Mood:
coolTopic: Singapore's writing scene
I took leave to attend a meeting called by National Arts Council to get writers' feedback on their plan for the Writers' Festival coming up this December.
In the meeting were the steering committee including Lee Suan Hiang, CEO of NAC, Philip Jeyaratnam, lawyer and part-time writer and Goh Eck Kheng, owner of Landmark Books.
Other writers also invited to this meeting are Toh Hsien Minn, editor of QLRS, a banker and part-time writer, Shamini Mahadevan Flint of Sunbear Publishing who self-published three crime & mystery books as well as numerous children stories and Rosemary Lim of Two Trees, a writer of short stories and also the local organizer for NANAMO. There was also a representative from Channels NewsAsia who host Friday's slot on Writer's Profile, several poets and distributor for MarketAsia.
The theme for the festival will be on Crossings ie. crossing the generations, crossing the genre, crossing the media. There would be a few events including the launch of a Writer's Award, to act as drumbeats leading to the main event.
My general impression of the meeting was not too positive. While the implicit understanding from joining this meeting was to give feedback on what was already planned, most of the feedback when offered seemed to hit a blank wall. These include the following:
1) vary the venue for Writer's Festival for the different sessions just like what Hong Kong's similar festival had. Shamini, who participated in that festival, shared that she found the approach refreshing as opposed to sticking to the same venue which was what Singapore was planning - in this case, is at The Arts House. There was a certain defensiveness in the reception of her feedback, citing things like not wanting to follow Hong Kong but be uniquely Singapore etc.
2) holding events in December is not the best time due to disappearing crowds for holidays and also, contention with other marketing activities, especially centered around children and Christmas shopping. The answer for this: Yes, we know this but there is a calendar already agreed that June is for Arts Festival and December for Writers' Festival.
3) have a more international flavor instead of just showcasing Asian writers. Nay sayers to this cited the difficulty and high price of getting internationally acclaimed writers and playing on the multi-racial coexistence to make the festival uniquely Singapore.
4) weave in technology as another interpretation of the theme "Crossings". Showcase Singapore not just as a writers' hub but also a leader in infocomm. Run live webcasts with famous authors as a cheaper alternative to flying them over. Overcome the potential gap in getting book signings from these authors by bringing in technology that allows remote book signings. The reception to this idea of mixing technology with the arts did not seem to sit very well from my reading of the expressions of the steering committee. It was as though the matter had been debated before and they did not see the arts and technology a natural or appropriate combination.
These cool reception of ideas begs the question why we, the writers, are invited to take time away from our work at our own expense to join. Is it just a process so they can sing about having tested their ideas with the market?
Su Yin
