A selection of Malaysian Literature in English advocates and their biographies

TAN TWAN ENG (NOVELS)

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012 and also the winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize as well as the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Tan Twan Eng is one of the most prominent novelist in Asia, let alone Malaysia. Born in Penang in 1972 and lived in various places in Malaysia as a child, Tan studied law at the University of London and is a practicing advocate and solicitor at one of Kuala Lumpur's prominent law firms until he left his post to become a full-time writer. He has a first dan ranking in aikido and lives in Cape Town, South Africa

Major literary works:

The Gift of Rain

Tan's first novel, it is published in 2007 by Myrmidon Books in the UK and by Weinstein Books in the US the following year. The story is set in Penang in the years leading up to and during the Japanese occupation of Malaya in World War II. It concerns Philip Hutton, of mixed Chinese-English heritage, and his relationship with Endo-San, a Japanese diplomat who teaches him aikido. As war looms and the Japanese invade, both Endo-San and Philip find themselves torn between their loyalty to each other and to their country and family respectively. Philip decides to assist the Japanese and Endo-San in administering the country in an attempt to keep his family safe, but wherever possible passes intelligence to the guerilla fighters of Force 136, which include his best friend Kon.

The GIft of Rain is longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007

The Garden of Evening Mists

Tan's second novel, The Garden of Evening Mists was published in January 2012 by Myrmidon Books. The story entails newly retired Supreme Court Judge Yun Ling Teoh returns to the Cameron Highlands of Malaya, where she spent a few months several years earlier. Oncoming aphasia is forcing her to deal with unsettled business from her youth while she is still able to remember. She starts writing her memoires, and agrees to meet with Japanese preofessor Yoshikawa Tatsuji. Tatsuji is interested in the life and works of artist Nakamura Aritomo, who used to be the gardener of the Japanese Emperor, but moved to this area to build his own garden.

During the Japanese occupation of Malaya, Yun Ling was in a Japanese civilian internment camp with her sister, Yun Hong. Yun Hong did not make it out alive, and after the war was over, Yun Ling decided to fulfil a promise made to her sister: to build a Japanese gardenin their home in Kuala Lumpur. She travelled to the highlands to visit family friend Magnus Pretorius, an ex-patriate South African tea farmer who knew Aritomo. Aritomo refused to work for Yun Ling, but agreed to take her on as an apprentice, so she could later build her own garden. In spite of her resentment against the Japanese, she agreed to work for Aritomo, and later became his lover.

During the conversations with Tatsuji, it comes out that Aritomo was involved in a covert Japanese program during the war, to hide looted treasures from occupied territories. The rumours of this so-called "Golden Lily" program were widespread, and Magnus was killed trying to save his family from the Communist guerilla, who came looking for the gold. Aritomo never talked about the treasure to Yun Ling, but gradually it becomes clear that he might have left a clue to its location. Before he disappeared into the jungle, he made ahorimono tattoo on her back. It now appears this tattoo might contain a map to the location of the treasure. Yun Ling decides that, before she dies, she must make sure that no-one will be able to get their hand on her body, and the map. In the meantime, she sets out to restore Aritomo's dilapidated garden

On 25 July 2012, the book was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and on 11 September it was shortlisted.

On March 14, 2013, it won the Man Asian Literary Prize.

On June 14, 2013, it won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.

MAHESWARY PONNUSAMY (Short Stories)

Maheswary taught English in government schools in Malaysia for almost 30 years before taking early retirement. She has published fiction for children for the Malaysian market, and now resides in the Philippines. Unfortunately there are currently limited information available for Maheswary, however she is one of the writers featured in Silverfish's blog (Silverfish is a Malaysian publishing company renown for giving Malaysian writers a medium to get their works published in the limited market that is Malaysian Literature in English).

One of her short stories is featured in the aforementioned blog called "Desperate Measures" and can be read here  http://silverfishstories.blogspot.com/

AZALIA SUHAIMI (POETRY)

Born in May 18, 1985, Azalia Suhaimi is a Malaysian poet, photographer and creative writer. Famous for her ways in combining photography and poetry, she expresses her dreamy outlook in life on her weblog via what she calls "Photopoetry"

Born in Kuala Lumpur, Azalia Binti Ahmad Suhaimi grew up and went to school in a small town known as Ipoh. She enjoyed writing ever since her younger schooling days and began majoring in English Literature at high school. She first experimented with the art of photography when she bought her first compact camera before flying off to Sydney, Australia for her tertiary education. Her love for photography grew when she went traveling around Australia during her university years. This led to her signing up for a proper course on photography at the College of Fine Arts, the creative arts faculty of the University of New South Wales, Australia. Despite studying photography in a short course, she claims to prefer taking photographs with an artistic outlook instead of concentrating on a camera's technical functions. As quoted from her site:

"Her photography centers upon arty elements, some vintage touch and a lot of emotions. Tools involved are a small compact digital point-and-shoot camera, a Polaroid camera, a Diana F+ lomo camera and mainly, her heart. "

Her love for both writing and photography was made public when she began to frequently create photopoetry works on her blog.

Her works can be found at her blog here:

http://www.azaliasuhaimi.com/

RANI MOORTHY (PLAYWRIGHT)

Rani Moorthy is a Malaysian-born playwright, actress, and artistic director of Rasa Productions. Following the race riots of 1969 her family tried to emigrate to Singapore, but were unsuccessful for a time. When they eventually made it, Moorthy began her acting career, appearing in theatre and hosting The Ra Ra Show, a television comedy. In 1996, she emigrated to the United Kingdom. Rani was educated at the 'National University of Singapore.

Rani has appeared in Coronation Street, A&E, Cold Feet, Moving On, Prisoner’s Wives and plays Mrs.Bilal in the BBC1 sit-com Citizen Khan. Film work includes Twenty8K, Throw of a Dice and All in Good Time by Ayub Khan Din based on his Olivier winning play Rafta Rafta.
Rani has written for BBC1’s Doctors and is a regular contributor and presenter on BBC1’s The Heaven and Earth Show and BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought. Adapted her own play Curry Tales for Radio 4. She has written the Woman’s Hour drama Whose Sari Now for BBC Radio 4. Rani was specially commissioned by Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company to write text for the contemporary dance work Just Add Water? (Royal Opera House 2009 and on tour in 2010).


As a filmmaker, Rani’s short film Incense funded by the Film Council “New Cinema” fund, has been shown in major national short film festivals and in Berlin, Cannes and New York.

Major Works:

POOJA(2002)

A collision of traditional culture and contemporary life, Pooja tells the story of Ranjana and the impact of her horoscope. With her destiny pre-ordained by time of birth, she juggles century-old rituals that will deflect foretold ills with the forbidden pleasures of modern life. Marrying a banana tree at dawn and flirting in the disco at night, Ranjana obeys her family with hilarious consequences.

Funny and moving Pooja draws on Rani Moorthy’s cultural heritage of Tamil, Malaysian, Sri Lankan and Hindu influences. She plays twelve characters both on stage and in the video footage. Careful editing enables characters on stage to converse with those on video. Whilst typically Asian, these characters are recognisable to all, showing that every personal story, cultural ritual or foreign history has a universal understanding.

SABRI ZAIN (HISTORY)

A controversial figure, Sabri Zain is the author of Sabrizain.org, a website that entails Malaysian history in detail but swaying from what is found in the secondary school's textbooks. His writing has appeared in a variety of Malaysian Internet news groups, Reformasi websites, email discussion lists and webzines. His articles have also appeared in Malaysian publications such as the Opposition newspaper, Harakah, and social reform magazine, Aliran. Trained as a civil engineer, he turned to writing when he joined the Star, one of Malaysia's leading English-language dailies, as a journalist. Since then, he has worked in the communications field for a multinational computer company and an international nature conservation organisation. Sabri now works in Cambridge, United Kingdom, but continues to write on political events in Malaysia on the Internet, especially political satire. He admits to being a devout Trekker, fancies himself as a scholar of Malayan history, flies World War II aircraft on his computer, looks after a pride of cats and, he claims, practically lives on the Internet.

Major Works:

FACE OFF: A MALAYSIAN REFORMASI DIARY (1998-99)

Sabri Zain's FACE OFF: A MALAYSIAN REFORMASI DIARY (1998-99) chronicles the sweeping political and social events that rocked Malaysia in those tumultuous days. Consisting of writings over the Internet in the year following the sacking, this is Sabri's eyewitness account of the winds of social and political change that swept Malaysia in its wake - the street demonstrations that were brutally put down by the authorities, the twists and turns of the Anwar trial and the euphoric pro-reform rallies by tens of thousands of people all across the country. Face Off captures, in words, the spirit, moods, colour, excitement and hopes of ordinary Malaysians caught in the wave of Reformasi demanding true democracy, freedom and change. As the author poignantly puts it, the book is dedicated to the OKTs (Orang Kena Tuduh) - detainees who were beaten and arrested during the demonstrations.