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Beth Yahp Beth Yahp i(A22146 works by) (a.k.a. Beth Yap)
Born: Established: 1964
c
Malaysia,
c
Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
;
Gender: Female
Arrived in Australia: 1984
Heritage: Malaysian Chinese
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BiographyHistory

Beth Yahp was born in Malaysia to a Chinese father and a Thai-English mother. Her family lived in Petaling Jaya, outside Kuala Lumpur. After her family emigrated to Australia, Yahp gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the University of Technology, Sydney.

She has written and published short stories in English, and has read on many public occasions. Her novel The Crocodile Fury, was published in 1992 to widespread acclaim. In 1993, she won a $10,000 fellowship for her novel The Water Trinket. In 1993 she was writer-in-community at the Marrickville Youth Resource Centre and subsequently edited two anthologies of her students' works. In 1994 she was one of six writers who contributed to the Sydney Festival's performance piece "Short Circuits". In 1995 she was writer-in-residence at the English Department of the University of Western Australia. In 1997 she commenced a regular rotational column in the Australian Magazine (a supplement to the Weekend Australian newspaper). She has collaborated also with composer Liza Lim for the writing of a libretto and has also worked as an editor.

In 2018, her biography Eat First, Talk Later, was shortlisted for the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, Award for Non-Fiction.

Exhibitions

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Eat First, Talk Later : A Memoir of Food, Family and Home North Sydney : Vintage Australia , 2015 8640674 2015 single work biography

'In this riveting memoir Beth persuades her ageing parents on a road trip around their former home, Malaysia. She intends to retrace their honeymoon of 45 years before, but their journey doesn't quite work out as she planned. Only the family mantra, ‘Eat first, talk later' keeps them (and perhaps the country) from falling apart. Around them, corruption, censorship of the media, detentions without trial and deaths in custody continue. Protests are put down, violently, by riot police.

Her parents argue, while, lovelorn after a failed relationship in Paris, Beth tries to turn their story into a Technicolor love story. Meanwhile, she's embroiled in a turbulent relationship with an opposition activist, Jing, who is at the forefront of the democratic struggle for change; and in Australia, Beth's second home, she is dismayed to see politicians on all sides focus on turning back the boats, stopping queue jumpers, controlling the borders of 'the lucky country'.

Eat First, Talk Later is a beautifully written, absorbing memoir of a country considered one of the multi-racial success stories of South-East Asia, with many fascinating but deeply troubling sides to it. It's a book about how we tell family and national stories; about love and betrayal; home and belonging; and about the joys of food.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2018 shortlisted Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature Award for Non-Fiction
y separately published work icon The Crocodile Fury Pymble : Angus and Robertson , 1992 Z89263 1992 single work novel fantasy 'Set in a convent school on a jungle-covered hill on the outskirts of a Southeast Asian city, The Crocodile Fury follows the fortunes of three generations: the grandmother who was a bonded servant when the convent was a rich man's mansion; the mother who works each day in the convent laundry; and the girl who tells the story.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1993 winner Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Sheaffer Pen Prize for Young Adult Fiction
1993 winner New South Wales State Literary Awards Ethnic Affairs Commission Award
1997 joint winner The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist of the Year
Last amended 1 Nov 2019 14:20:39
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