Picture Book Forum

The National Book Development Council (NBDC) teamed up with the Media Development Authority to organise the Picture Book Forum on 12-13 December to help aspiring children’s writers and illustrators materialise their first work.

The forum is also part of the NBDC/MDA First-Time Writers and Publishers Initiative targeted at assisting the publication of new works by unpublished writers and/or illustrators. Under the initiative, selected authors and illustrators will get a grant.

Australian writer Meredith Costain kicked off the forum with a broad survey of the world of picture books. She also encouraged participants not to shun what they felt were unsuitable topics for children – including themes like mental illness, divorce and death.

Illustrator Leigh Hobbs then spoke about the visual aspect of picture books. An art teacher for a quarter century, he made no bones about the long and difficult path towards recognition as a children’s illustrator – but emphasised the great rewards that did come with his perseverance. 

He used his experience of developing his highly-popular Old Tom series to illustrate the trials and tribulations of getting his work published. His misadventures of a scruffy, one-eyed cat has been a massive success as both a book and an animated series.

Although the majority of the 120 participants were writers, Mr Hobb’s illustration exercises in character visualisation and basic illustration techniques gave them a whole new appreciation of the artist’s role in the process.

The forum allowed like-minded individuals to meet, exchange ideas and in many cases form potential partnerships.

Illustrator and model-maker David Liew, 38, had a two-fold pleasant surprise. Besides reveling in the heady mix of writing and images, he met old classmates from school who were reintroduced to his work.  At least one picture book is now on the cards for him.

Said Mr Liew: “I’ve been working on a book for some time now but had let it lapse. This forum was just the needed push to get my engine started again!”

Another aspiring children’s book writer Cindy Lim, 37, took inspiration from Mr Hobb’s experience. “It was great to hear him share how even he himself, despite his success, had suffered bouts of loss of confidence when he felt he wasn’t making any headway with ideas in his illustrations. Pushing on at such critical moments produced breakthroughs for him,” she said. She is currently writing and illustrating her own educational book for 7 to 8 year olds.

The two-day event was rounded up by a open cafe session on the business end of publishing. Publisher Shirley Hew exhorted the crowd not to hesitate or guess what publishers wanted.

Her final rally best summed up the forum and its aims: If you have a good story to tell and illustrate, just do it – there will be someone out there who would want to read it, and there will be a publisher who will want to publish it.

“New Beginnings” for Singapore writers

By Ng Kiat Han

“New Beginnings,” 2008’s first subTEXT literary reading session, was held on the 3rd of January at the Central Lending Library.  The session was truly, as its title suggests, a series of new beginnings because the featured authors were newly-minted writers- Pranav Joshi, Pooja Nansi, Marc Nair and Bani Haykal.  These authors read passages from their recently-published volumes and spoke about the creative process. 

Environmentalist Pranav Joshi is clearly conscious of Singapore’s racial and cultural makeup, having been an observer of such phenomena since he migrated to Singapore from Mumbai in the 90s.  His debut volume, Behind A Cultural Cage, is about an Indian-born Chinese man who migrates to Singapore and goes through an identity crisis.  The titular Cage incorporates cultural and social cages and the book narrates how this man negotiates his identities.   

Pooja Nansi read from her book Stiletto Scars and Marc Nair shared poems from his poetry collection, Along the Yellow Line.  Bani Haykal also shared selections from his Sit Quietly in the Flood, and Chris Mooney-Singh rounded up the readings with a few of his poems from The Laughing Buddha Cab Company.  Chris is the founder and head of Word Forward, and all four poetry books were published under the organisation’s imprint. 
It must be noted that one figure was noticeably out-of-place: veteran writer Chris Mooney-Singh already has a body of published work; he is no first-time writer, and that sets him apart.  Or does it?  Certainly not- the father of Poetry Slam Singapore and Writers Connect is undoubtedly consonant with the young poets; the young writers are, after all, iconic figures in these local movements. 
The audience knew that the poets were primarily performance artists from the local Poetry Slam; during the ‘question & answer’ session, the inevitable question “do you prefer your work in tangible form?” rang out.  The response was silent, but unequivocal - all the poets shook their heads immediately after the question was asked.  Their creative process did not appear conventional, after all; the poets performed first, then were published.  Pooja says “reading my poem on stage was what got me started”.  This is undeniable- performance and publication are just different sides of the same coin.  “It’s just a lot of fun, and it brings [the poem] to life in a different way”, says Pooja.     
It soon became clear that the poets’ creative selves were significantly nourished by Chris Mooney-Singh’s writing activities.  Marc says “I benefited most from the collaborative process.”  Chris adds, “I feel that Poetry Slam is like a crèche where people can test out their works.  It’s a good crucible to test yourself.” 
That philosophy also rings true for Chris’s Writers Connect sessions; these are writing workshops where people critique any shared piece of original writing.  A “sense of questioning” was what Bani took away from the poetry sessions, and he relishes that uncertainty.  He says “I hope I don’t find the answer!  It’d be boring!”

The session reveals poetry slam as a means for writers looking to publish their works.  Pranav Joshi, for instance, has a PhD in Science, but he has journeyed across the disciplines to get his story published.  The writers are clearly in love with the creative process.  Pooja says, “The kick I get out of writing a poem is in capturing that feeling, that moment.  Another kick is when you finish the piece- when you write your last line- and when you go ‘and that’s it!’”
Readers interested in Chris Mooney-Singh’s Poetry Slam movement can make themselves free every last Tuesday of the month; Writers Connect, the writing workshop is held at the Earshot Cafe of the Arts House, and newcomers are always welcome, say the organisers. Please visit the wordforward website for more information on the aforementioned events (http://wordforward.org/).