To find out more about how to become a CHAI-Wallah please e-mail us at chai@instantcafetheatre.com

Date : Thursday, 01 April 2010
Time: 20:30 - 22:30
Location: Instant CAFE's HOUSE of ART and IDEAS [CHAI]
Street: No. 6, Jalan 6/3, Off Jalan Templer, Section 6
Town/City: Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Sad I won't be able to be there myself as I'm teaching ...

David's Dose of Realism

David T.K. Wong's talk at CHAI House on Saturday was aimed at all those in the audience with authorly aspirations, and came in the form of an extended warning with each point backed up with some well researched examples from the lives of authors. (It was such a well put together talk that I am trying to persuade David to put it into the public domain - perhaps as an article or blog post.)

It can be summarised thus : don't become a writer because you think it will make you rich, famous or immortal - in most cases it won't do any of those things. You have to write because you love it. In his own case :
... writing really enraptured me. it was a kind of madness, I suppose.
it was in the Q&A that followed the talk that David really opened up and talked about himself. The question I was dying to ask, and hadn't (despite having had lunch with him a couple of times) was why he had decided to set up the extraordinarily generous award that carries his name.

He said that he first thought that he would like to write in university.  He got himself a room and a typewriter, and he had the money to support himself.  After a year though, he says, he was starving to death and no-one wanted what he had written.  he had only sold one short story :

Being practical, and Chinese, I thought I'd do something else and make enough money.

So for 35 years he did other things and when he had made enough money, he went back to writing.  He thought to himself  "There must be other peole who are like I was 35 years ago and couldn't keep body and soul together, and if there's a little bit of hope that they can make it as writers, they should have a year to test their determination.

He sees the fellowship as :

... paying back something to society. Life's treated me decently. 

But there is a deeper reason:

Most of the problems with the world are at an individual level, and due to an inability to communicate. We don't connect. How do you improve things? As an individual, you can't do much. I beleive in literature is a tool to help human understanding.

Furthermore :

Money's no damn good unless you spend it! You can't take it with you.

He also said that one of the reasons he prefers the short story to the novel is :

I'm ancient and I don't know when I'm going to die, and I'd rather not leave something half-completed.

But I think that was a tongue-in-cheek reply because he is currently working on a novel!

I had brought along copies of his latest collection of short stories (thanks to Mei Li at Marshall Cavendish who brought over a box full for me) Chinese Stories in Times of Change and David signed copies.

It was a very pleasant afternoon spent with friends and I particularly thank Jo Kukathas for giving us the beautiful space.  I hope to arrange more author events there, so if there are any authors out there who would like to talk about any aspect of writing or publishing, please do let me know and I will see what I can arrange.

All the lovely photos were taken by Umapagan Ampikaipakan, so Uma, many thanks for that,