Over on the First Second blog, they’ve started a series of creators-interviewing-creators interviews. Part one of the first one is up, and features Eddie Campbell interviewing Mohammed Nor Khalid, aka LAT, whose Town Boy will be published alongside Campbell’s Black Diamond Detective Agency later this year.
LAT explains where “LAT” came from in the interview:
CAMPBELL: The ‘Lat’ abbreviation has served you well over the years. The titles of your books have usually been a play on the name (Such as “Better Lat than never’, ‘Lat’s Lot’, and ‘Lots of Lat’. What’s your full name and how does it feel to be internationally known by such a short one?
LAT: Lat is short for the Malay word “bulat” meaning round or moon-shaped…the moon is bulat, the soccer ball too…and so is the globe…The family wouldn’t call you Mohammed Nor Khalid when you’re a stark naked toddler running around the village house. The name Lat got stuck till school days, early adulthood and eventually up to the end. My books had been passed around between Malaysian students studying abroad and people of the countries they were in right from the 1970’s….In a way, I had already “gone international” even then…
January 17th, 2011 at 6:24 pm
Amazingg skills! Keep it up man, you rock!
February 2nd, 2011 at 10:29 pm
I really appreciate you spending some time to publish this important blog post.