Thursday 6 March 2008

Join the KLAB!

The day after the launch of New Malaysian Essays 1 (a 2-hour event where over 200 local books managed to be sold), I spoke to Zulhabri Supian (who works at Gerakbudaya) about the possibility of organising a longer event that focuses on local books. This idea was strengthened when, a week later, I found out that several Malay fiction books were rejected by a large distributor; although no reasons were given, the fact that none of them had 'Cinta' or "Kasih' in the title may have been a contributing factor. So this is what we came up with; do join us!

The 1st KL Alternative Bookfest (KLAB) will be held on the weekend of 3-4 May, 2008 at The Annexe, Central Market.

Held less than a month after the mammoth Pesta Buku KL (where you can buy as many text-books, romance novels and religious instruction manuals as you want), it will be held simultaneously with the very popular Art For Grabs event – but in a different room.

KLAB is ... basically a gathering of small, independent publishers who would like a popular venue to sell, launch and discuss books. We seek to fill 10-15 tables. Each table can be taken up by one publisher, or it can be shared between various people who each have books to sell.

There are many happenin' Malaysian books now being published; the trouble is, not many of them are readily available in the main bookshops. This is an opportunity to bring these books to the public, and to make the whole process fun lah.

4 tables have already been filled up; they are by Gerakbudaya, SIRD, Silverfish, and Matahari Books. We seek 6-11 others. We are in negotiations to bring one publisher each from Singapore & Indonesia too.

The events we plan are:
- Book launch by Hishamuddin Rais
- Discussion of new books, with the authors present
- A 'book give-away' where people can simply get rid of books they no longer want, for free. This will physically take up one corner of the room, where people can just leave the books. The idea is to make interesting books available even to those who can't afford to buy 'em. The remainder of the books will be donated, most likely to The Ricecooker Shop
- Bilingual poetry slam, where the audience gets to vote for favourite performers (to be coordinated by Ted Mahsun)
- And more!

Details:
The fee per table (for both days) is RM100
The event is from 12-6pm both days.
Deadline to receive entries (including payment) is April 26
Payment goes directly to The Annexe

Interested? Contact zulhabri at gmail dot com.

7 comments:

XMOCHA said...

what a fab idea! Will be there!

bibliobibuli said...

well done. it really is time for this.

btw apparently you cannot use the words "poetry slam" to describe an event of this kind in malaysia. chris mooney singh has trade marked it he claims as he has done in singapore, as apparently the organisers of slam have in the US.

but a slam by any other name will smell as sweet!

and btw someone took out a copyright for the words "freedom of speech" in the US (honestly) so you have to apply for permission to use the phrase

the indie story said...

Liputan Terkini : Anwar Ibrahim Turun Pasar Minggu Kampung Baru, KL (Khamis 6 Mac, Masa : 9.30 - 11 pm) JALAN DITUTUP !

FOTO-FOTO EKSKLUSIF HANYA DARIPADA :

http://theindiestory.blogspot.com

CHECK IT OUT!

Amir Muhammad said...

OK, not slam then. We shall rename is slap, or dunk.

Unknown said...

It's all slam this and slam that these days. Poetry Sock-to-the-face?

Sharon, do you have any links on those two claims? I remember hearing about the Freedom of Information thing, but I didn't hear that the copyright was passed.

So we have to get Chris' permission to use the term Poetry Slam? I'll have to ask him about that sometime.

Caieja said...

Err... will be any from Indonesia? I'm craving for something from late Pak Pramoedya. But don't know where to get it.

And yes, I'll be there too... Must be an interesting event. YAY!!!

Amir Muhammad said...

The Indonesian publisher we were pursuing couldn't make it. But I am pretty sure Gerakbudaya stocks a few of Pramoedya's books.