Malachi Edwin Vethamani (Prepared Angela Kosta)
Moderator 
MALACHI EDWIN VETHAMANI - MALAYSIA
Malachi Edwin Vethamani (b. 8 July 1955) was born in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is a Malaysian Indian professor, teacher trainer, poet, writer, critic and bibliographer.
He had his early education at Methodist Boys’ Primary School, Kuala Lumpur and continued at Methodist Boys’ Secondary School, Kuala Lumpur. He did his Higher School Certificate at Vanto Academy, Petaling Jaya. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in English Literature, Diploma in Education (TESL), Master of Education in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) from University of Malaya and a doctorate in Literature in English from the University of Nottingham, England.
He has two sons, Vincent Jeremiah Edwin and Julian Matthew Edwin. And is recently a grandfather to Aria Mikayla binti Julian Matthew Edwin.
CAREER
Malachi Edwin Vethamani is actively involved in the local and international literary scene. He is the Founding Editor of ‘Men Matters Online Journal‘ which was launched in December 2020. He was Head, School of English, University of Nottingham Malaysia from June to December 2020 and Professor of Modern English Literature from 2015 to January 2021. He was conferred the title Emeritus Professor by University of Nottingham upon his retirement in January 2021.
He was the founding dean of the School of Education, Taylor’s University (2011-2014) and also the founding dean of the School of Education, Languages and Communications, Wawasan Open University, Malaysia (March 2009 till Feb. 2011). He was with the Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) from 1986 till 2009. He started his teaching career as an English Language teacher at Maktab Rendah Sains MARA (MRSM) / MARA Junior Science College, Pengkalan Chepa, Kelantan in 1979. He left MRSM Jasin, Melaka in 1986 to join Universiti Pertanian Malaysian (later known as Unversiti Putra Malaysia).
He serves in various capacities with other universities. In 2015 he was appointed Visiting Professor at the School of Liberal Arts, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
He was a committee member for the Special Projects (Private Universities) Cluster, Malaysian Professorial Council from 2015 to 2018.
He was the President of Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA) from June 2001 till January 2008. He was a Vice President of Asian Association of Teachers of EFL (Asia TEFL) from 2008 to 2013. He is currently an Advisor to Asia TEFL and a Trustee to MELTA.
He was a newspaper columnist for two Malaysian national newspapers. He had a monthly column in the New Sunday Times on English Language and English Literature from January 2015 to August 2016 and a fortnightly column in Sunday Star on teaching literature in English from 1992 to December 1994
He has authored five volumes of poems and two collection of short stories. He compiled the first bibliography of Malaysian Literature in English (2004, second edition in 2015). He has edited six volumes of Malaysian writings in English. The first volume, In-Sights: Malaysian Poems in 2004, the second and third anthologies cover a period of over 60 years of Malaysian writings in English, Malchin Testament: Malaysian Poems (2018) and Ronggeng-Ronggeng: Malaysian Short Stories (2020). The Malaysian Publishers Association awarded Malchin Testament: Malaysian Poems the Anugerah Buku Malaysia 2020, best book award for the English Language category. In 2021, he published Malaysian Millennial Voices (2021), a collection of poems from Malaysian poets under 35 years of age and in 2022 he published The Year of the Rat and Other Poems an edited volume of Malaysian poems from the Malaysian Poetry Writing Competition 2021 which he organised with sponsorship from University of Nottingham Malaysia and Maya Press. ‘The Journal of Commonwealth Literature’ (2023) stated that in 2022 ‘the most prominent figure in Malaysian poetry was Malachi Edwin Vethamani, who is, without doubt, one of the leading English-language poets in Malaysia’. In 2023 he co-edited a collection of Malaysian short stories which we drawn from the Malaysian Short Story writing competition which he organised with sponsorship from University of Nottingham Malaysia and Maya Press. He was the General Editor of the MELTA-Sasbadi ELT Series (2001 to 2008) and has edited and co-edited several scholarly works in the field of Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL).
ODE TO A WATER LILY
You stand singularly straight
a whiteness among the green.
Your petals unfurled
now strike outwards
each firmly hold its own.
As the day draws on
you are in fullness.
Then slowly you recede
into yourself to a tightness.
Your respite is brief
and with a new morn
you replay your loveliness.
A crowning show
then no more.
Your once straight stem
now lies slant and soft
beauty spent now still.
In the water the guppies
nibble and shelter
while you waste away.
SOLITUDE
A stillness.
A silence.
No shadows.
No echoes.
A lightness.
A strength.
No expectations.
No regrets.
A firmness.
A release.
No sighs.
No surrender.
A calmness.
A sedateness.
No hunger.
No desire.
Aloneness.
RAMBUTAN KISSES
Tapau for me your rambutan kisses.
When you are gone
I will take each out
and be kissed one at a time
alone, by myself.
They will give me solace
in your absence.
Each rambutan kiss,
my silent companion
in my solitude,
until you return
and kiss me.
Brushing your bristle
on my welcoming lips.
YOU ARE, I AM
I love all that is you.
Our minds mingle
as our fluids mix
and our spirits touch
a becoming.
You are
not male
not female
not man
not woman
but mind
body
spirit
not me
not you
not us
but Is -
being.
Prepared Angela Kosta Executive Director of MIRIADE Magazine, Academic, journalist, writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, translator, promoter
