Everything about S P Somtow totally explained
S. P. Somtow (a rearrangement of his real name
Somtow Papinian Sucharitkul;
Thai: สมเถา สุจริตกุล), b.
December 30,
1952, is a
Thai American musical
composer. He is also an
English science fiction and
horror author.
Youth
At the age of 11, Somtow wrote a poem,
Kith of Infinity, which was published in the English-language
Bangkok Post.
Shirley MacLaine ran across it, and, thinking that it was written by a dead poet, included it in her autobiography,
Don't Fall Off the Mountain. This poem contains the line "I am not a man", alluding to the fact that Somtow hadn't yet attained manhood; it's speculated that this line caused MacLaine to assume that the poet was a woman.
Somtow was educated at
Eton College and at
St Catharine's College, Cambridge.
Science fiction
As a science fiction writer, he's known for several series, among which are
Mallworld,
Inquestor, and
Aquila. He was first published as
Somtow Sucharitkul in the late
1970s in the pages of
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, and wrote several stories and novels under that name before changing his byline to S. P. Somtow for personal reasons.
Horror
In the horror genre, he wrote
Vampire Junction and a series of related novels and stories. He was president of the
Horror Writers Association from
1998 to
2000. His other horror books include the werewolf/American West novel
Moon Dance, the zombie/American Civil War novel
Darker Angels and the collections
Tagging the Moon - Fairy Tales of L.A. and
The Pavilion of Frozen Women. In 1997, he wrote the juvenile vampire novel,
The Vampire's Beautiful Daughter. He also directed the cult horror film
The Laughing Dead.
Other literary works
His novel
Jasmine Nights, a semi-autobiographical novel set in Thailand in the 1960s, has become his best known fictional work.
Symphonic works
He has also composed five
symphonies and a
ballet,
Kaki. Other musical compositions include the "Requiem: In Memoriam 9/11", commissioned by the government of Thailand as a gift for the victims of the 9/11 events and inspired by the poetry of
Walt Whitman,
Emily Dickinson, and
T. S. Eliot.
Opera
In
2000 he composed
Madana, the first orchestral western
opera by a Thai composer and based on a
Thai language play by
King Rama VI.The opera was in English. His second opera on a Thai theme,
Mae Nak, premiered in
2003 and a third opera,
Ayodhya, was first performed in November,
2006. A fourth opera, "Dan no Ura", is scheduled to premiere in November 2007 in Bangkok.
He is currently artistic director of the
Bangkok Opera. In 2006 Somtow Sucharitkul conducted the first
Wagner opera in
Southeast Asia,
Das Rheingold, as part of a five year project to bring the entire
Ring Cycle to Southeast Asia by the year 2010.
Somtow was a critic of the government of
Thaksin Shinawatra. Somtow replaced
Nobel Prize laureate
Wole Soyinka as keynote speaker at the 2006
S.E.A. Write Awards Ceremony, after Soyinka withdrew in protest against the recent
coup that overthrew the elected government. In his keynote speech, Somtow berated Soyinka for boycotting the awards and claimed that in 50 years, he'd never felt more free. Soon afterwards, Somtow's opera
Ayodhya was censored by the junta. State officials claimed that the on-stage death of the demon-king, Thotsakan, would constitute a bad omen to those in power. Somtow agreed to modify the scene and was forced to sign a document giving officials the right to "immediately shut down the opera in mid-performance if, in their sole opinion, a breach of 'tradition' occurs."
Awards and honors
Somtow Sucharitkul has won the
World Fantasy Award, for which he was four times previously nominated. He has won the
International Horror Guild Award, the
John W. Campbell Award, the
Locus Award, the
HOMer Award, the
American Horror Award and numerous other awards. He has been nominated for two
Hugos and five
Bram Stoker Awards.
Gallery
image:Somtowqueen.jpg|Somtow with H.M. Queen Sirikit after "Sirikit Concerto"
image:PrincessandCardinal.jpg|Somtow with HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana, and Cardinal Michai, at the Thailand premiere of Mozart's C Minor Mass.
Further Information
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