George Town Literary Festival 2011

Meet these writers

2011-11-22T05:04:00.000-08:00

Meet these writers

We Open This Weekend!

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Dinner with Tan Twan Eng

2011-11-17T05:35:00.000-08:00

Literary festival to feature popular authors, works and dialogues

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Literary festival to feature popular authors, works and dialogues

OUT in The Edge!

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High-Tea with Farish Noor

2011-11-10T22:38:00.000-08:00

National Laureate Muhammad Haji Salleh to Launch Book of Pantuns at Festival Opening

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National Laureate, Muhammad Haji Salleh will be launching a book of pantuns that he has edited,”Bila Terkenang Zaman Dahulu: Pantun Pulau Pinang” at the opening of the George Town Literary Festival 2011 on 26 November 2011. These pantuns were collected from the oral and written archives of Penang - written by Penangites - Chinese, Malays and Peranakans

26 NOVEMBER 2011
Official Opening, Book Launch and Morning Tea

venue: Upstairs at China House

Time: 10.00 am - Morning Tea
11.00 am - Book Launch &
Official Opening by Chief Minister of Penang

free event

Here’s the blurb about the book from USM Press:

Pulau Pinang ialah di antara pusat pantun multibudaya yang terpenting. Buku ini mengumpul bait-bait yang cemerlang daripada khazanah lisan dan juga tulisan negeri ini. Bentangannya luas - daripada pantun anak-anak hinggalah kepada pantun remaja, daripada cinta hinggalah upacara.Pantun 481, Pantun Zaman Sari dan Pantun Anti-Kahwin Paksa, dan khazanah Peranakan iaitu Pantun Hiboran dan Pantun Penghiburan Hati. Dikutip juga baris indah daripada boria, bangsawan dan juga lagu-lagu Zaharah Agus. Pantun -pantun bertulis pula dinukil daripada pelbagai buku yang popular sejak tahun-tahun 1920-an, hinggalah 1950-an dan seterusnya 2000-an, termasuk

Festival Programme

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November 26^th SATURDAY

Morning Tea

Venue: Upstairs at China House

Time: 10.00 am

free event

Official Opening by the Chief Minister of Penang.
Book launch, reading & book signing of Muhammad Haji Salleh’s Bila Terkenang Zaman Dahulu: Pantun Pulau Pinang

Venue: Upstairs at China House

Time: 11.00 am

free event

1^st Reading & Discussion - with Muhammad Haji Salleh & Farish Ahmad Noor.

Moderator: Sharaad Kuttan

Venue: Upstairs at China House

Time: 2.30 pm – 4.30 pm

free event

An Evening with Tan Twan Eng - dinner, reading, conversation, Q & A

Venue: Farquhar Suite, E&O Hotel

Time: 7.30 pm – 10.30 pm

ticketed event @50.00 RM per ticket*

November 27^th SUNDAY

2^nd Reading & Discussion - with Tan Twan Eng, Iskandar Al-Bakri & Shih-Li Kow

Moderator: Jacqueline Ann Surin

Venue: Upstairs at China House

Time: 10.30 am – 12.30 pm

free event

High-Tea with Farish Ahmad Noor – High-Tea, reading, conversation, Q & A

Venue: 1885, E&O Hotel

Time: 3.00 pm – 5.00 pm

ticketed event @ 35.00 RM per ticket*

Performance by guitarist-composer Az Samad

Venue: The Canteen & Bar at China House

Time: 9.30 pm

free event

*to purchase tickets, call +6.017.872.7721 or email gtlfestival@gmail.com

Venues: China House, 183B Lebuh Victoria, George Town, Penang

E & O Hotel, 10 Lebuh Farquhar, George Town, Penang

End.

Jacque & Sharaad to Make a Showing

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Sharaad Kuttan

Jacqueline Ann Surin

Two group readings and discussions will feature Jacqueline Ann Surin of The Nut Graph moderating one and Sharaad Kuttan of BFM Radio, the other. Both are personalities in Kuala Lumpur's vibrant Media & Arts scenes and promise to add some KL punch to the sessions. ( ... things do move at a different pace in George Town! )

26th November, 2011 - 1st Reading & Discussion
- with Muhammad Haji Salleh & Farish Ahmad Noor.

Moderator: Sharaad Kuttan

Venue: Upstairs at China House

Time: 2.30 pm – 4.30 pm

free event

27th November, 2011 - 2nd Reading & Discussion
- with Tan Twan Eng, Iskandar Al-Bakri & Shih-Li Kow

Moderator: Jacqueline Ann Surin

Venue: Upstairs at China House

Time: 10.30 am – 12.30 pm

free event

About the moderators:

Jacqueline Ann Surin

Jacqueline Ann Surin is the co-founder and the editor of The Nut Graph. She is an award-winning journalist who also co-founded MalaysiaVotes.com with Cindy Tham and Danny Lim in early 2008. A journalist since 1994 first with The Star, then The Edge and theSun, she is also the author of Shape of a Pocket. She gained an M.A. in Media Studies at Sussex University in England as a Chevening scholar, and studied journalism in the United States under the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship. In 2007, she received the Excellence in Opinion Writing Award from the Society of Publishers in Asia for her Shape of a Pocket column which she continues to keep at The Nut Graph. She was also named by London-based Article 19 as the Pioneering Women’s Voices Candidate for Malaysia in commemoration of International Women’s Day in 2007. As of September 2010, Jacqueline is part of the collective of writers and editors who is maintaining The Nut Graph as a weekly.

Sharaad Kuttan

Sharaad Kuttan is a producer with BFM radio in the Klang Valley. He has co-edited a collection of essays on cultural politics in Singapore, Looking for Culture (1996). Trained in sociology, he has contributed a chapter to a collection of articles on the Malaysian electoral system, Elections and Democracy in Malaysia (2005). He has an interest in cultural production and has recently had an essay on the politics of performance art - Buka Jalan: Cracks and Openings - published in Sentap, a local journal of visual culture.

Our Poster is Out

2011-10-22T01:25:00.000-07:00

Az Samad Sings at GTLF2011

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Hailed as a "music extraodinaire" by BFM's That Music Show, guitarist-composer Az Samad graces the stage at The Canteen & Bar at China House with his acoustic guitar for the final evening of the George Town Literary Festival 2011.

Date: 27th November 2011

Time: 9.30pm

Venue: The Canteen & Bar @ China House

About Az Samad

Guitarist-composer Az Samad has performed in the United States, Austria, United Kingdom,Singapore, and Malaysia. A versatile musician who has appeared on thirteen CDs (five of which are his solo releases), Az has worked with Grammy winners Flaco Jimenez and Max Baca, singer-songwriters Tara Linda and Reza Salleh, guitarists John Stowell, Stuart Ryan, and Teja Gerken; world music ensemble Bogofusion; electronic jazz-funk group Planet Loop; Cumbia-Dub band Candelaria; and string jazz ensemble JazzMine.

As an educator, Az has been on the faculty of Berklee College of Music's Summer Guitar Sessions and has taught workshops at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut; Culturefest in Pipestem, West Virginia; and The Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, California. His latest release is "love letters EP", an improvised solo acoustic guitar concept album in the same spirit as his 2010 album "Emo Attack" Turtle.

http://www.azsamad.com/

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The GTLF2011 - “History & Heritage: Where are our Stories?” will be held over two days on the 26th & 27th of November 2011. The festival will open with a book launch by National Laureate, Muhammad Haji Salleh of a book of pantuns that he has edited, "Bila Terkenang Zaman Dahulu: Pantun Pulau Pinang”, collected from the oral and written archives of Penang - written by Penangites - Chinese, Malays and Peranakans.

Also part of the programme are public readings and discussions by the participating writers, a performance by singer/songwriter Az Samad, high-tea with Farish Ahmad-Noor at the E&O Hotel and a dinner - also at the E&O - with 2007 Man Booker Prize Nominee, Tan Twan Eng.

The principal venue of the GTLF2011 will be the brand new art-space on 183B Victoria Street in George Town – China House – consisting of three double-storey restored shop-houses with designated spaces for art and performance, a cafe and restaurant.

In conjunction with the George Town Literary Festival 2011, Popular Bookstore will be holding the Popular Mega Bookfair @ Straits Quay

From 25 Nov – 4 Dec 2011 at Straits Quay Convention Centre (Level 6) Straits Quay, Seri Tanjung Pinang, Tanjung Tokong.

The George Town Literary Festival 2011 is curated by Malaysian writer & actress, Bernice Chauly. Participating writers include Muhammed Haji Salleh, Farish Ahmad-Noor, Iskandar Al-Bakri, Shih-Li Kow and Tan Twan Eng.

Farish Ahmad Noor

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Academic, writer and columnist Farish A. Noor is presently Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. He has also served as Affiliated Professor at Muhamadiyah University, Surakarta and Sunan Kalijaga Islamic University, Jogjakarta; and researcher at the Centre for Modern Orient Studies (ZMO), Berlin; taught at Freie University Berlin, the Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM), Leiden; and Sciences-Po, Paris.

He is the author of The Madrasa in Asia: Political Activism and Transnational Linkages. (With Martin van Bruinessen and Yoginder Sikand (Eds.), University of Amsterdam Press, Amsterdam, 2008; and Islam Embedded: The Historical Development of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party PAS: 1951-2003, Malaysian Sociological Research Institute (MSRI), Kuala Lumpur, 2004. His other writings include: Writings on the War on Terror (Globalmedia Press, India, 2006), From Majapahit to Putrajaya: Searching For Another Malaysia (Silverfish Books, Kuala Lumpur, 2005), Islam Progresif: Peluang, Tentangan dan Masa Depannya di Asia Tenggara (SAMHA, Jogjakarta, 2005), The Other Malaysia: Writings on Malaysia’s Subaltern History (Silverfish Books, Kuala Lumpur, 2003); and New Voices of Islam, (International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden, Netherlands, 2002).

His weekly columns appear in several regional newspapers in Southeast and South Asia; he has also been a radio essayist for the BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4. In 2005 he was voted as one of the top forty Malaysians who have shaped the development of post-colonial Malaysia and in 2010 was awarded the Annexe Freedom of Speech award.

http://www.othermalaysia.org/

Iskandar Al-Bakri

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Iskandar Al-Bakri’s first novel The Beruas Prophecy is his attempt to challenge the predominantly linear and polished observations of Malaysian history. Iskandar wants to portray the Malays in a purely ethnic context; as exponents of silat and practitioners of black magic. Every incantation or charm in the novel is real. Every paranormal event is documented. Every location cited in the novel exists and the reader can visit each location today. Iskandar spent two years interviewing Orang Asli, bomohs and historians in preparation for the novel.

The eldest of four, Iskandar was born in Teluk Intan, Perak. He received his early education at SRK Sultan Yussuf Batu Gajah, SMA Sultan Azlan Shah and St Michael Institution, Ipoh. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the Australian National University. Iskandar is a vocalist in a band and is an amateur bodybuilder.

Muhammad Haji Salleh

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Muhammad Haji Salleh, Ph.D. is known in Malaysia and abroad as a poet, critic, editor and translator in Malay and English. He has published twelve collections of poetry and thirty-odd books of criticism, translation, and anthologies. Among his major poetry collections in Malay are Perjalanan Si Tenggang II, Sajak-sajak Sejarah Melayu, Salju Shibuya, Meraih Ruang, Setitik Darah di Bilik Bundar; while in English, they include Time and Its People, Beyond the Archipelago and Rowing Down Two Rivers. Among his critical works are Romance and Laughter in the Archipelago, Menyeberang Sejarah, Yang Empunya Ceritera: The Mind of the Malay Author, An Introduction to Modern Malaysian Literature and Jatuh ke Rumput, Gilang.

In all he has written and edited more than 50 books in Malay and English, of poetry, translation and literary criticism/theory. These are published in Malaysia, Indonesia, Europe, Australia and the U.S.

Muhammad is a National Laureate of Malaysia.

Interview with Muhammad Haji Salleh

Shih-Li Kow

2011-10-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

Shih-Li Kow’s short stories first appeared in print in News from Home, a three author anthology. Her subsequent collection, Ripples and Other Stories (Silverfishbooks) was shortlisted for the 2009 Frank O’Connor Short Story Award.

Her stories also have also been published in various media and anthologies such as Body 2 Body (Matahari Books), Clutch, Brake, Sellerator (MPH), Sharp Sticks, Driven Nails (Stinging Fly) and the Swedish literary magazine, Karavan.

She previously practised as a chemical engineer and has worked in a detergent factory, a clothing store and a cultural market. She now works in a mall and lives in Kuala Lumpur.

Interview with Shih-Li Kow

Tan Twan Eng

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Tan Twan Eng is a Malaysian author born in Penang. His first novel The Gift of Rain was published in 2007 and long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. He worked as an intellectual property lawyer before going full time into writing. He has a first-dan ranking in aikido.

He has spoken at and appeared at various literary festivals, including the Singapore Writers' Festival, the Ubud Writers' Festival in Bali, the Asia Man Booker Festival in Hong Kong, the Shanghai Literary Festival, the Perth International Writers' Festival, and also at the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne, Australia. In May 2009 and May 2011 he was a guest at the Franschhoek Literary Festival in South Africa.

He ranks Salman Rushdie and Kazuo Ishiguro as two of the best writers writing today.

The Gift of Rain has been translated into Italian, Spanish, Greek, Romanian, Czech, Serbian and French. His second novel, The Garden of Evening Mists will be published in January 2012.

http://www.tantwaneng.com/

Festival Curator's Notes

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Literary festivals have sprung up in cities and towns across the globe in an attempt to address the need for writers to congregate to share their words and for audiences to be inspired. Kuala Lumpur has hosted two large-scale international literary festivals in 2004 and 2007, and a smaller one this year in June to great success. Therefore, when the decision to create a literary festival in George Town, Penang was initiated earlier this year, the immediate words that came to mind were ‘history’ and ‘heritage’. These two words are distinct; one perhaps more tangible than the other, but the certainty is that both cannot exist without the other. George Town is a place of heritage as it is of history, and writers have written about it in many ways over different eras, but it is the stories that have come out of this landscape, spurred out of the imaginations and pens of writers, that resonate with us.

As a spring board to the first literary festival here, we have invited some of Malaysia’s finest writers, whose words have inspired many of us, and whose literary facts and fictions have been celebrated the world over. We hope that this festival will be an inspiring and invigorating one, both to our writers and to audiences alike, in the hope that George Town will continue to come alive in the words of writers and for those words to live on in the hearts and minds of those who have come to love Penang.

Bernice Chauly, 2011

Bernice Chauly is a writer, poet, photographer, actor and filmmaker who worked extensively in the arts for over 20 years. She graduated with a B.Ed in TESL and English Literature from the University of Winnipeg, Canada and her work has been screened, exhibited and published locally and internationally. She has published two collections of poems going there and coming back (1997), The Book of Sins (2008), a collection of short stories, Lost in KL (2008) and a critically-acclaimed memoir, Growing Up With Ghosts (2011).

In 2005, she started Readings and Readings@CeritAku, platforms for live literary performances in Kuala Lumpur, now in its seventh year. She also co-edited Readings from Readings - New Malaysian Writing (2011), its first anthology. In June 2011, she organized a successful international literary festival in KL, “Writers Unlimited Tour KL/Makassar” which partnered with Writers Unlimited, the literary festival from The Hague, Netherlands. She has performed in literary festivals in India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, South Africa, Singapore, Suriname, the Dutch Antilles and the Netherlands.

http://bernicechauly.wordpress.com/