Thanks! I'm going to try get published again. 3rd time lucky. :P Renaissance publishing house. But more than a little worried. I found this on their website.

"Work with a distinct local flavor; with lingo, settings, storylines, satires, or references that will only tickle or make sense to the local market are not what we are interested in."

I got this quote off the Renaissance websites "Author's wanted" section, and I have a quibble with it. Hwee Hwee's Mammon Inc was a best seller, and Daren's Heartland is now required reading for Literature students. Those novels are chock-full of local flavour.

However, there has since been a dearth of good Singaporean literature. I feel it's precisely because of this sort of attitude from publishing houses, and not just Renaissance.

If you look at other great authors and books, such as the Indian authors - Naipul, Rushdie, Desai, Roy - all their books were about India. It's all Indian references. Look at the latest winner of the Man-Booker Prize. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga - it's all about India. The Pulitzer Prize winner? The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz? All about the Dominican Republic. In fact, it's written in spanglish. History of the Ned Kelly Gang? Australia. Look at the success of Tash Au, a Malaysian writer who wrote the Harmony Silk Factory, a story set in WWII Malaya. His book reached the Long List of the Man-Booker prize. Why can't, why shouldn't a Singaporean book about Singaporeans achieve such prestige?

The point I'm trying to make is that as Singaporean writers, we SHOULD champion local literature, we SHOULD write with a distinctly local flavour, and we should write it well enough so that it can have a world-wide appeal. However, what we gain in authenticity, we lose out in commercial value. After all, who's going to pick up a book about short stories set in Singapore? Or a novel set in Singapore? That's what people and publishers perceive.

The ordinary consumer would much rather buy a self-help book or the latest thriller/fantasy novel. But honestly, although I believe there is a place for the thriller and the fantasy novel in high art, discerning readers will smell contrivance and artifice a mile away. The problem is that thrillers and fantasy have been done to death. Eragon? Harry Potter? Dan Brown? If this is the sort of Literature that we are encouraging Singaporeans to aspire to achieve, I can only shake my head in futility.