Friday 25 April 2014
Second Islamabad Literature Festival
The second Islamabad Literature Festival starts today. The Festival was co-founded by Ameena Saiyid, of Oxford University Press Pakistan, and the company is a sponsor. Dr Federico Bianchi, First Secretary, Head of the Economic, Cultural, and Press section of the Embassy of Italy to Pakistan will give the opening address, followed by keynote speeches from Urdu poet and scriptwriter Zehara Nigah, and from short story writer and critic Aamer Hussein. The Festival runs until Sunday. Click here for full details of the programme.Click here for the Facebook page.
Thursday 24 April 2014
Alice On Self-Publishing: Once Upon a Mulberry Field
Alice Clark-Platts writes
our monthly column on self-publishing. Here
she talks to C L Hoang, who has recently self-published his first
novel, Once Upon a Mulberry Field, through Smashwords.
C L Hoang was born and raised in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, he then moved to the United States in the 1970’s. Like many authors, C L conducts his writing life alongside his primary profession – in his case, working by day as an electronic engineer whilst scribbling away at night.
C L Hoang was born and raised in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, he then moved to the United States in the 1970’s. Like many authors, C L conducts his writing life alongside his primary profession – in his case, working by day as an electronic engineer whilst scribbling away at night.
C L began Once Upon a Mulberry Field in homage
to his Vietnamese father, so as to capture the memories of family life in
Saigon during the war. Later, C L discovered that the
stories he unearthed deserved their place in a novel. He wanted to write about
the experiences of the Vietnamese in a country destroyed by war, juxtaposed
with the fates of the American servicemen who fought against them.
Once Upon a Mulberry Field is set in Bien-Hoa Air Force Base near Saigon in 1967, at the height of the Tet Offensive. The novel explores the blossoming romance between a U.S. Air Force doctor, Roger Connors, and Lien, a young Vietnamese widow working as a hostess at a Saigon club.
"Writing the novel has been the hardest task I have ever undertaken." Says C L. "It took me six years to finish but, if I was ever going to write a book, this was the one I wanted to write."
The choice to self-publish was as a means of achieving creative freedom: "It was a way of telling my story in the way I thought best. The process gave me the independence to choose the layout and design of the book – every aspect of the novel has been specifically selected by me."
C L admits that the learning curve has been steep. In line with the message of last month’s column, he advises that the input of professionals and experts is invaluable when it comes to the technicalities of editing and cover design etc.
The hardest part of the project was publicising and marketing the novel. "After doing your best on social media; writers’ platforms; and even working with a book publicist, the fruits of your labours are outside your control." He warns, adding that prior to publication is is a constant worry whether anyone will actually buy the book.
Sales of Once Upon a Mulberry Field have been steady but C L admits that striving forth without the backing of a big publishing house is challenging, especially for an unknown, first-time author in a competitive market.
C L says whether he is inspired to write another novel remains to be seen. But, he adds, Vietnam is a beautiful country with a rich cultural heritage and an ancient folklore that highlights the universal human condition and spirit. "I hope to be inspired again to share that with my reading public."
More information
Click here for the Once Upon A
Mulberry Field site.
Click here for the page on Smashwords.
Wednesday 23 April 2014
World Book Day
Today is World Book and
Copyright Day, organised by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing and
copyright.
The connection between 23 April and books was first made in
1923 by booksellers in Spain as a way to mark the death date of the author Miguel de Cervantes. In 1995, UNESCO decided to adopt it as World Book and
Copyright Day. The date is also the anniversary of the birth and death of
William Shakespeare.
Unfortunately, this World Book Day is
marked by sadness in Asia. The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, yesterday
presented the people of Myanmar with her condolences following the death of
journalist and poet U Win Tin, laureate of the 2001 UNESCO Guillermo Cano World
Press Freedom Prize.
U Win Tin co-founded Myanmar’s National League for
Democracy in 1988. He was arrested soon afterwards and spent nearly 20
years in prison before being released in 2008. While he was behind bars,
Win Tin continued to advocate for free speech and democracy, even writing a
letter to the United Nations that led to an extension of his sentence.
“The death of U Win Tin is a loss to the people of Myanmar
and to champions of freedom of expression all over the world,” declared Irina Bokova. “It is also a loss for
UNESCO, whose values U Win Tin promoted with exemplary selflessness before his
country embarked on the process of democratisation that is presently underway.”
U Win Tin died on 21 April after being admitted to hospital
because of kidney problems.
On a happier note, you can celebrate World Book Day by
joining in with worldwide debate via UNESCO’s Facebook page: click here.
Monday 21 April 2014
Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival
Prize-winning novelists Hanif Kureishi, Kamila Shamsie, Tash Aw and Romesh Gunesekera plus award-winning BBC journalist John Sweeney are some of the key speakers at this year’s Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival, which takes place at Asia House in London from May 6 to May 21, 2014.
Now in its eighth year and with a new title sponsor, the Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival is the only UK festival dedicated to pan-Asian writing.
With a range of events covering more than 17 countries, the Festival this year includes authors writing about China, Japan, Malaysia, North Korea, South Korea, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, Nepal, the Middle East, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Palestine, Sri Lanka and Britain.
This year’s theme is Changing Values Across Asia. Foreign correspondent Peter Popham examines Burma two years after its milestone election, while Shereen el Feki, author of Sex and the Citadel, and Sally Howard, author of The Kama Sutra Diaries, take a serious but entertaining look at changing sexual mores in the Middle East, India and Pakistan.
Literary superstar Hanif Kureishi launches the Festival as he discusses his new novel, The Last Word, while award-winning Pakistani author Kamila Shamsie introduces her hotly anticipated novel of friendship, injustice and love, A God in Every Stone.
The best of Asian literature is further celebrated as new works by acclaimed Sri Lankan novelist Romesh Gunesekera, Chinese novelist and film maker Xiaolu Guo, and Pakistani-born Roopa Farooki are previewed in a special showcase event ahead of publication.
The series Extra Words will introduce debut authors from Pakistan, Nepal and Thailand.
Award-winning BBC reporter John Sweeney, author of North Korea Undercover, joins Paul French, author of North Korea: State of Paranoia, to analyse the threat posed by that country, while historian John Keay introduces the first comprehensive history of South Asia as a whole with his new book Midnight’s Descendants.
Digital freedom in East Asia will be analysed with Thai blogger Giles Ji Ungpakorn, and Anja Kovacs from the Internet Democracy Project in Delhi.
British Asian humour will be hotly debated by a panel including journalist Sathnam Sanghera, BBC head of comedy Saurabh Kakkar, comedian Shazia Mirza and writer producer of hit TV shows Goodness Gracious Me,The Kumars at Number 42, The Office and Citizen Khan, Anil Gupta.
Brigid Keenan, author of Packing Up: Further Adventures of a Trailing Spouse, takes us on a wildly funny tour through her life in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Palestine.
Brigid Keenan, author of Packing Up: Further Adventures of a Trailing Spouse, takes us on a wildly funny tour through her life in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Palestine.
Look out for further information on the blog, including details of how you can participate from Asia via social media.
Friday 18 April 2014
Seen Elsewhere: Death of Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez
The death of Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez is being mourned and reported around the world. Here are a few of the tributes, in English.
The Guardian (UK)
The New York Times
Sydney Morning Herald
RT (Russia)
Xinhua (China)
Al Jazeera (Qatar)
The Guardian (UK)
The New York Times
Sydney Morning Herald
RT (Russia)
Xinhua (China)
Al Jazeera (Qatar)
Thursday 17 April 2014
Questions & Answers with R. Ramachandran, Executive Director, National Book Development Council of Singapore
The National Book Development Council of Singapore promotes and encourages the local
community of writers, publishing professionals, librarians, and booksellers
working in all four of the country’s official languages: English, Mandarin,
Malay, and Tamil. Its aim is to
establish Singapore as a hub for publishing and the literary arts. I spoke to
the Executive Director, R. Ramachandran.
How far has The Council succeeded in developing Singapore as a regional centre of literary activity? What
still needs to be done?
Our own
programmes, in conjunction with those of the National Arts Council (NAC), have
together made a good start. The NAC’s Singapore Writers Festival and our own
Asian Festival of Children's Content (AFCC) have together established Singapore
as an Asian centre for writers producing content for both adults and children.
Our awards
for children's content, such as The Scholastic Asian Book Award, a joint
initiative with the children’s publisher, and Asian Picture Book awards for
both authors and illustrators, have been particularly successful. Through our involvement with children's books we
have directed the attention of illustrators to Singapore, thus helping to
promote the City as an Asian centre for the visual arts.
What we have
not yet become is a fully-fledged publishing centre. We still need trained
editors and marketing personnel specialising in regional and international
marketing. We need to develop literary agents and expertise in the selling of
rights. We are addressing these needs and have established the Academy of Literary Arts and Publishing for training personnel in editing, book design, managing
intellectual property, and the various other aspects of publishing.
Which other Asian cities do you see as
rival hubs for publishing? What are they doing better, or not so well, as
Singapore?
Actually we
have no rivals. We are unique in publishing and promoting all four languages: English,
Chinese, Malay and Tamil. Our diversity in language and culture makes us
attractive to the literary arts community throughout Asia. Having an
English-speaking population means we can publish in English for the world
market.
Talking of which, Singapore itself has a
small market for books, but it is excellently placed to be a bridge between
east and west. What are you doing to grow international connections in the
publishing industry?
Local
publishers do not publish for Singapore alone. They publish for the region and
hence what needs to be done is to connect them with distributors who will
distribute the books for the rest of Asia. We need to emerge as a country which
has good translators. Once we have a core group of translators, we can
translate Asian books from one Asian language to the other. When that happens
we will have a market of 700 million in ASEAN alone to reach out to.
Perhaps the even bigger challenge is reaching out to the West. The West wants to sell to the East but does not readily buy from the East. Such purchases, if any, are very limited. What must be done is that we must reach out to the West not through establishing contacts with the Western distributors but by developing our own network to handle distribution. Only then, through a coordinated effort, can publicity, marketing and sales be effective.
Perhaps the even bigger challenge is reaching out to the West. The West wants to sell to the East but does not readily buy from the East. Such purchases, if any, are very limited. What must be done is that we must reach out to the West not through establishing contacts with the Western distributors but by developing our own network to handle distribution. Only then, through a coordinated effort, can publicity, marketing and sales be effective.
Already we are attracting writers and key industry
players from the West to our festivals, enabling them to become familiar with our
literary works. We want them to recognise our content is good, but not
necessarily to take on the responsibility of distributing books published in
Asia.
South East Asia lacks an international
marketplace for rights. Do you have plans for an Asian books fair, as an Eastern
equivalent of Frankfurt or London?
The AFCC is already
acting as a marketplace for Children's content, and this is bound to grow. We
intend to suggest to the National Arts Council that we should organise an
Asian Book Fair for all content, in conjunction with the Singapore Writers
Festival.
How do you promote writing and publishing
in languages other than English?
The Singapore
Literature Prize managed by us gives recognition to works published in all four
official languages. All our festivals have a strong track record in presenting
workshops and seminars in Chinese, Malay and Tamil. This we think is unique as
most literary festivals are monolingual.
What do you do to promote translation
between languages, especially of Chinese, Malay and Tamil into English?
In 2012, we
held the first Asian Expressions, a conference conceived to focus on and
promote literary translation, to celebrate writings and writers in Asian languages,
especially Chinese, Malay and Tamil. The conference brought together translators,
and authors from various language groups to enable cross-cultural exchange.
Asian Expressions was a great success and we intend to hold it again, either
bi-annually or once in three years.
In the
meantime, we continue to encourage translation, and to run programmes to train translators,
and this year alone Singapore will be host to two major events throwing a focus
on translation: the Singapore International Translation Symposium 2014; the
Singapore International Storytelling Festival, 2014.
At the
Storytelling Festival storytellers from Singapore, India, Korea and Italy will
be telling stories translated from other languages into English.
Do local writers writing in Chinese,
Tamil, or Malay have international connections?
Writers in
each language group have strong associations and links with their own
diasporas, as well as with writers in the country or countries where the
language is a, or the, national language.
Do different genres (romance / sci-fi) or
types of writing (prose / poetry) dominate in the different language groups?
All genres
are popular but across all four languages poetry is most popular.
What currently are the major concerns of Singaporean
writers?
Lack of
sufficient support. Our writers need staff to manage their publicity and
marketing activities as most are also fully employed. Writers need more
exposure. They need to travel and take part in festivals throughout Asia and
the West.
Leading commercial publishers in Singapore, by language
English
|
Chinese
|
Tamil
|
Malay
|
Epigram
Books
Pagesetters
Flame of
the Forest
Marshall
Cavendish International (Asia)
Monsoon
Books
|
Candid Creation
Publishing
Shing Lee
Publishers
World
Scientific Publishing Co
Zenru
Culture Communication
|
Thangameen
Publications (Goldfish Publications)
Kumaresh
Enterprises
|
Casco
Publications
Pustaka
Nasional
Vision
Publishing Enterprise
|
Singaporean writers you might like to try, by language.
English
|
Chinese
|
Tamil
|
Malay
|
Meira Chand
Amanda Lee
Koe
Jolene Tan
Ng Yi-Sheng
Cyril Wong
Marc Nair
|
Yeng Pway
Ngon
Lee Seng
Chan
Tham Yew
Chin
|
J.M. Sali
Masilamani Anbalagan
M.
Balakrishnan
|
Yazid
Hussein
Ahmad
Jaaffar Bin Munasip
Isa Kamari
|
Tuesday 15 April 2014
500 Words From Ezra Kyrill Erker
500 Words From...is a series of guest posts from authors, in
which they talk about their newly-published books. Here Ezra Kyrill Erker explains the
background behind Salaryman Unbound, published by Crime Wave Press.
Ezra Kyrill Erker was
born in Germany and grew up in Europe, California and the South Pacific,
before settling in East and Southeast Asia. The longest and most formative
stint of his adult life so far was spent in central Japan. He now lives in
Bangkok, working as a freelance journalist.
Salaryman
Unbound is set in a Japan of corporate
intrigue, suburban loneliness and homicidal urges. Against this backdrop Shiro is having a
midlife crisis. Unexceptional in his job, he works in the shadow of his charismatic
boss. Unappreciated by his family, he has nothing to show for decades of doing
the right thing - so he decides to try doing the wrong thing, and begins to plot the murders of strangers. His researches into methods of killing bring
a dark structure to his life, and a black self-belief. Eventually, he targets
Sayuri, a neglected housewife, and soon the would be killer falls victim to love. When a body
is found, Shiro’s and Sayuri’s lives are thrown into
upheaval, and the divisions between guilt and innocence are lost.
So: 500 Words From Ezra Kyrill Erker:
Salaryman
Unbound began as a
diversion while sitting in a café in Vientiane, a few months after leaving
Japan. In an afternoon, an experimental paragraph had turned into a chapter. In
three days, without plotting ahead, my longhand filled a small notebook. In
three leisurely weeks I had a 20,000 word novella on my hands.
I
wasn’t sure where it had come from, what dark recess of the subconscious could
conjure such a disturbing tale. I’d just finished writing a collection of
stories (which became A Bridge of
Dreams: Asian Tales, published by Orchid Press) and a long, heavy
coming-of-age novel (Embers,
which should be out next year). Salaryman Unbound was a crime tale as far removed from those efforts as a book could get,
and it had pretty much written itself. The question was: what to do with it?
Like
many hastily written first drafts, it was a bit rubbish. Set in San
Francisco, it had some flat dialogue and prose, and characters that didn’t leave
much of an impression - but the main idea, of murder becoming an outlet for a
mediocre man’s midlife crisis, seemed immediate and frightening. With the right
set of circumstances it could be the story of my neighbour, a colleague or a
friend. The difficult part was creating those circumstances.
The
best fit was Japan, where a man’s company can become his purpose, his social
life, his crutch, where it is harder to change careers or start over with a
blank slate. Failure seems more permanent and more pervasive, and it makes
sense that crime might become an outlet, a grasp at self-affirmation. I didn’t
have to invent much - I knew provincial Japan very well from experience - and
once I’d made the necessary cultural adjustments the story fit right in, like
puzzle pieces fitting into place. I did some research into physiology and crime
psychology, and the novel, now three times longer, with twists in the tail, was
complete.
The novel is about how an everyman’s attempt at plotting the murder of a lonely housewife transforms his personality, so that suddenly everything seems possible. The new possibilities, however, include being more susceptible to suggestion, and the character becoming prone to a
growing certainty that he is the ruler of his own destiny when in fact there
are more variables at play than his awareness can take in.
We’ve
all watched a heist film, or a television series about a rebel, a meth cooker,
a gangster, a warrior, and caught ourselves cheering for the criminal, the
outsider. There are elements of their situation we can relate to, and getting
one over the system is something most of us at one point or another have
secretly wished we could get away with.
In
Shiro we have such an anti-hero. Told mostly through his eyes and mind, this is
not a conventional crime novel but a literary and very personal drama, at the
core of which just happens to be murder. I hope readers can find in its pages a
story they both relate to and are frightened by. I was aiming to write a
compelling and unpredictable page-turner. I hope Salaryman Unbound exposes some of the flaws and hopelessness
of the human condition.
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