Step beyond the pages and onto the pavements of history. Join historian Eugene Quah for the Millionaire’s Row heritage walk. Stroll down Northam Road (Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah), where the colonial era’s most opulent mansions stand, each one holding a dramatic, untold story. This is your chance to see the architecture and hear the narratives that shaped Penang’s elite society.

Sign up for the event here: https://penanghiddengems.com/products/phg-x-gtlf-millionaires-row-a-heritage-walk-with-eugene-quah

Moderator/Host: Eugene Quah

Women writers have long reclaimed myth and memory to resist erasure and shape new narratives of identity. This panel explores how stories handed down through culture can be unsettled, reimagined, and rewritten, challenging patriarchal traditions while illuminating the intimate bonds of memory and belonging.

Speakers: Ramayda Akmal, Lize Spit
Moderator/Host: Bernice Chauly

Poetry refuses to stand still. It moves between stage and page, between languages and traditions, carrying with it the urgency of our moment. In this session, three poets read and reflect on how their work confronts love and loss, politics and memory, the intimate and the universal. Together, they ask what poetry can do now—and why its voice remains essential.

Speakers: Anthony Tao, Helen Mort, Kiriti Sengupta
Moderator/Host: Malachi Edwin Vethamani

A popular, and yet one of the youngest forms of literary expression, food writing sits in a wide locus that includes culinary journalism, restaurant and chef reviews, travel gastronomy, farming and sustainability. It is also among the most competitive genres in the legacy and social media spaces, where a characteristic voice and style will stand out. Recipes are codes that can be written in many forms. How to craft these codes depends on the kind of book the writer envisions, their personality, and the backstory to the cuisine and recipes. In this two-hour workshop, writers will build their food book from three recipes. During the session they will writing headnotes, develop ingredients lists, and work on step-by-step methodology. Because icons, graphic elements and images are part of a compelling narrative, writers will also work on how these may be incorporated into their recipes.

with Bettina Chua Abdullah | Author, To Nourish with Love

Fee: RM 250
Participants must bring their recipes.
Workshop will begin on time.

Moderator/Host: Bettina Chua Abdullah

In the Mirror is an essential collection of poems and critical writing from foundational Malaysian poet
and literary critic Wong Phui Nam. It includes unpublished, unread poems from the final years of his life (1935-2022).

Wong Phui Nam was part of the first generation of Malayan writers and poets in the 1960s who wrote
and published literary work in English. He was a literary columnist for the New Straits Times and served as a judge for various literary prizes, representing Malaysia on the world stage.

Join co-editors Brandon K. Liew and Daryl Lim Wei Jie, who worked closely with Wong, for a discussion
on literary legacies, tradition, and the future of poetry in English.

Speakers: Brandon K. Liew, Daryl Lim Wei Jie

Patricia Lim has lived a life steeped in memory, history, and storytelling. As a professional librarian and historian, she has written acclaimed works on Johor’s local histories and the immigrant experience. In Lim Kee Jin: Doctor and Mentor, she recounts the legacy of her late husband, Dato’ Dr Lim Kee Jin. This conversation reflects on her remarkable life and career, the role of memory in shaping both history and story, and the enduring power of literature to illuminate community and compassion.

Speakers: Patricia Lim
Moderator/Host: Ooi Kee Beng

Join historian Patricia Lim for the launch of Lim Kee Jin: Doctor and Mentor, a portrait of one of Malaysia’s pioneering medical figures. Blending biography and social history, the book traces a life devoted to healing, teaching, and public service—celebrating a legacy of compassion and leadership.

Speakers: Patricia Lim
Moderator/Host: Ooi Kee Beng

Penguin presents three new titles from Malaysian writers: Adorable by Wan Phing Lim, a sharp collection of stories on fleeting connections; Malayan Spy by Kam Raslan, a witty historical tale of intrigue; and Vermillion Eye by Tunku Halim, a chilling dive into the uncanny. Hosted by Rueben Dass, this triple launch celebrates the richness of Malaysian writing today.

Speakers: Wan Phing Lim, Kam Raslan, Tunku Halim
Moderator/Host: Rueben Dass

Penwings Publishing unveils two new works. Pseudo-Immortals, the debut sci-fi novel by bestselling author Charissa Ong, races through a world of AI, immortality, and human mystery. Sunset Chaser by June Twilis is a lyrical collection of poems and short stories, exploring love and longing in landscapes both faraway and deeply intimate. Together, they mark Penwings’ boldest publishing chapter yet.

Speakers: Charissa Ong, June Twilis
Moderator/Host: Rachel Yeoh

Stories of community are also stories of survival. This session explores how literature can illuminate the lives of groups often pushed to the margins—from diasporas to colonised peoples—and how writing becomes an archive of memory, identity, and resilience across time and place.

Speakers: Nirmala Lakshman, Reggie Baay
Moderator/Host: Gareth Richards

The dining table serves as a lens through which we understand the food culture. Taiwanese people’s dining table is a microcosm of the times. It reveals the ethnicity, classes, and occupations of those who sit at it, and also provides a profile of the natural environment and cultural landscape of a place. Yang’s talk will centre around the 1930s’ food depicted in her novel “Taiwan Travelogue”, starting from jute soup, braised minced pork, and spring roll, and extending to today’s Pearl Tea, Bubble Tea, and traditional iced tea.

Speakers: Yang Shuang-zi
Moderator/Host: Iylia De Silva

Humour in literature is never just for laughs—it can be sharp, subversive, and deeply revealing. This panel brings together writers who wield wit, satire, and irony to unsettle power, question traditions, and expose taboos. Through playful imagination and razor-edged storytelling, they show how laughter can open paths to truths that more solemn narratives leave untouched.

Speakers: Kam Raslan, Wan Phing Lim, Wilfried N’Sondé
Moderator/Host: Sharaad Kutan

Helen Mort’s poetry inhabits the physical and the emotional—climbing sheer rock faces, walking through city streets, confronting love, danger, and resilience. In this special reading, the acclaimed British poet shares work that explores the body, landscape, and the fractures and triumphs of everyday life. Her voice carries the intimacy of lived experience and the sharpness of lyric craft, opening a space where vulnerability and strength meet.

Speakers: Helen Mort
Moderator/Host: Dipika Mukherjee

Developed around the core ideas of Finance and Integrity, this interactive game simulates real-life financial decisions—how adults earn, spend, save, and invest money. Participants learn and practise good money habits in a fun, engaging way, while also exploring important character-building values. The goal? To achieve the highest “Net Worth” and the most “Character/Values” points—gaining valuable insights along the way!

Spots are limited. Suitable for ages 9–13 years old.

Fee: MYR 15.00

Epigram launches Utama, the latest work by award-winning writer Ng Yi-Sheng. Blending history, myth, and imagination, this genre-defying collection re-envisions the story of Sang Nila Utama and Singapore’s beginnings. With playful invention and sharp insight, Ng weaves poetry, prose, and speculative retellings that question origins, identity, and belonging. A bold, inventive book from one of Southeast Asia’s most original voices.

Speakers: Ng Yi-Sheng
Moderator/Host: William Tham

Stories are not only passed down—they linger, transform, and return in unexpected ways. This conversation sheds light on writing that grapples with history, migration, and the search for belonging. They reflect on how literature can carry the weight of the past into the present, revealing what endures across generations and what must be reimagined anew.

Speakers: Madeleine Thien
Moderator/Host: Karina Robles Bahrin

Penguin presents Misgovernance by renowned political economist Terence Gomez, a timely study of power, institutions, and accountability in Malaysia. Tracing decades of state capture, corporate collusion, and policy failures, Gomez reveals how misrule has shaped the nation’s political economy. Clear, incisive, and uncompromising, this book is an urgent call to confront systemic dysfunction and imagine pathways to reform.

Speakers: Terence Gomez
Moderator/Host: Beh May Ting

The private is never only personal. Writers often transform memory, intimacy, and inherited experience into stories that confront wider histories and contemporary wounds. This panel brings together three novelists whose works explore desire, vulnerability, and the aftershocks of trauma. They reflect on how literature can hold tenderness and violence side by side, giving voice to what is silenced in family, society, and nation.

Speakers: Ratih Kumala, Cyntha Hariadi, Lize Spit
Moderator/Host: Sharon Bakar

Penguin launches Fierceland, Omar Musa’s powerful new novel. When siblings Roz and Harun return to Malaysian Borneo for their father’s funeral, they must confront a legacy of wealth built on deforestation, violence, and silence. Spanning continents and generations, Fierceland is a haunting saga of family, corruption, and redemption, alive with ghosts of history, language, and the forest itself.

Speakers: Omar Musa
Moderator/Host: Gareth Richards

The Malaysian Squirrel’s First Book of Short Stories is by the same author that has produced the series of Malaysian Squirrel Missions. This book has life lessons and is designed for younger children to introduce them to the Malaysian Squirrel series.

The books are published by Precious Pages Resources, a Malaysian Publishing Company formed with the vision of “Impacting Lives Through Books!”

Spoken word is poetry unbound—a fusion of voice, rhythm, and presence that insists on being heard. This session brings together performance poets who use their craft as both art and activism, challenging silence with lyric fire and embodying stories of struggle, defiance, and survival. Through performance and conversation, they show how the stage becomes a battleground for identity, protest, and solidarity.

Speakers: Bernice Chauly, Shivram Gopinath, paul catafago
Moderator/Host: Dipika Mukherjee

Locals are invited to contribute their personal textiles at a CO-EX workshop, each carrying its own memories and stories. These textiles are transformed into large-scale banners for a participatory performance at Hin Bus Depot and an exhibition at ChinaHouse. Through movement, music, and collective action, the work celebrates diversity, communal identity, and the creative energy that emerges when people come together to co-create.

At ChinaHouse, poetry meets performance in Mic Mythos—a night where voices echo the myths we live and the memories we keep. Featuring spoken word artists from across the region, this electrifying showcase celebrates rhythm, story, and the power of language to move and transform.

Shahnon Ahmad’s novel Terdedah (1965) has not been reprinted in decades. This rambunctious
satire is about a young widow with two lovers.

Why hasn’t the book been seen for so long? Did it “dedah” (reveal or expose) too much?

Amir Muhammad asks seven artists how they would design a cover of Terdedah if it were
reprinted today. Through Zoom, they discuss how the novel can be presented visually.

In an unfortunate twist, one of the artists disappeared after agreeing. So this artist is replaced by ChatGPT! The six human artists are Anderson Ee, Fahmi Mustaffa, Hannah, Mark Lee See Teck,Syuq Tone, and Yante Ismail.

Moderator/Host: Amir Muhammad

At ChinaHouse, poetry meets performance in Mic Mythos—a night where voices echo the myths we live and the memories we keep. Featuring spoken word artists from across the region, this electrifying showcase celebrates rhythm, story, and the power of language to move and transform.