But her trying home circumstances didn’t stop the 22-year-old from chasing her childhood dream of becoming a writer. Her memoir, Jolene’s Story, chronicling her abuse by her stepfather, experience with bad company and substance abuse which was published in Oct 2012 by Marshall Cavendish was launched at the Singapore’s Writer’s Festival (SWF) on Nov 2.

This year’s 9-day long festival boasted “a mix of fresh faces, seasoned authors and industry experts, ”says Lawrence Wong, Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth at the opening ceremony on Nov 2.

Says Goh, “I felt very alone when I went through all that. There are other people going through the same thing but dare not speak up… I hope [my] book will allow them to speak up.”

Jolene was one of 2 young authors who found their starting points or Origins, as the theme of SWF (now in its 16^th year) goes, in a promising career. The other was 18-year-old Theophilus Kwek.

For the most part, being young means inexperience, says Kwek of himself, when he compares his style of writing when he first started at 11 and now.

“Age matters because when you’re young, you have a different perspective than someone writing 20 years down the road. I like this perspective; I won’t have it for very much longer,” the Raffles Institution student says with a laugh.

He published his first full poetry collection, They Speak Only Our Mother Tongue, in 2011. His previous works were featured in Mascara Literary Review, Ceriph and Reflecting on the Merlion and Words: Poems Singapore and Beyond.

Kwek, who visited his publisher secretly so his parents wouldn’t realize how much time he spends writing, was lucky to have 2 mentors. Singapore Youth Award winners and published poets Aaron Maniam and Alvin Pang could offer the teenager an insider’s take on the local publishing scene.

Munirah Jaafar, who goes by the pseudonym, Nirrosette, may not be a newbie like Goh and Kwek, but she’s a young writer too, being only 19.

With 2 novels to her name, Ikhlas A.K! and Nah, Untuk Awak!, and having sold over 17,000 copies of both her books in Malaysia and Singapore, she was lucky to have found a publisher she could work well with from the start.

She’d simply responded to an ad requesting for manuscripts and sent hers in, unsure of the outcome. Just 9 months after submitting her manuscript, she emerged with her first published book Ikhlas A.K! in 2011.

She attributes the death of her father in 2010 for pushing her to publish her novels. “I had to find something to get my mind off that incident,” she admits, “So I started writing.”

Her love and flair for writing, however, began much earlier, when she was just 10 and began submitting stories to a local Malay newspaper. She tells UrbanWire that she also picked her pen name because she didn’t want to be judged for lacking maturity given her age. She finally revealed her identity when many readers demanded the publisher for it.

Readers can continue to trace her thoughts in either Malay or English by following her blog, Nirrosette’s Fairytale, which is updated regularly.

On writing habits, all 3 have specific rituals: Kwek goes for long walks to derive inspiration, Nirrosette can’t be listening to music while writing, and Goh writes best at night.

Kwek advises budding writers not to write with an end product in mind—“If we expect these things from ourselves, then it becomes a barrier to what we can produce.”

It’s advice that author Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, a former fashion journalist for Wall Street Journal and Style magazine, endorses.

“Writing is already hard enough as it is; you don’t want to have all that [thinking about book sales] at the back of your head, trying to get the words to come out right,” she adds.

Tan, who was in the same Up and Coming panel as Nirrosette at the Writers’ Fest, also compares finding an agent or publisher to dating.

“You really have to find the right person for the longest lasting relationship,” she quips.

Nirrosette suggests jotting down ideas as they come.

“When ideas start to come, you can’t just tell yourself, ‘Ok, I’ll continue later.’ If you stop, you may forget,” she says.

If there’s one thing all 4 writers agree on, it’s this: Don’t hold yourself back and just write. We couldn’t agree more.

Photo Courtesy of Penguin English Library.

Earlier in April this year, Penguin announced its inauguration of the Penguin English Library, as well as the revamp of the top 100 books in its Penguin Classics collection. 20 titles were released upon launch and subsequently, 10 new titles were slated to come out every month. To date, Penguin has reissued 50 classics. Books written by the Brontë sisters and Jane Austen are among the Penguin Classics collection.

Even if you’re not a big fan of reading, the Penguin Classics is certainly not a name unheard of. The distinctive, orange paperback spine, coupled with a cute penguin on the front cover, has always been the hallmark of a Penguin Classic.

Individually crafted by designer Coralie Bick-ford, each book now looks stylish and modern. But fret not; the famous orange spines still remain.

Before the 1930’s, books only belonged to the field of the rich and the elite. Cheap paperbacks were available then, however the quality left much to be desired.

Allen Lane, the then director of The Bodley Head, an English publishing house, was at a railway station looking for a choice book to read while on his journey back to London, back when he discovered only popular magazines and reprints of Victorian novels.

Appalled at the lack of variety, he decided that quality contemporary fiction should be made available not just in traditional bookstores, but also in railway stations, tobacconists and chain stores.

In the summer of 1935, the first Penguin Classic paperbacks made their way to the front of many bookstands. True to his own words, Allen Lane kept them as affordable as possible ­– just six pence a book – the same cost for a pack of cigarettes.

The paperback revolution had begun.

Now, the Penguin Classics are shadows of their former selves, but in a good way.

Simon Winder, publishing director of Penguin, said in an interview with e-zine, The Irish World, “For many the series was a magic door, the start of a lifetime’s engagement with the most vivid writing imaginable. Now the spirit of the Penguin English Library has inspired a fresh, contemporary series.”

Even with the revamped covers, Penguin’s motto of affordable reading still stands.

While e-book sales are outstripping their non-digital counterparts, the 84,000 books traded in Book Exchange 2012 on April 28 show that the physical touch of a book hasn’t lost its appeal in Singapore.

Running for the fourth year, the annual swap meet has been organised by the National Library Board (NLB) to encourage more people to read. Held in conjunction with the World Book and Copyright Day, the event received an overwhelming response with more than 47 percent increase in the number of books exchanged as compared to 2009.

“The number of people participating and books exchanged has grown steadily over the years and today, people came as early as 6 am to queue up. This is definitely a testament that people still read,” said Shirley Lim, 29, the project manager of Book Exchange 2012.

Anyone could bring their old books that were still in good condition to the public libraries from April 13 to 27 for coupons. If they missed these dates, they could also drop off their books at the main event, Book Exchange 2012 held at the National Library Building from 8:30 am to 6 pm. All of the traded books would then be placed at level one, The Plaza of the National Library Building for Book Exchange 2012 to find their new owners. For every coupon they had, the participants could take home a book of their choice during the Book Exchange 2012.

NLB also allowed each participant to trade in a maximum of 50 books for other ones. The only stipulation was that books had to be in any of the 4 official languages (English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil), and fall in the categories of adults, children’s fiction, or non-fiction books to be accepted.

Before 8:30 am, about 600 people were already queuing and looking pumped up to grab their favourite books.  All of them brought along backpacks, recycled bags, trolleys and even huge suitcases, as the National Library Board encouraged them to recycle as well.

Local celebrity Edmund Chen autographs books for the public

National Library Board’s first reading ambassador for Book Exchange 2012, local celebrity Edmund Chen  also came down early to interact with the crowd and take photographs with them. After catching a glimpse of the veteran actor, families gathered around in hope to get a picture beside him. Otherwise known as a children’s author, he gave away his book “Dino Rulez” to the first 50 participants and held an autograph session at 9:30 am.

“By reading more, you get to expose yourself,” Edmund Chen tells UrbanWire. “You get more information and knowledge and you probably get to de-stress in the midst.”

A fan of Jodi Picoult’s books and third-time participant, Dennis Chan, 14, from St. Gabriel’s Secondary School, brought some of his favourite author’s books in hope to find others penned by her. “I will try to bring a book out wherever I go. I won’t use my phone to read. I rather save my handphone’s battery for communication,” he shared. Along with Dennis’s family members, the 14-year-old traded in at least 80 books this year as he enjoys reading a good book at his own pace.

Keep a look out for National Library Board’s Book Exchange next April and go grab some books!

As the follow-up to the 2010 New York Times bestseller I Am Number Four (made into a 2011 movie starring Alex Pettyfer), The Power of Six has a reputation of otherworldly proportions to live up to. And with a gripping, fast-paced plot and genuinely fascinating glimpses into a highly-advanced society far removed from our own, it clearly stands up to the legacy of its predecessor.

For newcomers to the series, here’s a quick summary of the premise: when their home planet is invaded by another alien race, the Mogadorians, the entire Loric race is wiped out except for 9 children with latent special powers, called the Garde, and their 9 Cêpan, or mentors, who flee to Earth. Relentlessly pursued by the Mogadorians, the Garde are numbered from 1 through 9 and are protected by a charm that prevents them from being killed out of order. By the time I Am Number Four begins, 3 have already been killed, leaving Number Four (alias John Smith) vulnerable.

The Power of Six focuses on Seven (alias Marina) and her Cêpan Adelina, who’ve managed to find shelter at a convent in Spain after their ship landed on Earth. As Seven struggles to discover her Legacies and find a way to fight back against the Mogadorians, she finds her greatest adversary in Adelina, who’s been lulled into doubting her mission and turning her back on the Lorien prophecy by long years of peace and stability within the cloisters.

Legacies are the special powers members of the Garde develop in adolescence. One of Four's is lumen, the ability to produce light and heat from his hands

A parallel narrative follows Four’s life on the run after the death of his Cêpan, Henri, in the first instalment of the Lorien Legacies series. Accompanied by his human best friend Sam Goode and another member of the Garde, Six, he has to juggle keeping the police off their trail, honing his combat prowess, and dealing with his feelings for his girlfriend Sarah – and his deepening crush on Six.

Six, probably the most powerful Garde, has the power to control the elements.

With such an out-of-the-world premise, it’s no wonder the novel scores high on suspense and intrigue. From car chases and sinister stalkers to battles with bizarre, grotesque monsters and, of course, the vicious Mogadorians who haunt the Loriens’ dreams, The Power of Six is tautly plotted and wonderfully readable. It’s clear the writers – James Frey and Jobie Hughes, under the pseudonym Pittacus Lore (one of the elders of the Lorien civilisation) – are masters of creating and sustaining a reader’s interest.

Where it falls flat, unfortunately, is in characterisation. Many are 2-dimensional and fit easily into common archetypes – the femme fatale, the religious zealot, and the sidekick who’s constantly overshadowed by the hero. The dialogue feels stilted and unnatural, the love triangle is unconvincing, and character motivations are often left up to your own imagination.

Despite these flaws, The Power of Six is still an enjoyable read, and no matter how little you may care about the characters themselves, their overall fate and the mysteries of their civilisation are more than enough to draw you in. Definitely unmissable for fans of the series, The Power of Six will probably make you one too.

Thriller writer Oliver Stark’s debut novel is a lengthy wild goose chase with all the trappings of a Saw flick – liberal helpings of gore, surprising plot twists, and at its very core, one very twisted individual.

The story opens with the grisly murders of two young socialites, with the New York Police Department scrambling to quickly solve the cases. Meanwhile, their go-to man, star detective Tom Harper, is on administrative leave and faces being dismissed from the force for breaking his superior’s jaw.

A concession is made – if Tom undergoes therapy sessions with police psychologist and profiler Denise Levene to sort out his anger issues, he’s back on the case. It may be an odd comparison, but a Good Will Hunting-esque relationship develops between them, with Denise playing mentor/counselor to Tom’s brooding tortured genius.

As the death toll mounts, a pattern emerges from the victims. They’re all young, rich Caucasian females; their bodies specially positioned and missing one of their body parts. It is clear that the ‘American Devil’, nicknamed as such by a fear-mongering news reporter on her first big break (with a dubious but never-failing secret source), is trying to send out a message of some sort.

It may be the workings of a madman, but it is a madman with a cause. Stark doesn’t mince words when describing the gruesome details of the murders and the pain the victims suffered before death. If you’re a fan of crime fiction, but not one of gratuitous carnage, it will be difficult to sit through this book.

In his ambitious first novel, Stark seems to still be finding his bearings. He has some really clichéd passages that contrasts starkly with the engrossing detail paid to the development of Tom’s character.

Hard-going in the first two or three chapters, the story picks up speed quickly. Stark carefully shows little glimpses of the American Devil’s identity but never really gives away his identity, keeping the suspense taut as a tightrope.

However, there are a few faults in American Devil. One of the biggest ‘surprises’ in the plot can spotted from a mile away. Also, despite Stark crafting out a sense of involvement with each character, there still remains the question of the American Devil’s motivations. The reasons for him going on a killing spree are not that convincing and give a lackadaisical attempt at providing insight into the mind of a serial killer.

The ending of the book is unsatisfying, as after the final terrifying but expected plot twist, the story descends into a muddled confusion, jumping back and forth between the American Devil’s, Tom’s and the victims’ points of view.

If the plans to make the novel into a series come through, Stark will need to continue building on Tom’s background and avoid falling into the trap of further plot clichés and cringe-worthy dialogue.

Fingers crossed that he doesn’t get caught up in competing for the title of ‘Master of Gore’.

Title: American Devil
Author: Oliver Stark
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Headline Publishing

Local poetry is largely unheard of, especially among the younger generations who were fed mainly on a diet of Robert Frost and E. E. Cummings under the stifling glares of Literature teachers who dangle the prospect of their grades like a noose over their heads.

The sad truth is, it is difficult for an average iGeneration reader to appreciate any form of poetry other than Eminem’s latest hit single. However, Chandran Nair’s latest collection of poems, Reaching for Stones: Collected Poems (1963 – 2009), might just be the book that will cause strangers to poetry to fall in love with the English language all over again; this time, in the comfort of their own couch and minus the threat of a F grade.

Containing 101 poems that he has amassed over 46 years, local readers will find a better resonance with Nair’s wordplay, unlike the works of postmodernist foreign poets, due to influences from growing up in multi-racial Singapore and being the only Indian in a pre-dominantly Chinese neighbourhood during the 50’s.

Most creative writers tend to find themselves falling into the dangerous trap of regularity and monotonicity as they write, but Nair’s third collection of poems – after Once the Horsemen and Other Poems (1972) and After the Hard Hours, This Rain (1975) – is anything but contrived.

A master wordsmith, Nair’s language is clear and concise, trimming out the superfluous yet not compromising on the lyricism that words have to offer. He focuses not on the fancifulness of each individual text on the paper but the complexity of weaving each line and stanza to form a neatly stitched fabric of written communication, syntax and rhythm.

The poems shaped under his careful craftsmanship are accessible to the average reader; yet elaborate enough to satisfy a literary enthusiast.

As a testament to Nair’s writing skills, Prof Edwin Thumboo, the first receiver of the Cultural Medallion for Literature in 1980 and highly regarded as one of Singapore’s pioneers of English literature, described Nair’s work in his foreword as a “a rare privilege for us to share”.

With a number of poems dedicated to his family, friends and acquaintances, Chandran Nair allows his readers to sneak a glimpse of his private life, making the book an extremely intimate experience.

Title: Reaching for Stones: Collected Poems (1963 – 2009)
Author: Chandran Nair
Genre: Poetry
Published by: Ethos Books