What prompted you to enter the KRWF Cambodian Emerging Writers Prize? I entered the KRWF Cambodian Emerging Writers Prize because I had never heard of a writing competition for Cambodians before. It was both intriguing and exciting when I first read about it and I thought to myself: “why not?” And so I did. What […]
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White Mask The alarm screeched in her ears, a telltale sign that lights were streaking the sky and the sun was just shy of full bloom. It must be a beautiful sight, the girl thought as she hit the snooze button. It was only an hour later did she stumble out of bed, cursing beneath […]
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Hands will always have fingers. He was on his rust-eaten green cyclo. Truth be told, he was snoozing away on it. It had been like that for the last five years of the twenty-five years he’d owned it. The leather seat had worn off, shedding debris every time he mounted and dismounted. “Never mind that […]
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Luke Hunt came to journalism in the early 1980s after traveling through what was then some of the world’s trouble-spots, including Northern Ireland and the south of Morocco. Hunt initially worked for Australian Associated Press and then Agence France-Presse where he served as bureau chief in Afghanistan and Cambodia and later as Deputy Economics Editor […]
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“I think all countries face their own kind of censorship and conversations are always necessary to make sense of this world. Communication is the key to understanding.” You are the founder of the Ubud Writers Festival, an idea which came to you in the wake of the Bali bombings. What made you think of […]
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If I wanted to compose a trivia question in which the answer was Jeni Caffin, what might I ask? How about: What literary festival director once shared an apartment with a fellow theatre student named Mel Gibson? So you got your start in acting? My parents insisted I get a university degree first, so at […]
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Rich traditions and a unique sense of aesthetics make Khmer culture special. When I present traditional dances, I try to make the work as impeccably true to the form as possible while also making new works that forge a unique kind of modernism from within this venerable lineage. 1. You were 8 years old when […]
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FROM ICELANDIC SAGAS TO CAMBODIAN EPICS: MAGNUS SAEMUNDSSON SPEAKS WITH THE KRWF GAZETTE You are Senior Education Advisor at SIDA, can you tell us this organisation, how you have come to this role and what have you learned during your tenure? Sida is the Swedish Governmental agency for development cooperation established in the mid-sixties with […]
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JUNG CHANG: IN CONVERSATION WITH THE KRWF GAZETTE Please tell, what has prompted you to visit Cambodia? To attend Kampot Readers & Writers Festival. When did you realise you were ‘a writer’? In 1991, when Wild Swans was published. Wild Swans is described as first real insight into life under the Chinese Communist party, what […]
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Describe your first impressions of Kampot? Oh what a lovely little funky riverside town! I mean even Phnom Penh is pretty laid-back, especially compared to Sydney or Saigon, but Kampot is down-home and I love it. I love the steamy heat and the way that time seems to move so slow, like the river. You’ve […]
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