The London Book Fair (LBF) takes
place next week, April 12 -14. For the first time ever, there will be a
Malaysian booth showcasing independent publishers with no government or
corporate funding. The country’s biggest independent publisher, the award-winning
Buku Fixi, which specialises in contemporary urban fiction in both Malay and English,
will be there. Moreover, the company’s English-language imprint, Fixi Novo, is
to launch an ambitious new trilogy of anthologies during the Fair.
Fixi Novo is responsible for the bestselling
Malaysian English-language fiction title of all time: Horror Stories, a collection of short-stories written over 15 years
by Malaysia’s prince of darkness, Tunku
Halim - it has sold 26,000 copies in 3 years.
Meanwhile, the 3
new anthologies, Heat, Flesh, and Trash, together showcase the best of Southeast Asian
urban contemporary writing.
The call for submissions went out
late last year and attracted almost 1,000 entries from all over Southeast Asia.
The 6 co-editors represent countries throughout the region and beyond:
Cassandra Khaw (Malaysia); Khairani Barokka (Indonesia); Dean Francis Alfar
(Philippines); Angeline Woon (Canada/Malaysia); Marc de Faoite
(Ireland/Malaysia); Ng Yi-Sheng (Singapore).
Buku Fixi has also started an
annual literary journal, Little Basket,
for Malaysian writing in English. It will be launched both at the London Book
Fair and in Malaysia next week.
