*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media
(NSI News Source Info) EDINBURGH, Scotland - August 25, 2009: At the Edinburgh International Book Festival in Scotland’s capital, bookworms are getting their literary
fill.
Edinburgh is well—known for its literature. In 2004, Edinburgh was named the world’s first City of Literature by The United Nations’ Cultural Organisation, UNESCO. The city also hosts literary bus tours and pub tours regularly.
So it came as no surprise that the annual book festival, now in its 26th year, drew authors from 45 countries, and a diversity of readers who came to see famous scribes, or to discover the next generation of them.
Over the course of two weeks, the fair hosted more than 700 writers and thinkers and drew crowds of more than 200,000.
This year, the festival added three Singaporean writers to its lineup. Suchen Christine Lim, Simon Tay and poet Edwin Thumboo shared their work and spoke about the challenges of being a writer in Singapore.
Lim is a descendant of illiterate Chinese immigrants from Malaysia. She moved to Singapore with her family when she was 15 and became the first woman to win the Singapore Literature Prize for her novel, Fistful of Colours.
She said she struggled at first being a female writer of controversial topics in a conservative society.
She said: "Previously, I wouldn’t even be published, but now... I’ve written about a mother whose son is gay. This is a great improvement and I’m here to celebrate that."
A central theme of Singapore writing is the question of the "Singapore identity". Award—winning poet and professor Edwin Thumboo explored those issues in his work.
The product of a Chinese mother and an Indian father, Thumboo grew up under British rule. That experience inspired him to write nationalistic poetry. But he said writings of any theme are essential to shaping a nation’s identity, especially a young nation like Singapore.
He said: "How long are we going to be in the grip of our colonial experience? That’s precisely the experience you are moving away from. We want to bring in our own experience, our own release from colonialism."
The reading drew about 50 people, not a large crowd, but enough to put the island—nation on the literary map.
fill.
Edinburgh is well—known for its literature. In 2004, Edinburgh was named the world’s first City of Literature by The United Nations’ Cultural Organisation, UNESCO. The city also hosts literary bus tours and pub tours regularly.
So it came as no surprise that the annual book festival, now in its 26th year, drew authors from 45 countries, and a diversity of readers who came to see famous scribes, or to discover the next generation of them.
Over the course of two weeks, the fair hosted more than 700 writers and thinkers and drew crowds of more than 200,000.
This year, the festival added three Singaporean writers to its lineup. Suchen Christine Lim, Simon Tay and poet Edwin Thumboo shared their work and spoke about the challenges of being a writer in Singapore.
Lim is a descendant of illiterate Chinese immigrants from Malaysia. She moved to Singapore with her family when she was 15 and became the first woman to win the Singapore Literature Prize for her novel, Fistful of Colours.
She said she struggled at first being a female writer of controversial topics in a conservative society.
She said: "Previously, I wouldn’t even be published, but now... I’ve written about a mother whose son is gay. This is a great improvement and I’m here to celebrate that."
A central theme of Singapore writing is the question of the "Singapore identity". Award—winning poet and professor Edwin Thumboo explored those issues in his work.
The product of a Chinese mother and an Indian father, Thumboo grew up under British rule. That experience inspired him to write nationalistic poetry. But he said writings of any theme are essential to shaping a nation’s identity, especially a young nation like Singapore.
He said: "How long are we going to be in the grip of our colonial experience? That’s precisely the experience you are moving away from. We want to bring in our own experience, our own release from colonialism."
The reading drew about 50 people, not a large crowd, but enough to put the island—nation on the literary map.
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