Ninot Aziz will be contributing three poems to the 'Polaris' anthology series, which is a time capsule project that will be sent to the moon in 2024. Photo: The Star/Low Boon Tat
Malaysian author-poet Ninot Aziz will be contributing three poems as part of a global poetry anthology project that will be sent to the moon in 2024.
Ninot's poems were selected by Brick Street Poetry Inc, a US-based literary non-profit organisation, which will be publishing three volumes of an anthology titled The Polaris Trilogy. They will be launched in a time capsule aboard the Space X flight scheduled to depart for the South Pole of the Earth’s Moon in 2024.
Brick Street publishes the Tipton Poetry Journal and other publications which connect poets worldwide.
"Earlier this year I submitted a poem specially written with the theme of sustainability, the lunar and the constellation to be considered for being sent to the moon under the Lunar Codex projects," said Ninot, 57, about the poetry anthology.
"While my poems Quand Je Suis Avec Toi, The Final Frontier and To Be Human are already part of the anthologies selected to the moon, Pesanan Muktamad: Dari Mentari. Purnama. Kejora. was a personal submission for consideration," she added.
Pesanan Muktamad: Dari Mentari. Purnama. Kejora., a Bahasa Malaysia poem, will also be published in the Polaris Trilogy’s magazine – Earthly Edition early next year.
"I am elated! Firstly, that a Malaysian poem in Bahasa Melayu will join the selected works to the moon. Secondly, that apart from Hikayat (an acclaimed Malaysian heritage tales series), my poems too are gaining international exposure after many years," says Ninot, who would love to compile her collection of poems (in English, Bahasa Malaysia and French) in the future.
As a culture advocate, she also regularly gives talks at universities, schools and arts/literary festivals on the importance of preserving and promoting Malay Archipelago legends and folk storytelling. A key feature of Ninot's books are the well crafted illustrations and stories that help readers visualise an old world almost on the brink of extinction.
The Polaris anthologies are a part of the The Lunar Codex, an archive of contemporary art, books, music, poetry, and film, launched via NASA's Artemis partners to the moon.
Ninot's poems will feature in the second Polaris anthology, edited by Joyce Brinkman (inaugural Poet Laureate of Indiana), that will include works from Asia, North and Central America with the theme of "Stars, Sun, and Moon".
Next year is also set to be a busy year for Ninot on the publishing front, especially with her collaborative works alongside international authors and publishers.
"My next book Lipu Lara Dunia Naga (Tales Of Dragons And Serpents From The East And The West) is a graphic novel, which is a collaboration with writers from Malaysia, Indonesia, Italy, Germany, Egypt, Turkiye and Georgia. The Hikayat Fandom series will also be translated into Italian in 2023, while a new YA novel Leyla Wayfarer Of Empires is on the way," she concludes.
