PETALING JAYA: Malaysian writer Joshua Kam is in the running for Singapore’s richest literary prize – the Epigram Books Fiction Prize.
Kam’s An Orchard of Nothing goes up against unpublished works by Singaporean Erni Salleh, 31, Bruneian Kathrina Mohd Daud, 35, and Thai writer Sunisa Manning, 34.
The annual award by publisher Epigram Books is Singapore’s only prize for unpublished English-language novels and is open to writers from Asean countries.
The winner, to be announced on Jan 16 next year, will receive S$25,000 (RM76,400) while the three finalists will get S$5,000 (RM1,528) each.
All four manuscripts will also be published by Epigram Books.
Kam, 23, took a year to write his novel while studying history and classics at Hope College in Michigan, US.
He is now pursing his master’s degree in Southeast Asian studies after being granted a Fulbright scholarship.
“I am just thankful to be a vessel of the stories, peoples, and ancestries I write about.
“Receiving a platform through Epigram is a joy and honour.”
He has woven a tale of magical realism with characters from Malay folklore and historical figures in a modern setting.
“I study classical Malay hikayat and I found myself deeply invested in the characters, stories, and myths bound up in the Malay tradition.
“My book is an attempt to write those legendary figures into the modern world ... to imagine what it would be like if figures from Hikayat Hang Tuah, the Communist Emergency, and modern Kuantan and Kuala Lumpur, all met.
“What if Tun Teja or Hang Jebat were walking down Jalan Raja Laut?
“What would we see in them, and what would they think of us modern Malaysians?”
Kam drew his inspiration from his father’s kampung in Kuantan.
“A lot of tides, landscapes, and stories from the area have percolated down to me.
“It is half fantasy and half modern Malaysia, it is also about Pahang history and the Emergency,” Kam said.
