Session exposes students to poetry

The Department of Languages at HELP University recently hosted a guest speaker, Dr Malachi Edwin Vethamani, who is known as a poet, writer and professor of English Literature in the Malaysian literary world. 

Dr Malachi has served as a professor in various capacities, primarily in the area of Modern English Literature. 

He addressed the audience which comprised a group of students from the Bachelor of Education in the Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESL) programme, and lecturers from the Department of Languages in his “Poem and Short Stories” reading session. 



Photo and article courtesy from The Star. 

The reading session began with two TESL students, Arif Iman and Reanna Shee Wai reciting poems from Dr Malachi’s collection of poems followed by another reading from Ashley Tam, a lecturer from the Department of Languages.  

Dr Malachi also read out randomly chosen excerpts from two of his recently published books, “Complicated Lives” and “Life Happens”. 

In addition, he also read one of his short stories, which was taken from his latest publication, “Coitus Interruptus and Other Stories.” 

During his session, Dr Malachi provided insights on how poetry was a form of self-expression. 

“A lot of poems are written in reflection and cover areas of broken dreams, family relationships that may or may not be complicated and most of all about love and its many challenges today,” he said during the reading session. 

Dr Malachi has also conducted research in various areas, including publishing “A Bibliography of Malaysian Literature in English” and was the first in tracing the literary publications in English by Malaysians from the 1950s to 2014. 

He shared that the purpose of his readings was to expose students to poetry and to the many benefits of putting pen to paper and taking the big leap into the world of literature. 

Kuganeshwary Anathan, currently pursuing her final year in the Bachelor of Education (TESL) at HELP, felt the poetry reading session gave her the exposure of listening to excerpts by a well-known author and writer. 

This opened her eyes to other forms of expression apart from the study materials from her English language course. 

“I have not attended any poetry readings before, so this was an interesting and enlightening experience for me, “said Kuganeshwary.