George Town Literary Festival

Exciting news for book lovers in Penang - the first George Town Literary Festival, organised by Bernice Chauly, features a line-up of Farish Noor, Tan Twan Eng, Shih-Li Kow and Iskandar Al-Bakri.  You can read more on the festival blog.

MPH's Two-Way Tie and Other Stories

I guess most of you had forgotten all about the MPH-Alliance Short Story Competition. After all, the shortlist was revealed way back in July.

Well, the prize-giving was held on Saturday at Subang Parade, and I guess that everyone was surprised because it was a two-way tie between Booker-longlisted author Tan Twan Eng and complete newcomer, Ivan Yeo Mun Kit.

I was one of the six judges for the competition, and let me tell you that there was plenty of lively debate about all the shortlisted stories - but the panel was completely split over which one should win outright, hence the compromise. The sponsors were kind enough to donate one more top of the range laptop, and the prize-money was shared.


Left to right above : Ivan, Twan Eng's mum - Sally Tan, guest Mano Maniam who gave a very good speech on the importance of stories, Datuk Dr. Abdullah b Abdul Rahman, Director of the MPH Group of Companies, runner-up Shih-Li Kow, Zed Adams father (?), and Lee Eeleen. The other runner up, Vincent Foo Hiap Khian, could not attend the event - he lives in Sarawak and we were told that he is over-70. (So -hurray - it isn't just about young writers making a fiction debut.)

Tan Twan Eng's Some Things Will Remain is a heart-stopping drama in which a woman is forced into murder to keep her child, and its terrible climax contrasts sharply with the traquility and beauty of the setting. It asks important questions too about whether such a killing can ever be justified, and whether a person is ever truly able to make amends.

Ivan Yeo Mun Kit is a writer I am sure we will be hearing much more from in future after this promising start. All the judges loved the humour and the carefully observed detail in this story of a young man learning to drive and juggling the relationship with his “not girlfriend”. Ivan has a strong voice and has a great ear for dialogue. His characters were very well drawn. There was some disagreement among the judges about whether we liked the ending though. (But then disagreement is what makes the whole process interesting!)

I won't say any more here about the other stories beyond that I hope these writers will be encouraged to keep writing. (And I hope that others who didn't make the shortlist won't despair, there were some excellent near-misses, and other writers who show a lot of promise.)


The prize for the Teen category which went to the best story on the theme of Staying and Leaving went to Emily Jong. Again, congrats to all prize winners and I hope we are hearing more about you all soon.

It was nice to reconnect with friends at the event. Below is Shih-Li Kow who came with her son Jack, talking to Lim Soon Heng who was one of the judges of the teen prize. I also enjoyed meeting the members of Electric Minds Project, who put on an entertaining and well-acted sketch for us.


The biggest congrats of the day I think must go to MPH for organising this very much needed competition to give local writers something concrete to aim for, and to Alliance Bank for supporting it. I do hope it returns next year!

Making Ripples

I approach writing much as I would approach the acquiring of any new skill. Learn the basics, check out what the pros do, practise, get some feedback, then go back through the cycle again. Learn more, read some more, write some more, and try to have some fun along the way.

Frank O'Connor shortlisted author Shih-Li Kow talks to Daphne Lee in Starmag about writing her collection Ripples, and about how she writes and gets her ideas.

And I review the book here. The last line of the review has changed, and I intended it to read :

The best pieces in the collection display Kow as an intelligent and subtle short story writer, with a firm grip on her craft. She is an excellent prose stylist, and there’s a musicality in her writing which makes it seems effortless. Ripples confirms her as one of the best writers in the form in the country, and one feels that the book can stand proudly beside its competitors on the Frank O’Connor Short Story Prize shortlist.

Shih-Li Talks with Herself!

I won’t over-dramatise about how hard it was to write. It wasn’t like some artist suffering for their art sort of thing! Yeah, time was the only struggle I had because of work commitments. But I enjoyed the whole process. ... It’s like having a really long two-way conversation with yourself!

Ripples author Shih-Li Kow is interviewed by Intan Maizura Ahmad Kamal in The New Sunday Times today.

Mystery, Magic, Durians, Clouds and Zambia

This Saturday's Readings@Seksan turned out to be a female affair though not by design. Although a couple of folks I'd hoped to have event couldn't make it (Marina Mahathir had her own book launch at Megamall but will be with us next time; and Avanti Kumar was whisked off somewhere else by his publishers to promote his book.)

As always we managed to have one little disaster this Saturday (the usual anything that can go wrong manages to) , the microphone packed up but thankfully everyone read extra loudly and the audience huddled in close to listen.


Lawyer-by-day Jade-Yi Lo had the unenviable task of reading first. Jade attended my creative writing class and is a new writer absolutely hungry to write and very hard working. The story she'd shared with us on the last night of the class, The Girl with Red Ruby Shoes, was such so magical, I invited her to read in front of the crowd at Seksan's. She'd reworked the story, and even though I knew the ending, it still kicked me in the stomach.

Adeline Loh read the first hilarious chapter of her book Peeing in the Bush about what drove her to leap into the unknown, the reactions of nearest and dearest, and the search for a travelling companion ...


Lee Eeleen's story Scenes From The Shopping Complex appears in the Urban Odysseys collection. It is a beautifully observed piece about the nightmare of a weekend family trip to the shopping mall and the politics of family life. Much of it is written like a film script, and I particualrly love the delicious counterpoint between the supermarket soundtrack of James Dobson's Focus on the Family (which yes, for some reason really does get played ad nauseam in supermarkets here) and the reality of shopping with kids. Great comedy.

I was so grateful when Bernice agreed (the night before!) to come and read for us. And she had new material - autobiographical pieces for the new autobiography she is writing, Growing Up With Ghosts, as part of her M.A. course in creative writing at Universiti Malaya. I loved the portrait of the whole family feasting on durian - you could smell and taste the fruit. Yum!


Shih-Li Kow read her shortest story Let the Bird Sing from her new collection Ripples. A small bird sits on the windowsill of a dying man and the two are locked into one final adversarial battle. It's one of the more surreal pieces in the book - an excellent piece of micro-fiction.

Sheena Baharudin is a poet, spoken word artist, and lecturer at the International Islamic University. (It was nice to see that she had brought along some of her students!) She has performed her work alongside leading poets at various venues around the city. I am impressed by how she has grown as a poet, and how much more assured her voice has becom both live and on the page. Just take a look at the poems she read - Monologue 1.01.001 and and Cloudy Conversations.

Thanks to all who came (including quite a number of new people who I hope will find their way again), to all who read, to Shahril Nizam for the blog poster, to Seksan for his inspiring space, to the guys from MPH in Bangsar Village for bringing over books to sell, to Eugene and friends who cleared up, and to Reza in advance for fixing the microphone ...

See you all later in the month. I've fixed readings for March 28th (provided Seksan will have us) and have a great line-up already worked out. More about it later.

Sorry I'm late posting this - my photos weren't so good so I was waiting for someone to come up with some better ones and Tan May Lee came to my rescue! (The first three nice pics are hers, the last three not so nice pics are mine.)

Shih-Li's Launch

Why not go cheer on Shih-Li Kow at the launch of her collection of short stories, Ripples, at Silverfish this Saturday, 21st Feb at 5.30 p.m.? Full details on the website. And yes (much as I hate to admit Raman is ever right about things!) the book is very good indeed.

More News from Home

This Saturday you can hear the three authors of News From Home talking about their writing at MPH 1 Utama. Click the poster for more details.

This event has apparently now been canceled as there was no-one to facilitate it ...

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.