A Probability of Being

I was recently invited to partake in a roundtable of sorts for International Women's Day at ELLE Malaysia, and was asked the question, "what is the greatest problem facing Malaysian women today?"  What a giant question! With no easy answer, and one either is going for incomplete, or totally pithy. I decided to go high abstract instead . It feels strange to read the other responses; my answer is so incredibly academic in comparison. Times like this, I worry that maybe I'm too academic. But it was an interesting challenge all the same!

A short short story I wrote, " Anak Sungai ," is now available to read at Truancy #2 . Truancy is a venue for fairytale re-tellings, re-castings, re-creations. I share a table of contents with the incredible Vajra Chandrasekera , fellow Malaysians Eeleen Lee and Sukhbir Cheema, and the lovely Mari Ness and Sarah Yasin! "Anak Sungai" is what my friend Munira calls "cerita rakyat moden." "Cerita rakyat" more properly translates to "folktale"; a direct translation is something like "tales of the citizenry," ha! It's the story of a river going out to sea. The animal names are in Malay, because I wrote this first and foremost for the audience that reads Malay and English at once!

I'm pleased to say that I am an invited author to the 37th International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts this year! I will be reading at 10.30am on Thursday, in Author Readings IV, Vista A! The chair will be Rachel Swirsky, and my co-readers are the inestimable Nisi Shawl and Sam J. Miller !! I think our outfit theme will be green.  Not only that, but my co-editor Joyce Chng will also be attending! It's her first North American appearance so I'm very excited to see her on this side of the Pacific for once. Please come!