M.A. Elanjselvan
இந்தப் பக்கத்தை தமிழில் வாசிக்க: எம். ஏ. இளஞ்செல்வன்
M.A. Elanjselvan (February 11, 1948 – August 28, 2000) was the pioneer of modern poetry movement in Malaysia in the 70s. His birth name was M. Ramu. Elanjselvan penned not only modem poems but also short stories and novels.
Early Life
M.A. Elanjselvan was born on February 11, 1948, at Bedong in Kedah province. He completed his primary education at St. Thressa English School in Sungai Petani. Elanjselvan learnt Tamil on his own.
Private Life
After completing his secondary school education, M.A. Elanjselvan joined Teacher Training College and became a Tamil teacher. He continued his service as headmaster till the end.
M.A. Elanjselvan's wife Sundarambal was also a writer and they had four children: two sons and two daughters.
Literary Life
M.A. Elanjselvan started writing traditional poems for Indian Movie News magazine during mid 1970s. Then Elanjselvan became interested in modern poetry. In 1979, he published Malaysia’s first Modern poetry book Neruppu Pookal (Flowers of Fire). M.A. Elanjselvan founded ‘Navina Ilakkiya Sindanai’ (Modern Literary Thought) forum jointly with C. Muthusamy and Neelavannan and organized the first modern poetry seminar in Malaysia in 1979. At the seminar, he compiled modern poetries of twenty two writers into a book and published it under title Pulligalai Purakkanikkum Pudhukolangal (New patterns crossing the boundaries) through ‘Navina Ilakkiya Sindanai’ forum. Elanjselvan then organized another national conference on modern poetry in 1989.
M.A. Elanjselvan received attention among the youth of the day for his strong responses to the criticism from traditional writers when modern poetry was beginning to develop in Malaysia. In this way, Elanjselvan was an attractive pioneer for young people to continue to get interested in modern poetry. 'M.A. Elanjselvan photos featured along with his works published in the film magazine Indian Movie News received celebrity status par with a film star’ remarked the subsequent generation writer K. Punniyavaan.
