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The director of the 2021 edition of the Singapore Writers Festival (SWF), Pooja Nansi, has refused to answer questions regarding BooksActually.

In a Facebook post put up Sep. 29, Nansi said she had refrained from speaking about the matter at a press conference about the SWF as she did not want the work of the mostly-female SWF team to be overshadowed by the issue.

The poet also added that the media launch was not the appropriate place to discuss her personal feelings and opinions about issues beyond the festival, as she was representing the SWF's vision as its director.

Nansi said: "To insist upon centering my opinions would be disrespectful to the labour of an entire team of people."

Nansi's post came in the wake of revelations that the BooksActually founder Kenny Leck allegedly harassed and pursued relationships with several female employees, with his simultaneous cross pollination of professional and personal relationships revealed by his ex-wife Renee Ting and other employees.

SWF director calls for empathy

In her post, Nansi added that she did not condone behaviour that was exploitative of women and non-consensual, and acknowledged the "immense courage" that came with speaking up.

She also called for empathy to be shown to Leck and BooksActually, explaining that if the literary community could not "model empathy" within its aim to "dismantle and rebuild", then both literature and the community itself had failed.

In addressing Leck as both her friend and publisher, she said the incident posed the question of how she could do better and how she could also ask Leck to do better.

Nansi said:

"I do not believe that anyone is transformed through being shunned or through shame. I believe people grow when provided resources and space for help and healing. Refusing to condone specific behaviour and showing compassion have not been mutually exclusive in my own personal relationships, but I respect that how we approach our relationships is a deeply private navigation."

Nansi also added that she did not believe the literary community should resort to a boycott and disavowal of BooksActually on the grounds that such a move would hurt the store's current employees and other writers.

She wrote:

"It doesn’t benefit anyone for us to approach the many systemic shortcomings that this has brought to light in a knee jerk manner. Some solutions simply cannot be contained in a social media post."

BooksActually has been a key for her literary career

Nansi acknowledged that both BooksActually and its publishing arm, Math Paper Press, had been central to her growth and career as a poet, along with others and highlighted how the allegations against Leck had been "upsetting to read".

She said if that she sounded slow in her response, it was due to how she had to allow herself time to think about the events and process her own grief.

"This moment goes far beyond Books Actually. It asks us to consider how we as a community can do better," she said.

BooksActually taking a break for "mental well-being"

Earlier on Sep. 25, a former BooksActually employee wrote about complicity on the part of members of Singapore's literati, who were cognisant of Leck's antics for years now.

However, no names were named.

Following the revelations and fallout, BooksActually issued a statement on Sep. 28, stating that the store is taking a break "for the sake of our mental well-being".

It called for privacy and asked the public for "grace and empathy".

 

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Top collage left image via Pooja Nansi Facebook, right image via Intellectual Property Office of Singapore Facebook