George Town Literary Festival Mark your calendars, GTLF returns 24 - 27 November 2022!

Spirits, systems, control and release. How does one bridge the chasm between contemporary life and elusive memory-fragments of a past, to reclaim what was meant to be but never was? Renowned dancer and choreographer, Aida Redza, contemplates her search for a language to re-invent a lost lineage that aims to connect, to heal. Speakers: Aida Reza, Chee Sek Thim

Fahmi Mustaffa dan Mislina Mustaffa, dua orang penulis dan penggiat seni yang menetap di Pulau Pinang, membacakan petikan daripada Sulalatus Salatin. Pembicara: Fahmi Mustafa, Mislina Mustaffa

Jika sejarah panjang filem Melayu ibarat seutas rantai emas, suasa yang menyulaminya adalah kosmopolitanisme. Manusia hidup dalam sebuah masyarakat dunia adalah citra yang sering di papar dalam filem Melayu sejak dari zaman studio lagi. Namun, manusia sudah terhantuk pada dinding kaca yang telah memantulkannya kembali ke belakang. Semakin terhubung masyarakat dunia, semakin ke dalam cara pandangnya. Kosmopolitanisme kini di asak oleh parokialisme dan nasionalisme sempit. Apakah ini yang sedang terjadi dalam filem Melayu hari ini? Bersama dua sosok filem terkemuka Malaysia, Al Jafree Md Yusop dan Hassan Muthalib, memeta salasilah filem Melayu dan membedah tema-tema utama filem-filem masyarakat Malaysia hari ini. Pembicara: Al Jafree Md Yusop, Hassan Muthalib

Wanda Nanibush is the current Curator of Indigenous art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada, as well as an author, educator & community organiser. She speaks to Malaysian curator Sharmin Parameswaran on the continued importance of Indigenous art in bringing forth the collective experience and knowledge of people to our contemporary lives. Additionally, how Indigenous Canadian artists are expressing out loud against authoritarian states. This podcast is supported by the High Commission of Canada in Malaysia. Speakers: Wanda Nanibush, Sharmin Parameswaran

Setelah Tinju dan Peluru selesai diterbitkan, Johan Radzi, seorang penulis asal Kuala Lumpur, mengambil keputusan untuk keluar seketika dari dunia fiksyen dan berpindah ke bukan fiksyen. Di situ, peguam muda ini bertemu dengan dirinya di kota-kota utama di Asia Tenggara. Beliau mencatat pemerhatiannya terhadap kebudayaan-kebudayaan yang asing bagi dirinya. Kemudian lahirlah Stesen Titik Nol. Noor Azam Shairi berbual dengan Johan Radzi tentang bagaimana gamaknya menulis sambil mengembara dan kesan pandemik terhadap genre penulisan travelog. Pembicara: Johan Radzi, Noor Azam Shairi

The world of comics, graphic novels, and illustrations in Southeast Asia has been gaining its fair share of global attention. These visual mediums have provided markers of national identity, such as that found in Lat’s cartoons, and have continuously informed our imaginations and realities. But what is it that makes these ways of storytelling so treasured? And how do they inform our collective and individual ways of seeing and thinking? Join Eisner award-winning comic artist, Erica Eng and New Naratif Comics and Illustrations Editor, Charis Loke as we explore these question and their personal approaches to the visual form. Speakers: Karl Nadzarin, Erica Eng, Charis Loke Notes: 1. For more on the idea of drawing as seeing and thinking, see John Berger's wonderful essays 'To Take Paper, To Draw' and 'The Basis of All Painting and Sculpture is Drawing' which can both be found in the Verso publication of Landscapes: John Berger on Art. 2. Charis's Bersih rally sketches can be found here, while her GE14 sketches are on New Naratif (A Tale of Three Ceramahs; A Little Night Music; A Nation Votes). 3. Read Shaun Tan's thoughts on his seminal wordless graphic novel The Arrival, in particular, what he says about the intuitive resonance of looking at pictures as well as where he's pulling his visual references from. See also the wordless novels from the 1910s-1930s in woodcuts by Frans Masereel, like The City (Die Stadt) and Passionate Journey (Mon livre d'heures). 4. SOUND: A Comics Anthology Co-edited by Budjette Tan and Charis Loke; published by Difference Engine A collection of thirteen comics by Southeast Asian creators; visit the microsite to learn more about their process and how the anthology came together. 5. Follow Erica's award-winning comic and blog for updates. 

Originally written by a merchant in 1775, publisher Amir Muhammad set the challenge to re-tell one of Malay literature’s strangest stories alongside author Heidi Shamsuddin and illustrator Evi Shelvia. This story of pig king offers challenges for both readers and the authors who have created an evocatively modern re-telling as well as a novel funding process to produce this beautifully illustrated book. Speakers: Amir Muhammad, Heidi Shamsuddin, Evi Shelvia, Kam Raslan

COVID-19 has wounded people the world over in untold ways. Although some wounds may never truly heal, there is always hope for healing and change. In this podcast, travel writer Marco Ferrarese shares his first-hand experience of this pandemic with the loss of his beloved parents in the killing fields while he was stuck in Peru due to global border control orders. Listen to his story, how this has affected his work, and his take on what the future holds for travel writers. Speakers: Marco Ferrarese, Ruzanna M. Zuknik

Paul Celan remains one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. Grappling with the long shadow of the Holocaust, Celan’s poetry was forged from language that had passed “through the thousand darknesses of death-bringing speech”. It was a powerful Gegenwort (counter-word) that resounded against the violence of obliteration, against the limits of poetry and language itself. In conjunction with the centenary of Paul Celan’s birth, we speak to the distinguished poet and translator Pierre Joris, who has engaged deeply with Celan’s work for over 50 years. We explore the complexities and intricacies of Celan’s poetics, his striking reconfigurations of the German language, and what Joris calls Celan’s “fearful polysemy”. This conversation is moderated by GTLF Co-Director Pauline Fan, who is translating Celan’s poetry into Malay. Paul Celan’s poetry readings, from “Ich Hörte Sagen”, (Audio CD) Der Hörverlag. Speakers: Pierre Joris, Pauline Fan

Exile has been a recurring theme and metaphor in poetry since ancient times to the present day. How do the social, political and existential conditions of exile or displacement shape a poetry of insistent memory and resistance? Poets and translators Abdulsalam, Amin, Masuma and Mwaffaq gather for a conversation among friends. They speak of longing for their homelands of Syria, Iran and Afghanistan, tensions of belonging in their new home of Malaysia, of hope, loss and the possibility of freedom. Speakers: Mwaffaq Al-Hajjar, Amin Kamrani, Abdulsalam, Masuma Tavakoli

Suasana sepi, tersisih, dan terpinggir adalah antara suasana yang sering dikaitkan dengan pengkaryaan sastera. Perbualan ini akan meneroka tentang karya yang terhasil dalam kurungan seperti penjara, pulau orang buangan, di dalam suaka politik (dan mungkin juga dalam tempoh Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan?). Bakal dibincangkan juga “kurungan” bersifat geografi, tentang sastera Melayu yang mungkin membataskan diri cuma dalam wilayah Malaysia atau Asia Tenggara, tentang jarak antara sastera Melayu Malaysia dan Indonesia, dan sebagainya. Pembicara: Nirwan Dewanto, Al-Mustaqeem M. Radhi

Best known for his “Rosales Saga” novels, multi-award-winning Filipino writer F. Sionil José, is known equally outside his country for his interventions on questions of land reform and social justice as well as one of the founders of the regional journal of literature and opinion, Solidarity. Born before the Great Depression, he is rare in being a living witness to the tumultuous 20th Century; throughout he has been a consistent advocate for freedom of expression with his confirmation as Vice President of PEN International in October 2019 a testament to that conviction. In this conversation, Eddin Khoo speaks to him about the role of the writer in the formation of national consciousness. Speakers: F. Sionil José, Eddin Khoo

“Tiada guna menjadi penulis jika karya yang ditulis tidak menyuarakan kepentingan dan kebajikan masyarakatnya”. Begitu menurut Fatimah Busu. Sedari awal menulis, sasterawan dan novelis ini tekal menegur ketempangan yang terjadi dalam masyarakatnya. Namun, tidak selalunya teguran lewat sastera disambut baik oleh khalayaknya atau lebih-lebih lagi oleh sang penguasa. Regina Ibrahim bersama Fatimah Busu berbicara tentang sastera Malaysia, tujuan menulis, dan perihal lain di sekitarnya. Pembicara: Fatimah Busu, Regina Ibrahim

In tribute to the late legendary Malaysian writer, K.S. Maniam, GTLF offers a special reading of his play, The Sandpit — a story of tradition, oppression, endurance and the female body set in a working-class Malaysian-Indian family. This dramatised reading features celebrated actresses Anne James and Jo Kukathas reprising the roles of Santha and Sumathi which they performed in the 1994 production. Speakers: Anne James, Jo Kukathas

Tatkala terkurung, puisi menjadi jalan keluar. Ia membawa kita menuju ke ruang-ruang yang jarang disinggahi melalui bahasa yang melampaui kebiasaan. Dengari lima belas penyair Malaysia membacakan puisi-puisi terpilih, membentangkan kedukaan, cinta, dan harapan. Pembicara: Jack Malik, Kulleh Grasi, Tulangkata, Alif Awan, Ainunl Muaiyanah, Aisyah Rais, Qurratul ‘Ain, Karim Mohd, Hafiz Hamzah, Shaira Amira, Syaheeda Hamdani, Zahid M. Naser, Shafiq Said, Hidayu Hatta, Raihani Md. Saaid

Seperti apa sastera Mahua mempengaruhi perkembangan serta riwayat kebudayaan Malaya pada takah 1940 sehingga 1960-an? Dengan bolak-balik migrasi yang cukup pesat, pertembungan ideologi sehinggalah persoalan identiti, di mana letak duduk sastera Mahua dalam menangkap kebudayaan masyarakat kita kemudiannya? Bersama Profesor Ngoi Guat Peng (UPSI) dan Dr. Show Ying Xin (ANU) di dalam meneroka titik mula perkembangan sastera Mahua dan kesannya di Malaya. Pembicara: Show Ying Xin, Ngoi Guat Peng, Zikri Rahman

Since ancient times, labyrinths have been paradoxical by design. Serving as a path to spiritual rebirth, a trap for evil spirits, and a place to hold captive monsters of the empire, the complex layers of a labyrinth hold the promise to both enlighten and confound. In this conversation, we explore the formation of national belonging in Burma and the ways in which these histories have created constructions of the Burmese ‘self’. What has this meant for the Rohingya, who have been cast as the quintessential ‘other’ of Burmese identity? What are the myths and parameters of this national imagination, and what would it take to shift them? Journalist and author, Carlos Sardiña Galache, interrogates these questions in a conversation on his new book, The Burmese Labyrinth. Speakers: Carlos Sardiña Galache, Lilianne Fan

Kritikan menghidupkan sastera dan karya tumbuh melalui penulis dan pengkritik. Setidak-tidaknya begitulah alam kesusasteraan di Nusantara khususnya di negara ini mengekalkan keberadaannya sejak abad ke-20. Namun, kritikan sastera dalam ranah teori kadangkala mengeringkan atau terasing. Tetapi ketika dibawa turun, kritikan sastera kemudiannya tidak lagi dianggap sebagai batu pengasah untuk menajamkan lagi daya fikir dan suara penulis, sebaliknya sebagai sebilah pedang untuk dibenamkan pada tubuh karya. Pada titik ini karya akhirnya berdarah ditusuk cemburu dan dendam. Pertemuan ini memeta budaya kritik sastera, berbual tentang keberanian penulis untuk keluar dari ruang selesa, dan bagaimana untuk mengekalkan satu suasana yang sesuai bagi perbahasan-perbahasan penting dalam sastera di Malaysia. Pembicara: S.M. Zakir, Wan Nor Azriq, Rebecca Ilham

If road trips bring us a change of scenery, road trips of the imagination take us to vistas along a horizon only limited by the expanse of our creative mindscapes. Writers Joshua Kam and Arif Rafhan join Adriana Nordin Manan in a conversation on the journeys taken in their works, and how they change, challenge and compel us to always carry the voyager’s spirit within. This podcast is presented in co-partnership with EPIGRAM. Speakers: Joshua Kam, Arif Rafhan, Adriana Nordin Manan

With his follow-up memoir, Home Is Where We Are, renowned historian Wang Gungwu continues his personal journey through the 20th Century as a participant and keen observer. We ask him how the individual, caught up in forces far beyond her control, might come to understand and negotiate both the progress and the devastation that the Century wrought on people and the planet. Speakers: Wang Gungwu, Sharaad Kuttan