KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian literary giant KS Maniam died today. He was 78.
News of his death was shared on Facebook by his friend Malachi Edwin Vethamani, a professor at the University of Nottingham Malaysia campus.
Film director and author Amir Muhammad shared his condolences to the family of KS Maniam, adding that an event for the author and academician in conjunction with Kuala Lumpur being the Unesco World Book Capital of 2020/1 would not be out of place.
KS Maniam's career spanned over 55 years as he published his first work in 1964 at the age of 22. It was a poem.
His short stories also won first prize at national competitions by the New Straits Times in 1987 and 1990.
Maniam was also the inaugural recipient of the Raja Rao Award in 2000 for his outstanding contributions to literature among the South Asian diaspora.
In schools, his first novel, The Return, was used to teach Form Five students and his short stories had appeared in Form Six exams. His works were taught in university courses and also a subject of research.
Born in 1942, KS Maniam or Subramaniam Krishnan was also a lecturer and associate professor in Universiti Malaya's English Department in the 80s and 90s.