Silverfish New Writing 1 Amir Muhammad

Edited by Amir Muhammad. It was the end of September 2000. What was the state of English writing in Malaysia? An email was sent out to a few hundred people requesting submissions for Silverfish New Writing 1. A one-month window was given. By the end of October we received 250 entries from not only Malaysia and Singapore but from Australia, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. Obviously the emails had multiplied.

Initially, this project was started off as one involving short stories from Malaysia only. Singapore was later included because of the common historical and cultural background (and baggage). But this being the Internet age, the project refused to be contained. So, while most of the stories are from Malaysia and Singapore, there is a sprinkling from beyond.

This is a snapshot of current writing in English - or postcolonial writing (for want of a better term) - in English from Malaysia, Singapore and beyond.