Curtin Malaysia lecturers promote creative writing and storytelling at Sarawak Authors Festival 2022 in Miri

Miri – 12 November 2022 – Lecturers of the Faculty of Humanities and Health Sciences and School of Pre-U and Continuing Education (SPACE) of Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) recently collaborated with Pustaka Miri to conduct a workshop on Creative Writing and Storytelling in conjunction with the Sarawak Authors Festival 2022 in Miri.

The main objective of the Sarawak Authors Festival is to encourage creative writing among local writers, build a rich and vibrant literary heritage in the state, and inculcate an interest in various fields of writing in the community, especially among young people.

The team from Curtin Malaysia comprised lecturers Dr. Anita Jimmie, Peter Jamba, Dr. Noraisikin Sabani, Kamaroizan Mohamad and Adriel Junu, who shared their knowledge and expertise in creative writing and storytelling with the participants comprising students in Forms 1 to 5 from three secondary schools in Miri.

The workshop consisted of two sessions, with the morning session focused on creative writing and its elements to generate interest in various forms of creative writing among the students. This included a talk on storytelling and script writing where they learned different techniques of storytelling and content creation.

The afternoon session meanwhile was more hands-on with practical activities, and the students had to create  short video essays by the end of the session. They were encouraged to embed elements of storytelling in the most creative way possible in their video essays. Two best groups were selected at the end of the session based on their video content and storytelling techniques.

According to Dr. Anita, the workshop was a huge success with the students as they got to create their own stories and content using the various spaces, pictures and facilities within and around the Pustaka Miri building. She added that some of the video essays they created were quite well thought out and impressive.

Prior to the workshop, lecturer Peter Jamba was invited by Pustaka Negeri Sarawak to be a judge for a video competition held in Kuching in conjunction with the Sarawak Authors Festival. The other judges were from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), University Technology Sarawak (UTS), Pustaka Miri, Pustaka Sibu and Pustaka Kuching.

The Sarawak Authors Festival is a bi-annual event organised in various parts of Sarawak featuring workshops and showcases of Sarawak’s literary works. The activities organised are aimed at creating awareness of writing, developing skills in the field, and encouraging an appreciation of literature produced by Sarawakians. The activities are targeted at both students and the wider public, including book publishers.

Information on Curtin Malaysia can be found on its website at www.curtin.edu.my, or look for Curtin Malaysia on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn or Tik-Tok.

Peter Jamba sharing about storytelling and scriptwriting

Anita Jimmie giving talk on creative writing

Adriel Junu having discussion with students from SM St Columba

Students planning shots for their video essay outside Pustaka Miri