Malachi Edwin Vethamani
Malachi Edwin Vethamani is a Malaysian-born Indian poet, fictionist, editor, critic and Emeritus Professor at University of Nottingham. He is the Founding Editor of Men Matters Online Journal (MMOJ) a biannual journal which was launched in June 2020.
He has five collections of poems and his individual poems have appeared in The Wise Owl (2025), Morecambe Poetry Festival Anthology Volume 3 (2025), The Hooghly Review (2025), Converse (2022), Masked/Unmasked (2021), Anak Sastera (2017), Southeast Asian Review of English (2016), Asiatic: Journal of Language of Literature (Kuala Lumpur: 2015), Ghulam Sarwar Yousuf, (ed.) Asian Centre Anthology of Malaysian Poetry in English (Partridge Press, Singapore: 2014) and C.Y. Loh and I.K. Ong. (eds.) SKOOB Pacifica Anthology No. 1: Southeast Asia Writes Back! (London: 1996). His poems have been translated into several languages including Bengali, Tamil, Malay, Hungarian, Spanish and Persian. Ismail S. Talib in ‘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’.
Malachi Edwin Vethamani has two collection of short stories. A theatrical adaptation of three of his stories from Coitus Interruptus and Other Stories were reworked as monologues and performed as ‘Love Matters’ by Playpen Performing Arts Trust in Mumbai in 2017 and 2018. His short story ‘Best Man’s Kiss was reworked into a short play for an event called ‘Inqueerable’ organized by Queer Ink in Mumbai on 8th September 2019 to celebrate the first anniversary of the Supreme Court of India overturning Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code which had made consensual homosexual sex illegal. His individual stories have appeared in Best Asian Short Stories (Singapore), Literary Page, New Straits Times (Malaysia), Lakeview: Internal Journal of Literature and Arts, India, Business Mirror (The Philippines), Creative Flight Literary Journal, (India), Queer Southeast Asia Literary Journal (Singapore) and Borderless Journal (Singapore).
He has edited several volumes of short stories and poetry. The Malaysian Publishers Association awarded his edited volume, Malchin Testament: Malaysian Poems, the National Book Award 2020 for the English Language category. Both his debut collection of poems Complicated Lives and his edited volume of poems Malaysian Millennial Voices were nominated by Malaysian Publishers Association for National Book Award 2022 for the English Language category.
The following are his major literary publications:
Have I Got Something To Tell You (Short Stories). Singapore, Penguin Random House SEA: 2024.
Rambutan Kisses (Poetry). Petaling Jaya, Maya Press: 2022.
The Seven O’clock Tree: Poetry for Young Malaysian Readers. Petaling Jaya, Maya Press: 2022.
Love and Loss (Poetry). Petaling Jaya, Maya Press: 2022.
Coitus Interruptus and Other Stories. Petaling Jaya, Maya Press: 2018.
Life Happens (Poetry). Petaling Jaya, Maya Press: 2017.
Complicated Lives (Poetry). Petaling Jaya, Maya Press: 2016.
His publications as Editor include:
Hibiscus & Plum Blossom Verses: Contemporary Malaysian and Taiwanese Poems. A Bilingual Translation Edition. Petaling Jaya: Maya Press, 2025. Co-edited with Lo Te-chang Mike.
Contours of Him (Poetry). New Delhi: Hawakal Press, 2025.
Malaysian Places and Spaces (Poetry). Petaling Jaya: Maya Press, 2024.
A Chance Encounter at Sungai Chiling. Petaling Jaya: Maya Press, 2023. Co-edited with Sharon Bakar.
The Year of the Rat (Poetry). Petaling Jaya: Maya Press, 2022.
The Best Asian Short Stories 2021. Singapore: Kitaab International PTE. LTE., 2021.
Malaysian Millennial Voices (Poetry). Petaling Jaya: Maya, 2021.
Ronggeng-Ronggeng: Malaysian Short Stories. Petaling Jaya: Maya Press, 2020.
Malchin Testament: Malaysian Poems. Petaling Jaya: Maya Press, 2017.
In-Sights: Malaysian Poems. Petaling Jaya: Maya Press, 2004.
Website: www.malachiedwinvethamani.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/malachi.vethamani
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/malachiedwin/
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malachi_Edwin_Vethamani
Email:malachi.vethamani@nottingham.edu.my mevethamani@gmail.com