About this Event
Important Notice
This programme/event is open to members of the National Library Board, Singapore. Please ensure you have your myLibrary username on hand before proceeding with the registration. If you do not have a myLibrary username, you can create one here: https://account.nlb.gov.sg/.
About the Programme/Event:
Is there a future in revisiting the past? How can memories paralyse, but also incite action and change?
This is an hour-long panel discussion about memory as premise, catalyst, and denouement. Travelling between past, present, and future, the characters in The Lights that Find Us and Abraham’s Promise grapple with tensions between the old and new that arise out of retracing their steps. As we journey with them down the memory lane, we will explore the intersections of the realms of personal, familial and national memory and identity.
The second hour of the programme features an exclusive sharing of select manuscripts related to the authors invited. Drawn from the National Library’s Closed Stacks collection, join us to see and hear about the curated selection of manuscripts up close and personal, led by librarian Michelle Heng.
This programme is a joint initiative by the National Arts Council and the National Library Board.
About the Speaker(s):
(Speaker) Anittha’s debut novel, The Lights That Find Us, was published in 2018. Her latest novel, It Had to Be Her is the first of a YA trilogy and was published in April 2024. Her short stories have appeared in Mahogany Journal, Best New Singaporean Short Stories Volume Five, and How We Live Now. When she isn’t working or writing, she can be found either walking her poodle, Dino, or attempting unnecessarily difficult jigsaw puzzles. Anittha is currently working on the sequel to It Had to Be Her.
(Speaker) Justice Philip Jeyaretnam is a prizewinning author who was declared Young Artist of the Year for 1993 by the Singapore National Arts Council. His second novel, Abraham’s Promise (1995), is about the reminiscences of an elderly Latin teacher, and won the Highly Commended Book Award by the National Book Development Council of Singapore in 1996. He has been serving as a Judge of the High Court of Singapore since November 2021.
(Moderator) Jamie Foo is an educator in English Language and Literature. She holds a BA in English from King’s College, London, and MA in English from the University of Pennsylvania. Her current obsessions are tending to her plants, working on poetry reviews, and reading the ever-growing pile of books by her bedside. She has moderated for poet Koh Jee Leong, and her poetry has been included in the Singapore-GCE A-Level examinations.
About the Book(s):
The Lights that Find Us (Epigram Books, 2018) by Anittha Thanabalan: Deepavali has never been the same since the terrible mistake Shreya made three years ago. She now dreads the annual celebration, choosing instead to be as uninvolved as possible, until she is visited by three celestial beings who decide to help her right the wrongs.
In Singapore’s answer to A Christmas Carol, Shreya revisits key events in her family’s history and catches a glimpse of their future as well. Seeing things in a new light, she comes to terms with her emotional wounds and learns the importance of keeping herself and her family whole.
Abrahim’s Promise (Times Editions, 1995; Marshall Cavendish, 2021) by Philip Jeyaretnam: Abraham Isaac, teacher of Latin, philosopher, and father, has, after many years, a young pupil. Teaching pulls him back into his memories: of Rose, his first love; Mercy, his stubborn sister; and most of all of Rani, his beloved wife. Now he is old, and the burden of his years weighs on him heavily. Distanced from a present devoid of idealism and obsessed with power and money, Abraham is estranged from his strong, successful son. Descending into the past, Abraham is led from the promise of youth, through cynicism born of experience, to an understanding and reconciliation of his life and times hard-won in maturity.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
National Library Building, Possibility Room, 100 Victoria Street Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
SGD 0.00