K. S. Maniam

Subramaniam Krishnan (1942 – 19 February 2020), popularly known as K. S. Maniam, was a Malaysian academic and novelist.

Biography

KS Maniam was born in Bedong, Kedah in 1942, of Tamil origin and from a poor family; his father was the launderer of a hospital and to feed his family, also had to work in a rubber plantation near Bedong. After a year in a Tamil school, he attended an English school.

Maniam had been writing from his early teens. His stories have appeared in numerous journals around the world. His first novel, ''The Return'', was published in 1981 and the second, ''In a Far Country'', in 1993. He won the first prize for ''The Loved Flaw: Stories from Malaysia'' in ''The New Straits Times''–McDonald short-story contest (1987) and for ''Haunting the Tiger: Contemporary Stories from Malaysia'' in ''The New Straits Times''–Shell contest (1990). He was the inaugural recipient of the Raja Rao Award for Literature (New Delhi, September 2000), for his outstanding contribution to the literature of the South Asian diaspora. He was a lecturer (1980–85) and associate professor (1986–97) in the English Department, University of Malaya, in Kuala Lumpur. He lived with his wife, son and daughter in Subang Jaya, Malaysia, and devoted his time fully to writing.

He died on 19 February 2020, of cancer of the bile duct at the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

Bibliography

Novels
* ''The Return'' (London: Skoob, 1981, 1993)
* ''In A Far Country'' (1993)
* ''Between Lives'' (2003)

Plays
* ''The Cord'' (1983)
* ''The Sandpit: Womensis'' (1990)

Short stories
* ''The Eagles'' (1976)
* ''Removal in Pasir Panjang'' (1981)
* ''The Pelanduk'' (1981)
* ''The Third Child'' (1981)
* ''The Dream of Vasantha'' (1981)
* ''Project: Graft Man'' (1983)
* ''We Make It To The Capital'' (1984)
* ''The Aborting'' (1986)
* ''Encounters'' (1989)
* ''Parablames'' (1989)
* ''Plot'' (1989)
* ''Haunting the Tiger'' (1990)
* ''Sensuous Horizons: The Stories & The Plays'' (1994)
* ''In Flight'' (written 1993, published 1995)
* ''Arriving ...and other stories'' (1995)
* ''Faced Out'' (2004)
* ''Guardian Knot''
* ''A Stranger to Love'' (2018)

References

internationales literaturfestival berlin

External links

2 essays by the author.

Malaysia as myth in K. S. Maniam's In a Far Country
by Peter Wicks (pdf).


by Shanthini Pillai.
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20051230161730/http://www.asian-child.com/maniam.htm "Renegotiating Identity and Belief in K.S. Maniam's The Return"by Tang Soo Ping.

"Your memories are our memories": Remembering Culture as Race in Malaysia and K.S. Maniam's Between Lives"
by David C.L. Lim.
* David C. L. Lim

''Wasafiri'', Issue 41.

The Infinite Longing for Home. Desire and the Nation in Selected Writings of Ben Okri and K.S. Maniam
by David C.L. Lim.

"K.S Maniam and diasporic issues"
* Bernard Wilson, "An Interview with K.S. Maniam, World Literature Written in English" Vo 33.2 & 34.1, 1993–199

* Bernard Wilson, "Memory, Myth, Exile: The Desire for Malaysian Belonging in K.S. Maniam's ''The Return'', "Haunting the Tiger' and ''In A Far Country'", Textual Practice Volume 17/2, Routledge, 2003

'

1942 births
2020 deaths
Malaysian people of Indian descent
English-language writers from Malaysia
Malaysian writers
Malaysian Hindus
Deaths from cholangiocarcinoma
Deaths from cancer in Malaysia

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