Last February was our first time visiting a Malaysian book festival and we found the Kuala Lumpur Alternative Bookfest (KLAB) impressive.

We went to the fair at Central Market, Kuala Lumpur, where it was held and bought a zine from the Malaysian Writers Society and a poetry book by Rahimidin Zahari from Kata-Pilar Books.

We tried to find the Riwayat Bookstore at Jalan Tun HS Lee, but we got lost, so we visited their booth at KLAB. We came across Fixi, a publisher highly recommended to us by Malaysian authors.

Earlier, on 22 February 2024 at Putrajaya, we were introduced to fantasy author Yuda Areni at the library of the Ministry of Civil Service (Perpustakaan JPA). Our editor Salina Christmas was invited to talk about her novel, The Keeper Of My Kin, at the library. She donated the first novel and its sequel, A Request For Betrayal, to the library. Yuda Areni, on behalf of the library, presented her with two Malay storybooks, Hikayat Malim Deman and Hikayat Awang Sulung Merah Muda.

We bought Yuda’s novel, Orakel Dewata (The Oracle of the Gods) and found it quite a page turner.

There were book talks held all over town whilst the fair was going on, such as the poetry book launch at MPH Bookstore at Nu Sentral, Brickfields, and the romance talk at Eslite Spectrum at Starhill, Bukit Bintang.

The book talk hosted by Eslite Spectrum, Love Between The Pages, featured romance authors Lilian Li and Claudia Tan. We got to hear Li and Tan talk about topics such as the latest trend in romance literature, for example “tropification” – apparently, sports romance is a thing – and the trade-off that authors have to watch out for in having one’s Wattpad romance series adapted for Prime Video on Amazon.

Related news

• The Keeper Of My Kin debuts at Putrajaya library in Malaysia

Featured authors

• Yuda Areni (The Oracle of the Gods; see Goodreads, Shopee and Facebook)
• Lilian Li
• Claudia Tan