Join me on August 14, 2019, as I perform a fundraiser for Loujain Al-Hathloul, a detained Saudi women’s rights activist. To find out more about her, you can read this CNN article on her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The launch of Saltwater Spirits was a huge success. I performed several excerpts from my debut novel to a full house and there was a lively Q&A period followed by author signing and mingling. Thank you to Patricia Massy of Massy Books for hosting the book launch in your [...]
On May 24, 2019, I had the honor of being invited to perform for the Real Vancouver Writers' Series. I was part of a lineup of six writers from Vancouver and Toronto. I was invited as an emerging writer, to share work from my debut novel, Saltwater Spirits. My [...]
The setting for Saltwater Spirits, while inspired by midcentury Nusantara, is ambiguous. This means I do not clearly situate a specific time or place for the story. In this blog post, I will reflect on why I intentionally wrote it that way.InspirationFirst, let’s look at the inspiration from midcentury Nusantara.The [...]
In Saltwater Spirits, we follow a spirited young woman named Norma. The name functioned as a placeholder name while I worked on the manuscript for three years. It is the name of my Nenek, my maternal grandmother. As time wore on, I couldn’t bring myself to change it no [...]
She appeared to me out of nowhere. I don't remember the exact circumstances - I might have been on a bus, or it might have been a dream. All I know is she popped into my head and didn't leave. A woman with black hair staring out unto the [...]
The inspiration behind the cover for Saltwater Spirits was to illustrate the story inside it — crossover fiction inspired by midcentury P. Ramlee Malay movies, mystery novels, and stories about the supernatural I heard growing up as a kid in Singapura. My cover designer Jazmin Welch, founder and creative [...]
Hello there. Allow me welcome you to my little corner of the Internet. My name is Syahidah, and I’m a writer and author. I’ve always been a writer. As a child, I would write in my journal about what I ate for lunch that day. As a teenager, [...]
Join me on June 7 2019 and celebrate with the official launch party of Saltwater Spirits! If you are interested in attending the launch party of Saltwater Spirits, please email the author.
Join me on May 24, 2019 at The Real Vancouver Writers' Series (RVWS). The RVWS is a curated literary arts reading series that celebrates world-class writers from Vancouver and beyond. RVWS organizes four to six readings per year and often collaborate with other local or national arts [...]
