Last week, I wrote about the remarkable increase in the number of Malaysian novels in English (MNEs) published between 2004 and 2014. The increase was partly due to the contributions of diaspora and expatriate writers, but it was local novelists who dominated the scene, forming nearly 60% of writers, and accounting for 60% of novels.
Some readers have suggested to me that this high production level owes much to the inspiring examples of diaspora writers like Rani Manicka, Tash Aw and Tan Twan Eng, who have won major literary prizes. This may be true for individual writers, but the pattern of growth of the three MNE categories – local, diaspora and expatriate writings – tells a different story.
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