So You Think You Can Write?

With shows like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance? becoming such big cultural phenomena, it only makes sense to adapt their formats to other art forms that could use similar constructive ... criticism.

Sharmilla Ganesan in Starmag today writes about the So You Can Think You Can Write? event organised by The British Council.  Ten stories were chosen, my own among them, and performed by members of Instant Cafe Theatre at the PJ Live Arts Centre.

It was an excellent idea - I found it fascinating to hear how an actress (in this case Joanne Bessey) read my work, and the comments afterward from the panel of judges (author Ardashir Vakil, playwright Ben Payne,   British Council Malaysia education and programmes director Peter Clack, and ZI Publications publisher Ezra Mohd Zaid) were encouraging. So ... the setting needs work but I had "great control" and there was pleasing symmetry. I was happy with that, and know what to work on.

(I did record my story for those of you who asked me to ... but apologise for the poor quality.)


We didn't know which story had been written by whom, and we voted for the one we liked best.  :

Writes Sharmilla :

What was impressive about the stories presented was the sheer diversity of themes and ideas – and yet, they retained a uniquely Malaysian identity.

Some revolved around simple, everyday experiences that told a much deeper story. For example, It’s Alright, Auntie explored, through a child’s eyes, his parents’ hollow marriage, while Martha Falling is filled with vivid imagery centred on a woman dealing with the loss of her unborn child.

Others looked at the greyer areas of life, such as Intermission, which speaks honestly about a woman’s broken marriage and her subsequent attraction to a much younger man. There were others that took on darker, even spooky, undertones, such as A String of Pearls and A Walk in the Dark.

Ezra found this very encouraging. “What’s amazing is how these writers presented such a huge variety of stories and viewpoints. Each reading had something different from the one before!” he said.

Datuk Dr M. Shanmughalingam won for most popular story for his Rani Taxis Away :

... a simple but touching tale of an Indian girl in post-Independence Malaysia who finds her own freedom in small ways.

and will receive a Professional Development Planning Programme mentored by Spread the Word which will help him devise a route forward in creative writing. I'm very pleased for Shan and I hope that this award encourages him to - finally - get a book out.

It was unfortunate that the timing went awry and most of the audience had drifted away before the end, but I hope that we do have more events of this kind.  Many thanks to the British Council and to Instant Cafe for putting this together.

Exciting Times for Ezra

Our vision is to provide a balance of new and exciting titles while not forgetting the classics that have shaped our understanding and experience of the world. ... Now, more than ever, we find that there is an appetite for innovative, alternative ideas that challenge the mainstream ... We publish fiction and nonfiction, in both English and Malay. That said, we feel that there is great potential in the nonfiction market for both languages, especially for the Malay-language audience. Currently, the Malay-reading public doesn’t truly have the option of reading Thomas L. Friedman’s The World Is Flat, Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist or Camilla Gibb’s Sweetness in the Belly, so the translation market is something that we’re going into aggressively.

Dynamic young publisher (though he describes himself, self-effacingly as "still wet behind the ears") Ezra Zaid of ZI Publications is interviewed by Eric Forbes in Readsmonthly supplement of Starmag today and maps out his exciting future plans.

An Evening with Preeta Samarasan

On Friday night MPH held an event called an Evening with Preeta Samarasan at Bottles and Bottles in the Gardens. Yours truly did the introducing and a whole bunch of folks read their work : Kathleen Choo, Reza Rosli, Priya K, MK Ajay reading poetry; Lee Su Kim reading from A Nyonya in Texas; and Ezra Zaid, reading a special message to us from Khaled Al Khamissi and an extract from Al Khamissi's Taxi which Ezra recent published here.


But it was the lady herself we were celebrating and waiting to hear. She read from Chapter 5 this time about the return of Paathi the grandmother, who died under mysterious circumstances in the bathroom ... and reading those lines that make us gasp at their sheer audacity.

The wine (a fruity, smooth Chilean - good enough to marry) was excellent, so thank you Bottles and Bottles for that. And thanks to MPH - especially Eric Forbes and Janet Tay, for organising the event and providing the food.

Adam Lee took some terrific photos of the evening and I refer you to his page on Facebook. I couldn't resisit getting him to take this shot of Su Kim's dinky embroidered nyonya slippers. The lady gets my award for literary sartorial elegance.

Spooky Book Launch for Undead Malaysians

If you aren't too busy revving your broomstick or sticking your fangs into people's necks or otherwise scaring up the neighborhood, you might like to attend a truly ghoulish halloween launch of not one but several books by ZI publications, Matahari Books and Oxygen.

The books involved are :

Taxi by Khaled al-Khamissi (ZI Publications) (RM25)
The Malaysian Book of The Undead by Danny Lim (Matahari Books) (RM20)

Three mini-books, collectively known as Tiga, published by Oxygen:
- Lost in KL by Bernice Chauly (RM7)
- Kayangan by Ruhayat X (RM7)
- Pasca Manusia by Sufian Abas (RM7)

You are all invited to this unique event. Please see the event's Facebook page for more details and RSVP your attendance there.

Date: Friday, Oct 31st, 2008
Venue: Rahsia Restaurant, KL
Time: 8.00pm - 10.00pm
Dress: Costume (ghost, ancient Egyptian, as yourself, anything you want...).

More about the books later on.

ZI Zips In Zestfully

As promised, guest blogged for us by Ezra Zaid of ZI Pulications :

ZI Publications is looking at producing good quality books for the Malaysian audience (surprise, surprise!). Local publishers have an intimate knowledge of its audiences interest towards topics on Malaysia – its politics/current affairs, history, humour, stories, personalities, etc. But, perhaps what hasn’t been happening as much is keeping up with the variety, quality and substance of books that the public deserves (and probably wants, too!).

Books that carry the ZI Publications logo have to be as good (in all aspects: concept, content, artwork, font size, choice of paper, etc) or better even, especially when they stack up right between Obama’s Audacity of Hope and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner - this is the reality of it.

We are looking to produce / currently producing works of Fiction and Non-Fiction, in both English and Bahasa Malaysia. That said, we feel that there is great potential in the Non-Fiction market for both languages, especially for the Malay language audience. Currently, the public doesn’t truly have the option of reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman or Coelho’s The Alchemist in Bahasa Malaysia; so the translation market is something that we’re going into aggressively - to provide current international bestsellers, books with international critical acclaim, and maybe some of the great classics in Bahasa Malaysia. Every other country is doing the same with their national languages, and it is about time we did too.

Expect to find the following titles from us in Bahasa Malaysia:

The Islamist by Ed Husain (Penguin UK)
No God but God by Reza Aslan (Random House)
Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea(Penguin USA)

...and many more to come.

We have other projects/ideas along the way, so stay tuned. Visit us at www.zipublications.com.my and get in touch with us – manuscripts, ideas, comments, opinions, etc., they’re all welcome.

You can also add ZI Publications as a Group on Facebook!

Get that Garouda off the Twin Towers!

Farish Noor, surely one of the most influential contemporary thinkers on the political landscape of this country has a new book out this month. Di Balik Malaysia is a collection of his essays translated into Malay. Hopefully this will mean that Farish's writing will reach a much wider local readership.

Most of the pieces appeared previously in English in From Mahajapahit to Puterajaya (Silverfish Books 2005), but there are also three new pieces written specially for the book. The cover illustration by Fahmi Reza is rather lovely too. Very King Kong Indon style. (Click up to full size and admire.)

Being the lazy so-and-so that I am, I've lifted this synopsis from the English version on the Silverfish website :

Washington has fingered Malaysia as a 'Islamic terrorist hub' several times since 9/11. In this second collection of Farish A Noor's commentaries on unfolding developments in Malaysia (which) is nothing if not timely with the current raging debate on the 'clash of civilisations'. By focusing on specific issues and suddenly erupting controversies, of Malay/Muslim nationalism and (what he calls) the rise of Islamic 'religio facism' in Malaysia and Indonesia, he tries to answer the question: how much of this is caused by Western 'meddling', and how much of it is actually home grown? This book is written in "white heat" of someone personally affected by the events, but at the same time Dr Farish A Noor manages to maintain an academic distance required by the scholar he is. A must read for anyone interested in the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and religio-fascism in the world today, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia.

I had a breakfast meeting Ezra Zaid of ZI publications (which put out this book) the other day. I tell you the guy is absolutely bursting with ideas for great publishing projects. I'm giving him the space here to tell you more very soon.

Oh, and news about the launch party for this book when I have it.