Efforts to promote local literature will continue, but more support needed

I thank Woon Wee Min for the suggestions in the letter “Worthwhile to reprint SingLit classics” (Feb 10).

I agree with the writer that we should do what we can to preserve and promote Singapore literature. This is why the industry-led movement, #BuySingLit, is celebrating stories from Singapore.

According to our industry partners, more than 23,000 people attended over 40 SingLit-related programmes in the weekend of #BuySingLit from Feb 24 to 26 this year, with 70 per cent of survey respondents indicating that their interest in SingLit had increased after attending one of the events.

Homegrown bookshops enjoyed a boost in sales over the #BuySingLit weekend, with selected participating retailers reporting an average 24 per cent increase in sales compared with what they sell on a typical weekend.

We are glad there is such a positive reception from the public.

From bookshops such as MPH, which carries SingLit in all four official languages, to restaurant New Ubin Seafood, which offers SingLit titles in its waiting areas, there has been good engagement.

Besides the #BuySingLit movement, there are opportunities to come into contact with Singapore literature through existing programmes such as the Singapore Writers Festival and the recent Words Go Round initiative from Feb 27 to March 11.

Words Go Round, in particular, reaches out to pre-primary to tertiary students and exposes them to Singapore authors. I am also encouraged that groups such as Sing Lit Station (www.singlitstation.com) and Poetry Festival (Singapore) are growing the literary community and are meaningful networks for readers and writers.

Most of the SingLit classics mentioned by the writer are still being published for sale by companies such as Epigram and Marshall Cavendish. However, they may not be familiar to the millennial generation.

In this regard, the writer will be glad to know that there was a free screening of the 1998 film The Teenage Textbook at the Empress Lawn next to Victoria Theatre on the evening of Feb 25, as part of the Singapore Writers’ Festival for #BuySingLit.

Many of our Singaporean works have also been or are being adapted for television and movies, such as Balli Kaur Jawal’s Erotic Tales for Punjabi Widows.

We will consider the writer’s suggestion for a SingLit symposium in our ongoing efforts to promote Singapore literature.

In the meantime, I also wish for more local support of SingLit, and strongly encourage more Singaporeans to discover and embrace their stories and poetry.

More details of the movement are available at www.buysinglit.sg.