From 6 March to 24 April 2019, NIE audiences had exciting opportunities to meet award-winning writers from Southeast Asia and hear them talk about their work. Audiences were able to listen to live poetry readings, meet the authors and get autographed copies of their books. Held at the NIE Library's Gallery space, the four talks covered a range of genres such as authorised biographies, novels, short fiction and poetry anthologies.
The Writers@NIE talk series opened with Singapore Literature Prize-winning author, Peh Shing Huei, who spoke about the process of writing his authorised biography, Tall Order: The Goh Chok Tong Story.
This was followed with Dato Dr M. Shanmughalingam, recipient of accolades such as the British Council Short Story Prize and Oxford University Short Story 2nd Prize, who read from his debut solo short story collection, Marriage and Mutton Curry. We were also delighted to have two poets, Dr Malachi Edwin Vethamani (Life Happens and Complicated Lives) and Marc Nair (Vital Possessions and Handbook of Daily Movement), during the month of April as part of Singapore Poetry Writing Month (SingPoWriMo). Both read from their volumes of published poems.
If you missed the first run of the Writers@NIE talks, here's a chance to catch the next series of talks from 14 August to 25 September 2019.
Kicking off this round of talks, K. Kesavapany spoke about his service as Singapore’s High Commissioner (1997-2002) and Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (2002-2012). Both experiences were deftly captured in his authorised biography From Estate to Embassy: Memories of an Ambassador. This session was guest-moderated by Assoc. Prof. Kevin Blackburn.
Register for an upcoming session: http://bit.ly/WritersNIE
The Writers@NIE talk series is jointly organised by the English Language and Literature Academic Group and the NIE Library.