An evening with Amir Mohammad and friends

On Saturday, 23 Feb, from 5:30 to 7pm, Silverfish Books, 58-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur will host Amir Mohammad and his friends for a reading and book signing.

New Malaysian Essays 1 (Matahari Books) ( ISBN: 987-983-43596-1-4 ) is the first of a planned annual series concentrating on local non-fiction writing. From polemic to ode to memoir, this series invites Malaysian readers -- and writers -- to notice, analyse and interpret the living, throbbing, squelching vitality around them. Multi-disciplinary, multi-tasking and best appreciated on multi-vitamins, this first collection features six writers. Four of them will be present at the reading: Amir Muhammad, Brian Yap, Saharil Hasrin Sanin & Aminuddin Mahmud.

This book is available only in selected bookstores, and retails at RM30. So come on over!

Goenawan Mohamad and Laksmi Pamuntjak

In the last announcement (below) I appear to have given the impression that the event on the Saturday, 26th January 2008 will only feature On God and Other Unfinished Things by Goenawan Mohamad. Actually the event will be a double bill, featuring both Goenawan Mohamad and Laksmi Pamuntjak.

While, after the launch of his book, Goenawan Mohamad will talk about his book and other related issues, Lakshmi Pamuntjak will be reading from her new novel in progress her work in progress, The Blue Widow.

About Goenawan Mohamad: Founder and chief editor of Tempo news magazine (1971 -1998), Goenawan Mohamad is also one of Indonesia’s foremost poets, essayists and public intellectuals with six books of poems and several books of essays. The English translations of his shorts essays can be found in Sidelines (1994) and Conversations with Difference (2002), both translated by Jennifer Lindsay. Goenawan Mohamad: Selected Poems (2004) was translated by Laksmi Pamuntjak.

Goenawan Mohamad has received several international awards, among them the distinguished Louis Lyon Award from Harvard University.

About Laksmi Pamuntjak: Laksmi Pamuntjak has since 1994 written columns and articles on politics, film, food, classical music and literature for Tempo magazine and elsewhere. Her first collection of poetry, Ellipsis, appeared on The Herald, UK 2005 Books of the Year list. She is currently working on The Blue Widow, a novella partially set in Buru Island.

Goenawan Mohamad and Lakshmi Pamuntjak at Silverfish Books

On Saturday, 26th January 2008 Silverfish Books will host the launch of his latest, On God and Other Things, the English translation of his book of aphorisms, Tentang Tuhan dan Hal-Hal yang Tak Selesai. This event is sponsored by the Malaysian International Literature Society (MILS). The event will start at 5.00pm

Goenawan Mohamad's latest book of aphorisms, Tentang Tuhan dan Hal-Hal yang Tak Selesai, is inspired by Roestam Effendi's 1925 poetry collection, Pertjikan Permenungan (Scraps of Thought). Each of its parts is written with brevity, or with near-brevity -- a cut or a remnant of sorts of a larger piece. All 99 of these "scraps" can be read sometimes as parts that support or refute one another, other times as pieces that stand on their own.

While some of them are variations of the themes found in Catatan Pinggir (Sidelines), Goenawan’s weekly thought pieces in the newsmagazine Tempo, others are categorically new. All were written in times not unlike the one we are currently experiencing now, in which God seems to be irrefutable and religion gains ever more currency in the lives of many: dispensing strength, illuminating the path, but is at the same time confusing and frightening.

The book has been translated into English by the Indonesian poet and writer Laksmi Pamuntjak under the title On God and Other Unfinished Things.

Goenawan will talk about his book, and says in his email.

I understand that right now in Malaysia there is a raging controversy over the word "Allah", with the government imposing a ban on the use of the word by non-Moslems and the subsequent protests by the Malaysian Christians ... I hope my book, and my opinion, will not create a problem ...

Looks like we will be srating our new year with a bang. I suppose we can expect some visitations.

Admission is free and everyone is welcome. But space is limited. (Please do not telephone us to make reservations because we will not be taking any -- but you can call us to give us an indication of numbers. Admission will be strictly on first-come-first basis, subject to availability of space.) A limited number of his books (in Indonesian and in English) will be on sale at Silverfish Books.

Book launch - Arok of Java

Why did Pramoedya like to say that his book Arok of Java was his best? I typed in the title into Google and found that there is already a small buzz starting in the literary world. Arok of Java will be launched at SilverfishBooks, 58-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru at 5.00pm on Saturday 24^th November 2007. Admission is free. Everyone is welcome.

Arok became a king of Java bearing the name of "Arok", he who changes everything. Is somebody who changes everything a revolutionary? Was indeed this 13th century bandit turned king really a revolutionary? Is this the picture that Pramoedya Ananta Toer presents in this (mostly) realist novel? In Pramoedya's version of this early pre-Indonesian history, Arok is not just a bandit who becomes a king, but a Brahman-Kstaria-Sudra fusion. But this fusion does not amount to any super-human, for Arok is also a creature of his time and environment with all its limitations. The contradiction between the impulse to liberation and the constraints of a time bound consciousness is one of the things at the heart of this novel, which Pramoedya considered one of his most important works. How and why was this and why does it make for such a gripping read?

At the coming book launch Max Lane will look at the place of Pramoedya in Indonesian cultural life and his legacy as well as ask whether indeed Arok, a king of Java with a name meaning, "he who changes everything" was a revolutionary? Is this the picture that Pramoedya Ananta Toer presents? Max Lane will talk for 30 to 45 mins and then take some questions.

Max Lane is the translator of WS Rendra and also Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Buru tetralogy. He has written hundreds of articles on Indonesia, East Timor and the Philippines. His latest book, UNFINISHED NATION: Indonesia before and after Suharto, will be published by VERSO Books in May, 2008. He has travelled back and forth and sometimes lived in Indonesia since 1969. He was the founder of INSIDE INDONESIA magazine, the only English language popular magazine covering Indonesian affairs. He has been a teacher, diplomat, aid worker, journalist and writer as well as translator.

Launch of News from Home and the Malaysian literature in English series

News from Home has been a long time coming. Ten stories each selected from three writers. Ten stories we felt would be a nice number to introduce each of them to readers, each with their own distinct Malaysian voice, and each with a slightly different story to tell and way of telling it. These are all writers to look forward to, writers still in their thirties, writers who realise they still have a long way to go, writers who are genuinely Malaysian and modern. At the time of writing this, they are all working on their own 'solo' efforts which they hope to complete next year. We are excited like hell, we hope you will be too once you have read them.

Malaysian literature in English series

News from home will be the first book to carry this sticker (though) we may decide to put it on some of our previous books that we think qualify - Lloyd Fernando, Salleh ben Joned, Huzir Sulaiman and some others surely will). So what is Malaysian literature in English.? The English part is clear enough. So what is Malaysian? Should the author(s) be Malaysian? No, we think not. It could be anyone who lives in or who has lived in Malaysia and has a unique perspective of what we are all about (besides the tourism brochure saccharine sweet bullshit and the whingy-whiny, angsty, everything-sucks crap). And that pretty much will define the word literature as well. Good stories well told, in a nutshell. Good poetry, good plays, good fiction and good travel writing is what we will be looking for.But if you are Malaysian and you write about Beverley Hills or Manhattan with no experience of either, I guess you will not be part of the series, lor. We will not publish you anyway. But then, maybe, others will.

Opening party

Yes, we will be having an 'opening' party at our new premises at 58-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru (above pet shop next to DHL) and also the book launch for New from Home and the Malaysian Literature in English series at 5.00pm on Saturday, 17th November 2007. Come and meet the three new writers and have a party. Guess what? It will be Diwali too. All welcome.