As we all know, World Book Day is an international event that is celebrated worldwide. The purpose of this day is to promote reading of books, both young and old. The habit of reading is best inculcated when a child is still young, as this reading bug will most probably follow him for the rest of his life! This reason why this particular day is chosen, is mainly due to the fact that this on this day,it was also the anniversary of the birth and death of William Shakespeare, the death of Miguel de Cervantes, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and Josep Pla, the birth of Maurice Druon, Vladimir Nabokov, Manuel Mejía Vallejo and Halldór Laxness. The reason why books are so important is ok because books are sometimes a compilation of answers and more questions that help you in life. I would say I can not really explain this with my own words, and so I would like to quote Julian Barnes, who, explaining how books can help us steer through the tricky waters of life, said in Flaubert's Parrot: "Books say: she did this because. Life says: she did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't."
Being a school that emphasises on bilingualism, Hwa Chong Institution also celebrates this day annually throughout the whole school. This year, there will be writing contests on microfiction and poetry and the National Library Board's mobile library bus will also be coming to our school! There is also a special contest this year, which is where students from every class have to design their classroom doors into book covers, with any book of their choice! Well that certainly is interesting, isn't it! On top of all that opportunities that we are already provided with, there will be a panel discussion with three published Singaporean authors on the topics of books, reading and writing by my own Language Arts teacher, Jason Erik Lundberg!
Being a fan of fiction and all kinds of other books ever since I was small, I decided on the spot to attend this discussion the moment I saw this message. Although writing might not seem like a path I would take at this moment, there is no harm in learning more about this field from the experts themselves. So, on the day of the panel discussion, my friend(Adlan Raid Bin Adi Radlan) and I headed to the Drama Centre in our school to attend it together. As we were early, we decided to browse through the books that are being sold just outside the Drama Centre first, and I spotted a couple of few books. It was a pity that on that day I did not have enough money to buy anything, but I plan to get them myself on a further date.
After some time, the discussion was about to start, and we entered the Drama Centre. It was then that I finally got to look at the three authors themselves!
The first was Alvin Pang, author of two books of poetry, Testing the Silence and City of Rain. He was named 2005 Young Artist of the Year by the National Arts Council, and has published poetry worldwide, including in the 2008 international anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond (W.W. Norton). He was also featured at the 2003 Edinburgh International Book Festival and the 2006 Sydney Writer's Festival as an invited international poet, and has also read at major literary festivals in Bali, Darwin, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and elsewhere.
Next was Felix Cheong, author of three books of poetry (Temptation and Other Poems, I Watch the Stars Go Out, and Broken by the Rain, which was short-listed for the 2004 Singapore Literature Prize) and two young adult novels (The Call From Crying House and Woman in the Last Carriage). He is also a mentor under MOE's Creative Arts Programme, and in 2003, under a pilot project initiated by the NAC, he and fellow writer Dave Chua came up with a programme to teach students how to create hypertext fiction.
Finally was Yong Shu Hoong, author of the poetry collections Isaac, dowhile, and Frottage (winner of the 2006 Singapore Literature Prize). Besides writing, Yong is also the founder and organizer of subtTEXT, a series of monthly literary readings which ran from 2001 to 2008, and which is now held on an ad-hoc basis. Together with Enoch Ng, they have set up mediaexodus, the company which coordinates and organises the National Arts Council’s Mentor Access Project.
The first thing that I really felt a pity was the number of people that turned up for the panel discussion. Well, they just would not get to hear advice and the experience of these authors, who have gone through the hardships and problems of becoming a good author. So what the authors really shared about was first about their love for books and how they started to find their passion in writing. I remember one of them specifically saying that, "After all, to be able to love to write, one must first love to read". This is indeed very true, I must say. They then went on to give us tips about how they get about in improving and becoming what they are today. They also shared with us about how hard was it to find a good book to read, as there wasn't the internet or organised libraries back then like we have today. When it was time for Q&A, I remember them talking about vetting scripts that they get for competitions. They said that the standard of writing has improved significantly over the past years and all the works that they get from students are all brilliant pieces of work. They also constantly compare themselves to the students, as they said, "We were writing rubbish when we were at your age!". I also learnt that nowadays, the stories that girls and guys write do not differ that much, which only goes to show the variety of reading for both sexes is no longer limited to a specific genre!
After that enriching session, my view and opinions of writing and reading change quite a bit. Though I may not take this as a career path, I can still take it up as a hobby! After all, writing is not that hard - anyone can just take up a pen and start letting their creativity run wild! Well, even with all the technology that we have nowadays, I will never deny that having a good book in your hand during your free time is a very enjoyable thing!
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