Kow Shih-li...

I just came across this!!! My dear old MRSM friend, Kow Shih-Li...I lost touch with her over the years. Reading this, I am so proud of her. I knew her as such a gentle, soft-spoken soul...congratulations Shih-Li!!! She has been shortlisted for a pretigious award:

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 04:27:00

SHIH-LI KOW: One of six writers nominated for the Frank O'Connor award.

MALAYSIAN Shih-Li Kow is one of six authors, from a longlist of 57 worldwide, in the running for the prestigious 2009 Frank O'Connor Award. Her debut compilation Ripples and Other Stories (published by Silverfish Books) has been shortlisted for the world's richest award for a collection of short stories -- €35,000 (about RM174,000).

Besides Shih-Li, three others have also been nominated for their debut publications -- Zimbabwean Petina Gappah (An Elegy for Easterly), American Wells Tower (Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned), and London-born Simon Van Booy (Love Begins in Winter).

Irish writer Philip O Ceallaigh (who has no apostrophe in his name) appears on the shortlist with his second collection of short stories, The Pleasant Light of Day, while New Zealander Charlotte Grimshaw, nominated for Singularity, is described by The Guardian as "something of a veteran in this context, with two novels and a previous collection of short stories to her name".

This year's winner will be announced on 20 September in Cork, Ireland, at an awards ceremony that all nominees must attend. The announcement marks the culmination of Cork's annual Frank O'Connor International short story festival which has been held since 2005.

For last year's award, there were 38 longlisted but the judges dispensed with the ritual of issuing a shortlist, announcing Jhumpa Lahiri winner for her Unaccustomed Earth -- "a unanimous winner at this early stage we decided it would be a sham to compose a shortlist and put five other writers through unnecessary stress and suspense," the award's director, Pat Cotter had explained.

American writer and film-maker Miranda July's No One Belongs Here More Than You won in 2007, Haruki Murakami's Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman in 2006 and the inaugural award went to Yiyun Li for her debut collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.

In an interview in April with NST's Sunday People, when Shih-Li was asked as to what excited her most about writing, she had replied: "The possibilities. On a personal level it's to see how far I can go as a writer in terms of skills and capabilities. It's always nice to be challenged..."

Earlier In March, Silverfish Books owner-publisher Raman Krishnan had written in his then opinion column Synchcronicity with Malay Mail about locally-produced books "coming out thick and fast, and some of them are of international standard.

"Take the recently published Ripples and other stories by Shih-Li Kow. Amir Muhammad gave it an absolutely positive review, and everyone who has read it is full of praise. This book deserves to be in every Malaysian public and school library. But will it? Or will that space be reserved for a badly edited title of uneven quality by the "right" publisher?"

Earlier this week, after receiving the news from Ireland of Shih-Li's achievement, Raman wrote in the Silverfish website: "Well, now she has to be in Cork, Ireland on the 20th of September for the awards presentation at the end of the Frank O'Connor Short Story Festival, which starts on the 16th of that month.

"Win or lose, it does not matter anymore. She has already won. Malaysian writing has already won. Malaysian readers have won."

Time for words

INTAN MAIZURA AHMAD KAMAL
Sunday People NST

For single working mum Kow Shih-Li, finding the hours to spare so she could concentrate on writing her book was the hardest part, writes INTAN MAIZURA AHMAD KAMAL

HER bespectacled eyes dance with enthusiasm as she lovingly traces her fingers around the contours of her first solo book, Ripples And Other Stories, a Malaysian Literature in English Series under Silverfish Books.

For single mum Kow Shih-Li, all those precious spare hours over a period of a year and a half that she’s managed to sneak in — in between juggling her day job as manager of a small shopping centre in town and looking after her young son, Jack — has been worth it.

“I won’t over-dramatise about how hard it was to write. It wasn’t like some artist suffering for their art sort of thing!” she begins, chuckling shyly. “Yeah, time was the only struggle I had because of work commitments. But I enjoyed the whole process.”

This is not Kow’s first outing as a writer. The soft-spoken 41-year-old, who has a background in chemical engineering and worked as an industrial engineer in a multinational consumer products company for 10 years, had previously been a part of Silverfish Books’ News From Home, a three-author anthology out last year, and also had one of her stories published in Silverfish New Writing.

Ripples And Other Stories, a collection of sprightly tales inspired by people who’ve crossed her path, is a wonderful showcase of Kow’s sensitivity to language and her ability to flesh out her characters. But, she says modestly: “I wish writing came naturally but it doesn’t. I guess it’s because I don’t come from a creative writing background.”

Noting my disbelief at her modesty, the Libran adds: “Writing is not a one-dimensional skill. Especially fiction. There are always so many different aspects like the plot, narrative, the language, the story... many things come into play. It’s quite hard as a new writer to have a grasp of all these things and then to pull it all together. When I write I’m conscious that I have limitations in certain areas and I find it difficult to juggle the different techniques required.”

That may be so when it hasn’t doused her passion for writing. “I enjoy the thought process. You have to be the sort of person who likes having conversations with yourself,” she adds, her eyes twinkling.

“In coming up with stories and playing around with words, in putting things together, I had internalise everything. It’s like having a really long two-way conversation with yourself!”

Continuing, she says: “I actually took a workshop at Silverfish New Writing, which started it all off. After that, I read writers writing about other writers. Recently the British Council ran a writing workshop and I signed up for a few of those. It’s good to have some guidance especially the technical aspects.”

Kow, who enjoys Chinese brush painting and photography (pre-digital camera era!), tries to write a little bit every day. “Sometimes it’s nothing, sometimes it’s just a paragraph of maybe descriptions but I try. I did sit in the toilet for a story that I’m working on but that’s not out yet! Sometimes when I’m driving, an idea hits me.”

As to what excites her most about writing, she replies: “The possibilities. On a personal level it’s to see how far I can go as a writer in terms of skills and capabilities. It’s always nice to be challenged. It’s also quite exciting right now that the local writing scene is heating up. There are lots of people writing and people asking for stories. It’s nice to be a part of that growth although it’s still a small scene.”

Growing up, the KL-born Kow confides, she was very bookish, “…nerdy even”. She chuckles at the recollection. “Enid Blyton was the staple during my primary years. I was lucky that I had access to books as my father was a publisher, albeit a Chinese textbook publisher! My mum was a teacher so the environment was conducive to reading.”

But she ended up studying chemical engineering?

She smiles. “I was one of those students who ended up in the Science stream by virtue of exam results. At that time, if you were in the science stream, the natural choices were to go with engineering, be a doctor or take pure sciences.

“I never thought of doing anything non-science or non-technical as a career. I wrote bits and pieces for the school magazine during my secondary years in Kedah but writing eventually took a back seat when I had family and work commitments.”

These days, time is still a constraint but Kow is determined that her writing won’t need to go on the skids again. In fact, the writer, who considers Anthony Burgess’ The Malayan Trilogy and Yann Martel’s fantasy adventure, Life Of Pi, to be among her favourite books, is already working on materials for another possible outing.

What’s the secret to good writing?

Squinting her eyes in thought, Kow eventually replies: “Read and then try and write. While trying to write you have to be quite conscious of what you can and can’t do as a writer, and then you’ll be able to package something decent. It’s all about practice, reading, and reading about writing.”

Ripples And Other Stories is available at Silverfish Books, 58-1, Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, KL. Price: RM30