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Singapore Writers Festival
I'm really glad that my friend asked me along for this. I was a bit hesistant because I remember a few years ago, we went to an event that was similarly named, and only attended 1 talk about a featured author or book.
But this time, the event had so many thought-provoking discussions on a wide variety of terrifically interesting topics. It was so awesome to be able to attend any of the panel talks with the SWF pass ($15), and soak up the thoughts and opinions of intellectuals, on topics like politics, satire, humor, gender, censorship, culture and personal reasons for writing.
The organizers did a great job of having the venues in the area centred around SMU, like the Art Museum and National Museum, so the mood was very cultural, and the schedule of events was painless.
The design and theme for the festival was extremely agreeable to me too. Simple, minimal, clean, with the concept of 'beauty' and quote from The Portrait of Dorian Gray. Granted, I'm not very sure where the "Prospect of Beauty" came into the picture of tying everything together, but it is a lovely general concept to consider, since we are looking at writing as an art form.
Most importantly, the topics of discussion, and panelists, and moderators, chosen by the organizers were amazing. Most times, to attend a panel discussion was kinda like attending a university lecture by terribly smart and eloquent people who could analyse themselves and link their work back to bigger concepts. I just sit there, sometimes in awe, nodding in agreement and feeling clever when I got their references.
I went for the following:
- Singapore Today: Foresight and Forewarnings
- The Map of My Body
- The Empire Writes Back
- Deconstructing Asia
- Singling Out Singlish
- South American Literary Traditions
- Geoff Dyer in conversation with Robin Hemley
- The Art of Satire
- Heart of Darkness: When 'Do No Harm' Hurts
- The New South American Lit
- The Personal is Political
- Meet the Author: Geoff Dyer
Basically I went to SWF not knowing what to expect, and not knowing any of the panelists or authors, except for Alfian Sa'at, Neil Humphreys, and Mr Miyagi. Over the course of listening to them speak and getting to know a bit of their work, one starts to form opinions on who to check out in the future. For example, I now want to attend the plays by Loretta Chen and Haresh Sharma, and read the essays by Geoff Dyer.
But I was so impressed and moved by Héctor Abad that I wanted to get him to sign my copy of his book.
This all started when I randomly saw the signs for 'South American Literary Traditions' at SAM, and decided to attend the talk because I had randomly read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz a few years ago, which was amazing.
And he was there, being self-deprecating, witty, poetic, talking about being amazed by the guy catching grasshoppers at St. Andrews Cathedral, and his love for his father, and the insight he got from his 6 mothers (1 mother, 5 sisters). I wish I could tell stories as well as he does.
Anyway, I grabbed the last (?) copy of his book Oblivion, which was the one displayed in front of his book signing station, said that I loved his talks and asked him to sign it. He looked a bit confused/bemused, and asked for my name, whether it was spelt with a C or K. Then he wrote carefully in a blue gel pen, "with best wishes", and signed off with "Singapore" and the date. I thanked him and ran off to escape the awkwardness.
I still felt awkward when I attended 'The Personal is Political' because I didn't want him to think I'm stalking him. But the talk was so good, because I was taught about needing the element of the 'personal' in art. JP Cuenca and Héctor Abad sometimes write what they want to read, and sometimes write about painful aspects of their lives. The love/hate relationship they have with their country and homeland shapes them as people and writers, and also makes me think about my own relationship with Singapore.
