In this era full of distressing news, Malaysians always perk up when we hear of our fellow citizens doing well and winning awards. It makes us proud and happy to see our flag being flown high especially by talented young people. Here, Marina speaks to two gifted storytellers doing the Malaysian literary scene proud, Ling Low and Joshua Kam, about what being nominated and winning awards feels like, how important these prizes are, and the future of Malaysian writing. Mentioned this episode: Sharlene Teo - Ponti Ocean Vuong - On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Robert Jones Jr - The Prophets Zen Cho - Black Water Sister // Sorcerer to the Crown // Spirits Abroad Amir Muhammad Brandon Taylor - Real Life Zedeck Siew - Creatures of Near Kingdoms Yan Ge - Strange Beasts of China Hanna Alkaf - The Girl and the Ghost Rosemary Sutcliff Salman Rushdie Gina Apostol - Insurrecto Alexander Chee - How to Write An Autobiographical Novel Fatima Barkatulla Joshua's book debut novel How the Man in Green Saved Pahang, and Possibly the World won the 2020 Epigram Books Fiction Prize. Ling's latest short story, Weeds is shortlisted for the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and will be published later this year. Her other stories have been featured in Little Basket 2016, Cerpen Terbaik 2016, and Bitter Root Sweet Fruit. Visit zafigo.com/busy-reading-books to learn more about us.