Chapter 5 : A meeting with book writers

Nisa and myself attended the Singapore Book club session at the Arts House on 14 Nov 08. We caught up with 2 distinctive local book writers. They have liking for children and enjoy writing stories for the young ones. Apparently, they are business partners and have set-up a company doing their own book writing, illustrating, photographing and surprisingly, even publishing and distributing. They spent time listening to us and provided their perspectives on the subject. We appreciate their sincere, warm attention and view this as an excellent opportunity to network with people who have relevant experience in this area. They were interested to collaborate with us in the project and would be submitting a proposal by 17 Nov 08. We will then discuss on how best we can further connect with them.

One of the writers was Stephanie Ho Lee-Ling. She is a former history teacher and museum educator who has completed a PhD in public history at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). In 2006, with the FTWIPI grant, she wrote and illustrated for her first children's book, Samsui Girl. Her second book featuring Amber - Wayang Girl has just been released.
Stephanie is also the author of four stories for younger children based on the United Nations convention of the rights of the Child: The Boy with a Tree on His Head, The Shadow, The UGB and SHUSH! The books are published and distributed by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth & Sports. She is currently writing a reference book on the cultures and customs of Singapore and Malaysia.

Her partner, Jaime Koh has worked in the media and cultural heritage industry in Singapore, variously as a newspaper journalist, a magazine editor and an assistant curator in a history museum. Her work and interest in Asian history, culture and politics has taken her to China, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia. Jaime is bilingual in English and Mandarin, speaks several dialects and is a keen photographer and writer. Jaime has been engaged in several research and editorial projects into the history of several institutions both in Singapore and Sydney. She was also the event photographer for several major events in Sydney.
She is currently co-writing a book on the cultures and customs of Singapore and Malaysia.

We also spoke to R. Ramachandran, Executive Director of National Book Development Council of Singapore (NDBCS) for future friendly collaboration. Book project aside, he requested us to source for individuals who are interested to be story-tellers at the council. You can email him at info@bookcouncil.sg. Perhaps our student volunteers can consider it as a school holiday job to earn extra income and learning experience?