The awards
ary scene.
“Some of them are politicians or famous sports figures and they already have a huge fan base outside of literary circles. They are privileged with all the publicity and media coverage. When you factor this in, the gap is unfair. The minute they put anything about themselves out there, their supporters will definitely vote for them. The scale is skewed,” Boey laments.
Boey believes, though, that since voters are required to vote for the top three books, this may shrink the gap.
What of the RCA’s judging mech-mechanism; ie, with winners decided entirely by a popular vote?
Marina opines that for the fiction category, there could be a “more literary award where (books) are judged for their literary merit and not just popularity, which is what a readers’ choice award is.
“I think that might be a bit harder to do with non-fiction books, though. But we don’t really have a culture of literary criticism in this country anyway.”
Dina says Malaysia should have other literary awards, perhaps modelled on Britain’s prestigious Man Booker Prize and “judged by a discerning panel of judges. There are different types of awards for different reasons.”
Asserts Shankar, “Some kind of ‘weight’ should be given to independent judges versus reader voters, perhaps 65:35, so that merit and not sentiment rules.”
When the RCA was first discussed between Popular and The Star, these and other ideas actually came up. However, the decision made was that this would be a popular (no pun intended!) contest decided by the people who buy the product, the readers.
Boey, though, has a word of warning about this: Malaysian authors have a tendency to stick to tried and true formulas that sell.
“It’s the same thing all the time, what with ghost stories, gossip, love stories and so on. This pattern is ongoing and it is here the international writers have an edge. Their ideas are often times fresh and original. In Malaysia, I find there isn’t much originality.
“I think what we need are books that can stir people’s minds and thoughts. If people can relate to it, then it is good,” Boey says.
Chew has no problem with this at all, and feels that this is exactly what comes across in this year’s books. “I believe that the most important thing is that this year’s nominees really wrote from their hearts and the stories mean a lot to them.”
He goes on to say that, in the future, more categories might be added to the RCA. “Potential categories that may be included in the future are writings for teens, short stories and so on.”
Awards can and do change as they grow in popularity and influence; given its democratic decided-by-readers origins, what is in store for the RCA might well lie in your hands, dear reader. So write to us at star2@thestar. com.my and tell us what you think about the RCA so far and what you might do with these awards if it were up to you.
And don’t forget to vote! Because not only will you reward your favourite authors, but you will also stand a chance to win a RM50 Popular book voucher, one year free Popular card membership, and a book hamper worth RM100.
The Popular-The Star Readers’ Choice Awards 2013 are a precursor to BookFest@ Malaysia 2013, which will be held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre from Aug 3 to 11. Admission is with purchase of the BookFest catalogue (RM2.50 each), which will be available at all Popular and Harris bookstores closer to the event’s opening date. Entry is free for students aged 18 and below, and senior citizens aged 60 and above. For more information, visit bookfestmalaysia.com. Fiction 1. 2. 3. 4.
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9. by Tan Twan eng by esther Low by dina Zaman
by arthur Julian Wu
by dave anthony
by Paul Callan
by e.S. Shankar by Balan Moses
by Barbara Ismail
by Rozlan Mohd noor
by Lee Chong Wei by Chee Ming Boey Syed by Premilla Mohanlall
by Marina Mahathir
by Sandra Loh
by P.G. Lim
authors
by Zaid Ibrahim
by various
edited by Julian Hopkins & Julian C.H. Lee 10. by
dr Siti Hawa Mohd