Book Marks: Emerging From The Cave (Again) With More Updates

Whew! I didn't expect my new job scope to keep me away from this space for this long but slowly, I'm figuring out how to balance a full plate. While a lot has come to pass, I'll just highlight some of the more recent happenings...

TODAY reported Singaporean writers stating that their literary scene is "healthy" and "energetic", citing the emergence of new writers and the abundance of content being published".

Speaking to the media, The Singapore Book Publishers Association added that the launch of the Epigram Books Fiction Prize in 2015 "was a 'meaningful turning point' that created a substantial increase in the number of novels published" in Singapore. "At the same time, more Singaporean authors (based here and overseas) are being published by UK and US publishers, either directly or after growing their career locally."

From the sound of it, Singapore's lit scene looks lit. Hoping this lead to more eyes on writing from this region.


In other news:

• Under the slogan "Baca Jap" (Read for a While), Silent Book Club JB, an offshoot of the US-founded Silent Book Club, aims to create "a space where book lovers can gather and engage in literary activities at local cafes and recreational parks". Do have a look when you're in the neighbourhood.
• "Our inspiration to set up Sunda Shelves was actually from a bookshop named 'The Borneo Shop' in Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) which also specialises in natural history." If you're in Damansara Kim, Petaling Jaya, find your way to The Sunda Shelves, a nature-themed bookstore specialising in "books relating to the environment, nature, natural history, culture and travelling in South-East Asia."
• "Some people tend to wave off comedic writing, saying 'Oh, it's just light fiction or chick lit', like it doesn’t take much effort, but honestly, it takes a lot of skill to write it well." Lauren Ho on writing comedy in her fiction and exploring new genres.
• "I started self-studying Korean when I was 18. At the time, Korean wasn't a very popular language to learn, so I had to be very resourceful. I used anything I could get my hands on, be it from the library or online." Translator Shanna Tan – who recently shared the spotlight with author Hwang Bo-reum in KL – shares some parts of her job and experience translating Hwang's Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.
• James Queally was on a flight to a sibling's wedding when he received news that his publisher, Jersey-based indie crime publisher Polis Books, may be shut down. Not an enviable position to be in, but it's (fingers crossed) not the end of the world. To help others in the same situation, Queally "chatted up a few other writers whose works were previously marooned by industry collapse to put together a survival guide on what to do when your publisher dies."
• The number of titles from authors of colour is increasing. We're getting stories from cultures beyond the nominally white anglosphere, which is great. But is there a tendency to lock these authors into strictly writing about their own cultures? And if they attempt to step out of their pigeonholes, are they being not true to themselves? Sreedhevi Iyer, a lecturer in creative writing at RMIT University, explores the question of authors and authenticity in The Conversation.
• Now that JK Rowling has pretty much fallen from grace, what else can kids look to as an alternative? Perhaps they can have a go at what Katherine Rundell has written? "'Impossible Creatures,' Rundell's sixth novel for middle grade readers, became an instant best seller in her native Britain when it was published last year and has garnered numerous awards, including the Waterstones Book of the Year."
• Speaking about books for kids (or not): I only vaguely recall how unsuspecting parents were misled into buying "explicit" novels for their tweens and kids because of the cartoonish covers, such as the one for Hannah Grace's Icebreaker. But is it intentional? A book designer dishes on how these covers work.
• In the New Yorker, a brief history (as brief as a New Yorker article can manage) of bookstores in the US and where it can go from here. The writer appears to be arguing for bookstores to become "community-building spaces" – warm, welcoming, and not necessarily stocked with or offering every title under the sun.
• Several professionals in Ukraine's publishing industry ponder the future of contemporary Ukranian literature – a heavy topic while the war over there rages on and some of their compatriots are out on the front lines. Every now and then, one hopes for the end to the war so that they can rebuild what they've lost and grow again.
• Occasionally, you will encounter a book you can't bear to finish. What to do then? Like Sophie Vershbow in The Atlantic, Maya Chung says it's okay to DNF a book you don't like, with some caveats. "Of course, if I want to recommend a book widely or rave about it on the internet, I need to complete it, in case the story takes an unexpected turn or something happens in the last few pages that changes my perspective. The same rule applies if I feel like hating."
• "It has been a peculiar and exasperating five years. I'm a writer. I do other things but writing feels like my main reason for being on the planet. Thanks to a triple heart bypass, some underperforming psychiatric medication and long Covid, however, I've been unable to write for most of that period. Much of the time it's been impossible to read as well." As someone who writes but not as often, walking down author Mark Haddon's five-year journey towards recovery is unimaginable.
• "We have this problem in our culture," says Solène Marchand, the female lead in Robinne Lee's The Idea of You "We take art that appeals to women—film, books, music—and we undervalue it. We assume it can't be high art. Especially if it's not dark and tortured and wailing. And it follows that much of that art is created by other women, and so we undervalue them as well. We wrap it up in a pretty pink package and resist calling it art." The same seems to be happening to The Idea of You and Lee has something to say about that and about art for women.
• How many of you have learnt by now of a would-be burglar in Rome who was caught because he was engrossed in a book he found in the place he broke into? "The 38-year-old reportedly gained access to a flat in the Italian capital's Prati district via the balcony but became distracted after picking up a book about Homer's Iliad on a bedside table." The book, by the way, is Giovanni Nucci's The Gods at Six O'Clock – now probably known as the tome that was so good, it stopped a crime. Who needs an ocean of positive reviews on Goodreads?