Perils of publishing in Sabah and Sarawak

Getting books from Sabah and Sarawak into the large chain bookstores in Peninsular Malaysia is difficult.

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There has been Sarawakian literature in English since the 1960s, mainly beginning after the Borneo Literature Bureau was established in 1958 to encourage writing in English in Sabah and Sarawak. And in the later years of the last century and the early years of the new millennium, “there have been several notable new publications in English from Sarawak,” says Kuching-based academic Patrick Yeoh.