SINGAPORE BOOK CLUB

REX SHELLEY: THE WRITER AND HIS WORKS
COME JOIN Dr Leong Liew Geok, Shova Loh and Dr David Fedo, as they discuss Singaporean novelist Rex Shelley and his works.

Rex Shelley, trained as an engineer, was a businessman and a former member of the Public Service Commission. He started writing fiction late in life, publishing his first novel, The Shrimp People, in 1991 at 61. It was the first substantial novel on the Eurasian community of Malaysia and Singapore and was a best-selling local paperback in 1991. He went on to write three other novels, forming a quartet of novels documenting the lives and experiences of the Eurasians of Malaya. He passed away on August 21, 2009. He was 78.

Shelley is best known for such works as The Shrimp People (1991: winner of the 1992 National Book Development Council of Singapore Award); People of the Pear Tree (1993: 1994 NBDCS Highly Commended Award); Island in the Centre (1995: 1996 NBDCS Highly Commended Award); and A River of Roses (1998: winner of the 2000 Singapore Literature Prize). He is the winner of the 2007 Singapore Southeast Asia Write Award.

Guest Speaker: Dr Leong Liew Geok
Leong Liew Geok is the author of two collections of poetry, Love is Not Enough and Women without Men. Editor of Ee Tiang Hong’s Responsibility and Commitment: The Poetry of Edwin Thumboo and More than Half the Sky: Creative Writings by Thirty Singaporean Women, she has contributed entries to A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures in English; Singapore: The Encyclopedia and The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Fiction (forthcoming). She compiled and wrote the English section of the National Arts Council booklet, Literature in Singapore (2007). She taught at the Department of English Language and Literature, National University of Singapore, from 1981 to 2002.

Facilitator: Dr David Fedo
A native of Minnesota and a long-time teacher of literature and college administrator in the US, David Fedo is currently the Executive Director and Visiting Scholar at the Singapore branch of the Wheelock College (Boston, Massachusetts), Center for International Education, Leadership, and Innovation. He has published a collection of poetry, Carrots and Other Poems, and was on a panel at the recent Singapore Writers Festival 2009 which explored the works of contemporary Italian, Singaporean and American poets.

Guest Editor: Shova Loh
Shova Loh is a well-known editor in Singapore who has worked with many writers, including Rex Shelley.

Date: November 20, 2009 (Friday)
Time: 7:00pm
Venue: Earshot Café, The Arts House, 1 Old Parliament Lane, Singapore
Admission is free. To register, please email info@bookcouncil.sg with your contact details. No, you do not need to have read the books before coming, though we certainly hope you will do so after the session. All are welcome.

The Singapore Book Club is jointly organised by the National Book Development Council of Singapore and The Arts House.