Singapore Writers Festival

Had quite a activity-packed weekend in Singapore this time:
- More chili crab Friday night. That makes it three crab dinner in two weeks!
- Shopping at Sim Lim Sqaure
- Pigged out at the Ritz-Carlton Sunday Champange Brunch - three hours of posh food! (Moet et Chandon + the biggest chesse spread I've ever seen in my life + lobster + oysters + crab claws + foie gras = choresterol shock!)


And last but not least, I went to three events at the Singapore Writers Festival - too tired to write about them now but I have to say that all of them were really thought-provoking for entirely different reasons.

Rewind a bit and tell you a bit more about the fest. Maybe this quote from the website does a good job of conveying the spirit of it all -

"The Singapore Writers Festival celebrates the power of the written word!"

The formula for doing this is not so hard it seems - grab some thought-provoking authors and let them roam around giving readings, signing autographs, put them into panels and other weird situations. Give the wannabe writers workshops on how to write genre bestsellers, biographies, blogs, graphic novels, etc.

Also host them in a great venue like Singapore's new National Library.

And I guess for readers like me it's a chance to connect back to the writers and their thoughts - reading (like writing) is essentially such a solitary activity that one can feel so isolated from the rest of the world. No wonder people say 'You got to read this book!' so much... they just want some company in the reading journey.

I attend three sessions so far (write more about them in later posts):

1. A reading by up-and-coming Thai-American writer, Rattawut Lapcharoensap. He writes in English and just publish his first collection of short stories, "Sightseeing".

2. A talk by cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling.

3. Another talk on Australian food with chef Kylie Kwong and food writer (among other things) R.W. Apple.