By Fieqah Azman
What a year it has been in 2022 for us, as we have been invited to several fun events throughout the year! So, here’s a rundown of all the events to which Penwings Publishing was invited.
1. Beyond Publishing: How Do Poets & Playwrights Get Their Work Seen & Heard
Malaysian Institute for Debate and Public Speaking (MIDP) hosted the Kuala Lumpur Youth Literary Arts Festival on the 26th of June. This festival had best-selling author and Penwings Publishing founder, Charissa Ong as one of their Artist Panel to inspire budding and emerging poets, gain insights from the page and playwright views, and discuss the use of social media and live events in order to get exposure beyond physical publications.
2. Tsutaya Books at Pavilion Bukit Jalil Opening Day
Penwings also had the opportunity to cover Tsutaya’s Bookstore Opening Day in Pavilion Bukit Jalil here.
It was a wonderful and refreshing experience at Tsutaya as the Japanese bookstore brings a new concept by mixing lifestyle and the love for books. The 31,000 sq ft space had many activities to offer only on the opening day such as a paper cutting demonstration by Han the Craftsman and a limited collector’s edition Ferrari book that has an estimated value of RM30,000. To read more, head over to our blogpost here.
3. Storytelling in a digital era: A creative writing workshop
Next, Sunway Echo Media invited Charissa Ong and Penwings Publishing author, Zack Shah for Storytelling In a Digital Era: A Creative Writing Workshop where many activities that enriched the participants were held. Throughout the day, a prompt challenge with Charissa and the audience was done to warm everybody’s creative thinking caps up. Then, Zack Shah shared his favourite lines from his short story in his latest poetry book, A Strange and Wicked Magic and lastly, Director of the CEO’s office at Sunway Education Group, Danial Rahman had a sharing session for tips on creative writing. We also outsold our books as everybody was so supportive. Watch the recap on our Instagram here.
4. Storytelling Workshop at Nexus Bangsar
On 20th September 2022, Charissa Ong was invited to give a talk on Storytelling for Community Impact at a Storytelling Workshop. Penwings had set-up a pop up booth and we had so much fun meeting the participants from the ASEAN countries and listening to all their wonderful ideas of how they could impact their community! The full recap is here on our Instagram.
5. Aesop Poetry of Place with Penwings at Midvalley and the Gardens Mall
Penwings Publishing was also invited by Aesop for their new gift kits themed Poetry of Place and The Act of Generosity hosted on 14th and 15th November at Midvalley and the Gardens Mall. Personalised poems were written on the spot by Charissa Ong and Zack Shah for the first day, then Charissa and Penwings debut author, Germaine Thai for the second day. Guests such as Atisha Khan, May Ho, Kerol Izwan, and local artists Pohsin_studios and Hong Yi were also amongst those that were invited to have personalised pieces from our authors.
6. Malaysian National Poetry Slam 2022
For the last event for the year of 2022, Penwings Publishing covered Malaysian National Poetry Slam (MNPS) 2022 as Charissa Ong was invited as a judge for the Open Category. Hosted again by Malaysian Institute of Debate and Public Speaking (MIDP), the theme of the year was “Unspoken Wilderness” and a point system was given for three rounds. Constructive feedback was also given to the participants for them to improve as each round went by before they were crowned the champion. Our recap of MNPS 2022 can be found here on Instagram!
