Malachi Edwin Vethamani
Malachi Edwin Vethamani
Malachi Edwin Vethamani is a Malaysian-born Indian poet, fictionist, editor, bibliographer, academic, and critic. He has been a vocal advocate for literary expression, reflecting the multicultural, multilingual, and often marginalised voices within Malaysia. His work frequently explores themes of identity, sexuality, love, loss, displacement, and cultural belonging, and he is especially noted for
"Malaysians write in an English which is quite distinctive. We can recognise Malaysian English both in its standard and non-standard forms. We can see the influences of the local languages on Malaysian English and it certainly enriches the language, but we need to bear in mind that it should have intelligibility for both local and international readers."
"One needs to be careful with what one decides to publish. There are things I write and don’t publish. But I certainly needed to write them for myself. My editor is my barometer who cautions me, and I rarely disagree with him. Some of my readers say I’m brave to publish what they read in my books. So maybe, now I can go a little further. Malaysians self-censor for many reasons. There is the fear that our work might be banned or at worse the writer gets arrested. One has to be careful with matters of race and religion. My writings do deal with race and aspects of religion, but I am very careful not to offend though I might touch on these issues."
"I certainly do not subscribe to any form of kiss and tell in my writing. Those who write such real-life confessional books are certainly not doing it for any kind of literary reasons. Sadly, that seems to be what some publishers want, and they know these books have readers and they will sell copies."
