| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Cyril Wong |
Posted - 30 Aug 2004 : 16:43:02
Septfest 2004
The Substation presents
VOICE & PLACE IN LITERATURE: WRITERS FORUM
Venue: The Substation Guinness Theatre
Date: (Sun) 5 Sep 2004
Time: 1-6pm
Free Admission
What is the relationship between where you come from and what you write? Organised and moderated by Cyril Wong, five writers from Malaysia and Singapore will talk about voice and place in their writing, as well as read extracts of their work.
THE WRITERS
Suchen Christine Lim (Singapore)
Jason Wee (Singapore)
Jerome Kugan (Malaysia)
Robert Yeo (Singapore)
Dato M. Shanmughalingam (Malaysia)
MODERATED BY Cyril Wong
ABOUT THE WRITERS
DATO M. SHANMUGHALINGAM: Dato M. Shan graduated with an Honours degree from the University of Malaya with triple distinctions in Economics, Literature and History. At Harvard University, he scored As in all his 8 subjects to emerge first in his class for his Master’s degree. Later, he pursued his doctorate at Oxford University (Balliol College). During his stint there, Dr Shan won prizes in poetry and literature, including a short story prize judged by the famous novelist Iris Murdoch and Oxford Professor Of Literature, John Bailey. Presently, besides being the Managing Director of Trilogic Sdn Bhd and director of GEC and Delloyd Ventures Bhd, he sits on the Oxford University Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee (for Malaysia), the Board of the V.I.O.B.A. Foundation and is Chairman of the V.I.O.B.A. Scholarship Committee. Dr Shan is also a prolific writer and has been on the panel of advisors for Dewan Sastera and Dewan Budaya. He was also a member of the National Committee of Writers at Dewan Bahasa, the national language and literary agency.
JEROME KUGAN: Jerome is a 29-year-old Malaysian writer, poet and musician. However, after winning a scholarship to pursue Professional Writing studies at the University of Canberra, Australia, Jerome decided to give writing a serious go. While in Australia, he discovered sexual freedom and performance poetry. One thing led to another and he started to dabble in Casio-driven punk music, falling in (and out) with a rag tag band of pseudo-anarchic neo-Dada artists. Upon graduation in 1998, Jerome returned and wasted two years as a sub-editor for a newspaper in Kota Kinabalu before moving to Kuala Lumpur, where he has been based since 2001. Among his more notable failures include publishing a poetry zine called Poetika, organising an annual Independence Day Reading with decreasing audience attendance, getting criticised for writing scathing theatre reviews, aborting the launch of a self-composed midi-pop CD and giving dismal singer songwriter-ish recitals. As of 2004, he has completed two unpublished manuscripts, one of which was rejected by a local independent publisher that deemed it ‘pornographic’. As a multidisciplinary artist, Jerome projects a devil-may-care persona prone to attacking the apathy and mediocrity of others. However, much of this despicable attitude stems from a deep dissatisfaction with his own poetry and music. We hope he will snap out of it one day and just learn to chill. Some of his less disturbing poems can be found in the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore.
SUCHEN CHRISTINE LIM: Suchen Christine Lim's fiction have been published in Singapore and other countries such as the US and Australia. Her novels, Gift from the Gods (1990), Fistful of Colours (1993) and Ricebowl (1984) are set in Singapore in the volatile 60s and 70s. She has been awarded several writings residencies and prizes. In 1992, she was awarded the inaugural Singapore Literature Prize for her third novel, Fistful of Colours. Her latest novel, A Bit of Earth (2000), set in colonial Malaysia, is about the rise of a poet's son from tin miner to tycoon. In 1997, Suchen was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to attend the University of Iowa's International Writers' Program, and in 2000, she was the first Singapore writer honoured as the UI's International Writer-in-Residence where she conducted workshops and readings. In 2003, she was writer-in-residence at the University of Western Australia, and represented Singapore at the New Zealand Arts Festival in 2004. Next year, 2005, she will be the first Singapore writer-in-residence in Scotland.
ROBERT YEO: Robert has published four books of poetry, one novel and edited numerous books of Singaporean literature, including the best-selling Singapore short stories, which became an O-level Cambridge school text. He chaired 2 drama committees from the late seventies to late eighties and for his services to theatre he was awarded the public service medal in 1991. He has 5 plays, which have been performed, the most prominent of which is The Singapore Trilogy, published in 1991, plays which made Singapore politics a legitimate subject for theatre. The Singapore Trilogy is a text for A-level study in a junior college in Singapore. His last 2 books are Leaving Home, Mother (1999), which are his selected poems & the already-mentioned The Singapore Trilogy (2001). He has participated in poetry slams and he is a mentor for the National Arts Council. He is currently at work on his memoirs, believing that one is never too young to start on this.
JASON WEE: He is a photographer and a poet. He works primarily in digital photography, and his art has been exhibited in both Singapore and Malaysia, including two solos, and the 22nd UOB Painting of the Year exhibition. He is the Editor of Vehicle, a visual arts and visual culture magazine, and Guest Editor of the2ndRule, an intermedia journal. Literary pursuits include publication in the anthology Love Gathers All, and being a co-founder of Thursday Circle, a community of young writers. He is the winner of the NAC-Shell Scholarship in 2004.
CYRIL WONG (Moderator): A featured poet at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and published in such international journals as Slope, Poetry International and Atlanta Review, Cyril is the author of four collections of poetry. Various interdisciplinary performances based on his poetry have been staged in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore. |
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