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Masturah Alatas

I was born and raised in Singapore. Since 1992 I have been living in Macerata, a medieval hill town in central Italy where I teach English and translation at the local university. I will be working on a novel set in colonial and post-colonial Malaysia. It will explore the theme of cultural conflict around child raising. Dr Jo Baker is my supervisor.

Had I had not migrated to Italy and learnt Italian, I probably would have never discovered that literature about colonial Malaysia was not the sole dominion of Victorian writers such as Alfred Russel Wallace and Joseph Conrad. The Italians who visited and wrote about the country have just as significant a contribution to make to our understanding of the British colonial experience in Malaysia. Studying the two literary traditions together has opened up for me exciting prospects for creative adventure, in particular a new way of imagining post-colonial writing in English: one with a strong Italian connection.

I write in both English and Italian. I have published a fable entitled 'The Girl Who Made It Snow In Singapore' and several short stories in Italian. I have recently completed a biography/memoir of my late father, a Malaysian sociologist and author of 'The Myth of the Lazy Native'.

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