Firstly, a release of a book (sorry people if you don't read the language)
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Patah Balek
oleh Fathi Aris Omar
Penerbit: SIRD
ISBN: 9832535557
Tahun: Mac 2005
Halaman: 263
Harga: RM28.00
Buku ini adalah kumpulan tulisan penulis sekitar zaman reformasi yang asalnya sejumlah pertanyaan, serta sebuah pencarian akliah dan renungan terhadap kenyataan hidup di negara ini, khususnya selepas krisis politik 1998.
Penulis yang sendirinya melalui suasana politik yang kelam kabut pada masa itu berusaha untuk bertanyakan asal-usul gempa krisis politik itu dan cuba memahaminya dengan melihat pergolakan kuasa antara rakyat dan pemerintah yang membolot segala kuasa, serta proses evolusi institusi-institusi demokrasi di bawah sistem dan budaya politik yang bertuankan pemimpin diktator.
Fathi Aris Omar adalah penulis bebas dan kolumnis di Malaysiakini.com. Beliau pernah menerima ‘anugerah kebebasan akhbar’ daripada Reporters sans Frontieres(RSF), Paris, pada 2000, ketika bertugas bersama Malaysiakini.com. Pada tahun 2004, beliau terpilih menerima zamalah Asian Public Intellectual(API) dari Nippon Foundation, Tokyo.
Fathi juga adalah pengasas bersama Kumpulan Aktivis Media Independen(KAMI) dan kini bergiat bersama Komunite Seni Jalan Telawi(KSJT). Sebahagian besar tulisan dalam buku ini berasal dari kolum Tiada Noktah dalam Malaysiakini.com.
Kata Pengantar buku ini ditulis oleh Ayu Utami, novelist yang ternama di Indonesia. Dua novel beliau, 'Saman' dan 'Larung' telah mendapat perhatian besar di Indonesia. Al-Mustaqeem Mahmod Radhi adalah editor buku ini. Beliau juga pernah menjadi editor majalah seni-budaya 'Siasah'.
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GB Gerakbudaya Enterprise Sdn Bhd
Alamat: 11, Lorong 11/4E, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Tel: 03-79578343/8342
Fax: 03-79549202
Emel: sird@streamyx.com
Pesanan boleh dibuat melalui emel dan menikmati diskaun istimewa. Buku ini juga boleh didapati di kedai buku seperti Kinokuniya, MPH, Times dan Popular.
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This time, it's in English (:
READING & DISCUSSION:
Beth Yahp will read from a work in progress called "Point of No Return" (a quote taken from Berita Harian's 'Dear Doctor' pages). She will talk a bit about the story's genesis, from an article on "vice and virginity" which she came across in The New Sunday Times last year, and various other contemporary news sources that have informed the work. How does a fiction writer "use" real events and views in fiction? Is an act of translation involved? How do you deal with notions of "truth" in fiction? Does one write with a message, and if so, can it still be called fiction? Beth will be very interested in feedback from the audience.
Date: 13 April 2005
Time: 5-6.30 pm
Venue: English Seminar Room (ESR), at the top floor of the English Department, Fakulti Sastera dan Sains Sosial, University of Malaya
Organised by: MACLALS committee and supported by the English Department
Contact: U-minh Mahinda Ho
Bio:
Beth Yahp was born in Malaysia and went to university in Australia in 1984. She lived there for 14 years before moving to Paris, where she spent 5 years. Her novel The Crocodile Fury (A&R, 1992; Flamingo, 1996) won the Victorian Premier's Prize for First Fiction and the NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission Award in Australia. It has been translated and published in several languages.
Beth wrote the libretto for a contemporary opera Moon Spirit Feasting based on the Chinese legend of the Moon Goddess, for composer Liza Lim. The opera premiered at the Adelaide Festival in Australia in March 2000, and has also been performed at the Melbourne Festival, in Berlin, Zurich and Tokyo.
Her short fiction, essays and articles have appeared in numerous publications in Australia, South-east Asia and Europe, and she has edited or co-edited several collections of stories and essays, including Picador New Writing 3 & 4 (Picador Australia, 1995 & 1997); Family Pictures (Angus & Robertson, 1994), My Look's Caress: A Collection of Modern Romances (Local Consumption Publications, 1990) and Nothing Interesting About Cross Street (HarperCollins, 1996). She was Fiction Editor of the University of Melbourne's literary magazine Meanjin in 2000 and is currently Fiction Editor for Off the Edge (Malaysia).
Beth has been Writer-in-Residence, conducting writing/editing workshops as well as giving talks and readings, at various universities and high schools in Australia and the Philippines. She has taught creative writing at high school, community and university levels over the last 10 years, including most recently at Sydney University (2004) and the American University of Paris (2003).
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Oh, anyone interested in a story telling workshop? (:
Creative Writing Workshop: STORYTELLING
© Beth Yahp 2005
Duration: 6 weeks x 3 hours/week
Day and Dates: Saturdays or Sundays, beginning 30 April 2005
Time: 3-6 PM
Venue: To be announced (PJ or Bangsar)
Fee: Earlybird & students RM350; payment after 20 April RM400
Small group for intensive workshop and detailed feedback on work produced
Participants need to have proficiency in English, and will be provided with a booklet of readings and notes
Please email enquiries/ interest to: b.yahp@tulisan.net
Thanks!
COURSE DESCRIPTION
We all tell stories. We all have stories to tell. But how do we begin? Where do these stories come from? How do we harness, then shape them? This practical course focuses on storytelling through the creative writing, reading and workshopping of fiction and non-fiction. We will look at different forms of storytelling and experiment with adapting them to our own stories and cultures/backgrounds: fairytales/ myths, oral tales/ghost stories, memory, dreams. We will consider slices of 'reality': the newsflash, eavesdropped conversation. Through these we will also touch upon basic elements of writing craft: point of view, character, narrative, as well as explore stories which arise from cultural similarities and difference: the frissons of memory or place or displacement/dis-remembering. A large part of every meeting will be focused on the workshopping of students' writing.
ABOUT THE TEACHER: Beth Yahp is writer of fiction and non-fiction, who has published widely in Malaysia and internationally in the genres of the novel, short fiction and essays/ reviews/ articles, as well as writing for performance. She has worked as an editor and taught creative writing at highschool, community and university levels, including most recently at Sydney University (2004) and the American University of Paris (2003). Her novel The Crocodile Fury (SIRD) has been translated into several languages.
DETAILED COURSE OUTLINE:
Meeting 1: Introduction: Beginnings & Some Ideas About Storytelling
The students and teacher introduce themselves. A description is given of the aims of the course and the methods we'll be using: a combination of reading, discussion, in-class or at-home exercises and workshopping. We'll begin with an exercise on oral storytelling/ ghost stories. How do you keep your listener listening? Can one successfully transcribe the oral tale?
Background Reading: Ursula K. le Guin, 'It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: Or Why Are We Huddling About the Campfire?' from Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places, Harper & Row, 1989
Meeting 2: Retelling Myths/ Fairytales
An exploration of re-telling favourite myths and fairytales - why do we want to re-tell them? Aren't the 'originals' enough? Discussion of the use of symbolism in myths/fairytales. Writing exercises: symbols & recipes. Workshopping of students' work.
Background Reading: Angela Carter, 'The Lady of the House of Love' from The Bloody Chamber, King Penguin, London, 1979
Meeting 3: Writing from Memory: Memoir/Autobiography
A look at the Aladdin's cave of memory: personal, family, community, body-memory. Discussion of memory/memoir and 'truth'. Trust and the reliable narrator. Countering 'rememoration'. We'll look at some examples of memoirs. Open Sesame exercises. Workshopping.
Background Reading: extract from Li Young Lee, The Winged Seed in Garrett Hongo (ed.), Under Western Eyes, Anchor Books, New York, 1995
Meeting 4: Cultural Perspectives, or Your Magic is My Realism
Paying attention to cultural differences - do we need to, as writers, as readers? How, and why? Inventing cultures. Writing cultural encounters. Workshopping.
Background Reading: Nayantara Sahgal, 'The Schizophrenic Imagination' in Shirley Chew & Anna Rutherford (eds.), Unbecoming Daughters of Empire, Dangaroo Press, Sydney, 1993
Meeting 5: Tapping Dreams, the Unconscious
A look at some displays of the dream in storytelling. The uses and dangers of déjà vu. Paths to creativity: short-circuiting the left side of the brain. Finding patterns in intuitive free-writing. Workshopping.
Background Reading: Jorge Luis Borges 'The Circular Ruins' in Collected Fictions, Viking, NYC, 1998
Meeting 6: Re/imagining Reality
Identifying and sorting your sources and foundations. Why re-tell a tale already told? The magpie method. Eavesdropping. An exercise on making things new. Workshopping.
Background Reading: Gail Jones, 'The Veil' from Fetish Lives, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Perth, 1997
News items for April Part I
