Book of the Lunar Year New Date

The announcement of the Asian Books Blog Book of the Lunar Year will now take place on Friday, 20 Feb, not Wednesday, 18 Feb.  If you want to vote, but haven't yet got around to it, please do so!!! See here for details. Currently A Madras Miasma and Bamboo Heart are in the lead. Capital has gained quite a few votes in the last couple of days. 

Questions & Answers: Alison Jean Lester

American-born, but Singapore-based, author Alison Jean Lester has just published Lillian on Life, a wonderful novel, one that I urge you to read.  It is a funny, wise, honest, and moving exploration of one woman’s life, her loves and losses, and her thoughts on everything from sex, to English as a foreign language – indeed, the whole novel is constructed out of short reflections, On Getting To Sex, On English As A Foreign Language, etc.

Alison Jean Lester came to Singapore from Tokyo in 1999 as a trailing spouse, with two little children in tow. When she and her husband separated two years later, and then divorced, neither of them wanted to leave.  Alison says: “Singapore proved to be a very good place for us. We could pursue our working goals and raise our children in a supportive environment without many of the stresses we would have experienced in other major cities. There were certainly times when I would have liked to leave, but it made the best sense to stay, and I was rewarded by meeting my second husband here.”

So: questions and answers with Alison Jean Lester

Karachi Winners

The winners of the three literary prizes awarded at the Karachi Literary Festival have been announced.  

The winners for the Peace Prize sponsored by the German Embassy / Consulate:

1^st Prize Mecca by Ziauddin Saddar

1^st Prize The Ahmadis and the politics of religious exclusion in Pakistan by Ali Usman Qasmi

2^nd Prize Conflict management and vision for a secular Pakistan by Moonis Ahmar

3^rd Prize Delhi by Heart by Raza Rumi

The winner for the Fiction Prize sponsored by the French Embassy:

Survival Tips for Lunatics by Shandana Minhas

The winner for Nonfiction Prize sponsored by Coca Cola: 

Ottoman Turkey, Ataturk, and Muslim South Asia, Perspectives, Perceptions, and Responses, by M. Naeem Qureshi

Questions & Answers: Ubud Writers Group

Raelee Chapman talks to Steve Castley, of the Ubud Writers Group. Steve has self-published two books, Through My Eyes: Adventures in Bali, in 2010 and A taste of Bali: stories and poems, in collaboration with Julie Silvester, in 2011. He is currently working on a gay romance called Nothing is Forever, and also a memoir called Stuffy's Story: 3 Mums, 6 Years.

How long has your writers group been running? When and why was it formed?

The Ubud Writers Group was founded on the 16th September 2008 and has grown in strength ever since.

Our group has been operating for nearly 8 years now and for me it is a highlight of my fortnight. I know this is also true for the other members.

In the fledgling years, we were hobby writers, scared to share our writing, fearful of having our egos bruised. But our group was set up to encourage writing and writers and our members have never lost sight of that goal.

We trust each other and are sensitive to the way we give feedback. Each one of us has evolved as a writer and the Ubud Writers’ Group can take some credit for this. We are a group that inspires writers and writing.

Writers’ Groups are worth seeking out. I doubt that any two operate in the same way, but they are made up of like-minded people who love to read and write.

Karachi Literature Festival, 2015

The Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) was launched in March 2010 and has been such a resounding success the organisers have recently added two sister events to their calendar, the Lahore and Islamabad Literature Festivals.

This momentum reflects the depth of Pakistan’s historical, literary, and cultural roots, and the great desire and energy throughout the whole country to seek knowledge, understanding, and creative growth.

KLF 2015, to be held this weekend, will bring together and celebrate authors writing in diverse languages, genres, and traditions. It will feature debates, discussions, lectures, mushaira, (traditional Pakistani poetry slams), a book fair, book launches, readings, signings, comedy, satire, theatre, music, and children’s sessions such as storytelling, puppetry, painting, singing, and creative movement.

Three literary prizes will be awarded during the Festival:

The KLF Coca-Cola Prize goes to the best non-fiction title originally written in English by a Pakistani or Pakistan-origin foreign national, published anywhere worldwide, and it comes with a prize of PKR 200,000.

The KLF Peace Prize, which comes with a prize of Euros 4000, is a joint project of the KLF, the Consulate General of Germany in Karachi, and the Embassy of Germany in Islamabad. It goes to a fiction or non-fiction title that promotes peace, tolerance, and international understanding, published anywhere worldwide in any language translated into English, and written by a Pakistani or a Pakistani-origin foreign national residing anywhere worldwide, or any foreign national who is a resident of Pakistan.

The KLF Embassy of France Prize promotes fiction originally written in English. The author, who must be a Pakistani or a Pakistani-origin foreign national residing anywhere worldwide, of the best novel or short story collection, published anywhere worldwide or self-published, wins an official invitation for a fully-sponsored visit to the Paris Book Fair.

If you are in Karachi, KLF will be held at the Beach Luxury Hotel on 6, 7, and 8 February. There’s no need to register in advance: just turn up. It’s free to attend. 

This Week in Asian Review of Books

Asian Books Blog is not a review site.  If you want reviews, see the Asian Review of Books.  Here is a list of its newest reviews:

The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps by Benjamin B. Olshin reviewed by Tim O’Connell
Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens, Schoolmistress at the Court of Siam by Alfred Habegger reviewed by Nigel Collett
Don’t Let Him Know by Sandip Roy reviewed by Jane Wallace
Ticket to Childhood by Nguyen Nhat Anh reviewed by Timothy Sifert

Indie Spotlight: Professor Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof

Indie Spotlight is our monthly column on self-publishing. Here, Raelee Chapman talks to prolific indie author Professor Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof, from the Cultural Centre, University of Malaya

Professor Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof  used Partridge Publishing Singapore, an imprint of Author Solutions LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, to publish two works on culture/theatre and three creative literary works in 2014 alone. I asked him about his play The Trial of Hang Tuah the Great, and his short story collection Tok Dalang and Stories of Other Malaysians.  Both express his identity, and his concerns, as a Malaysian writer who writes in English, and both are must reads for fans and students of Southeast Asian literature. These works, and all Professor Ghulam-Sawar Yousof’s other titles, are available from Amazon, and are listed too on the Partridge website.