#Word – A Cooler Lumpur Festival, Kuala Lumpur

Saturday 22 June 12:30pm MYT

Should Literature Be Political?

Panelists: Benjamin Markovits (image left), Huzir Sulaiman, Shamini Flint, Di Li
Moderator: Sharaad Kuttan

Author Biographies:

Benjamin Markovits is a UK based writer with six published novels including the trilogy on the life of Lord Byron: Imposture, A Quiet Adjustment and Childish Loves. He is also on the recently announced list of Granta Magazine’s Best Young British Novelists. Benjamin teaches Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Huzir Sulaiman  is a Malaysian actor, director and writer. One of Malaysia’s leading dramatists, acclaimed for his vibrant, inventive use of language and incisive insight into human behavior in general and the Asian psyche in particular. His plays, often charged with dark humor, political satire, and surrealistic twists, have won numerous awards and international recognition. He currently lives in Singapore.

Shamini Flint writes children’s books with cultural and environmental themes. She also writes crime fiction. Shamini has sold over 500,000 books since she began writing six years ago.

Nguyen Dieu Linh better known as  Di Li is a Hanoi based writer. She has published thirteen books and especially well-known with Red Flower Farm which is the first mystery horror novel in Vietnam. She’s a member of the Vietnam Writers Association, Hanoi Writers Association and the Asia Pacific Writers & Translators Association.

Sharaad Kuttan is a producer with BFM89.9 – a business radio station in the Klang Valley. He produces a weekly review of the media – The Week in Review – as well as a show that discusses philosophy and social theory – Night School. A member of the International Art Critics Association, he is a graduate of the National University of Singapore, where he obtained a Masters degree from its Department of Sociology and Anthropology. He is co-editor of a collection of essays on cultural politics in Singapore, “Looking at Culture” (1996).