Poet and author Prof Edwin captivates at Swinburne event

Article and photo courtesy of Borneo Post Online. 

KUCHING: Poet and author Professor Malachi Edwin Vethamani captivated the audience at Reading and Conversation event held in conjunction with Swinburne’s Library Week recently. 

About 30 members of the public as well as staff and students from Swinburne University of Technology attended the event jointly organised by Swinburne’s School of Foundation Studies and Swinburne Sarawak Library. 

Edwin, a professor of English at University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus was welcomed by Swinburne’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor and chief executive officer Professor John Wilson. 

In his welcoming brief, Wilson said that although Swinburne is a university that focuses on technology, the university also appreciates the arts and has a small but steadily growing creative writing community. 

Members of Swinburne Sarawak Creative Writing Community, Augustine Tan, a student of Mechatronics and robotics engineering and civil engineering student Wan Faris Ali Ibrahim recited poems from Professor Edwin’s collections, followed by poem recital by one of his former students Hazelynn Rimbar. 

His current PhD student who is Swinburne’s senior lecturer, Christina Yin recited Edwin’s first published poem entitled “It was a Wondrous Sight!” 

The professor recited several poems from his collection and concluded by reading a powerful short story ‘Drowning’ from his first collection of short stories. 

The ‘Conversation’ session had Edwin fielding questions from the audience before a book signing session.