Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership

NEW WEBSITE AND NEW INFORMATION

The Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership's website is being rebuilt and will appear with a new look in March 2009, including information about our 2009 activities.

We invite you to register to become a member and keep up to date.

Women Writers from Indonesia

 

Look on the Words Without Borders website (www.wordswithoutborders.org/?front=JANUARY 2009)for 'Tropical Currents' featuring women writers from Indonesia. In narratives as varied as the islands themselves, women embark on personal and professional journeys, navigating the treacherous depths of families, society, and faith to write their own stories of travel and discovery. Listen as Nenden Lilis A., Abidah El Khalieqy, Lily Yulianti Farid, Reda Gaudiamo, Dorothea Rosa Herliany, Etik Juwita, Oka Rusmini, and Cok Sawitri tell their own tales of the South Pacific.  We thank our guest editors, John H. McGlynn and Dorothea Rosa Herliany, and their staff at the Lontar Foundation, particularly Dewi Andahlia. (All photos except statue by Jonathan McIntosh, 2004)

 

 

RELOCATION TO ADELAIDE UNIVERSITY

The Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership has relocated to the University of Adelaide, South Australia, from Griffith University in Queensland.

The Partnership has been housed within the Creative Writing program in the School of Humanities, where the Chair is prominent writer and critic, Brian Castro. Professor Castro, who was born in Hong Kong, has written extensively about the Australian-Asian experience and the benefits for the West and for writers in Asia of engagement.

 The University of Adelaide's Creative Writing program has nurtured a number of successful writers from the region, including the most recent winner of the Man Asia Literary Prize, Miguel Syjuco, a Filipino writer completing his PhD in Writing under Brian Castro's supervision.

Nobel laureate novelist John Coetzee is also an adjunct professor in the program.

The Writing Partnership, an international collaboration of writers, scholars and others interested in nurturing, promoting and exploring writing from the Asia-Pacific, was started by Australian journalist, writer and co-founder of Hong Kong’s international literary festival, Jane Camens.

“Jane brings with her a high reputation across the Asia-Pacific region for her writing and for her organisational skills,” said Professor Castro, adding that in her capacity as Director of the Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership she has created a useful regional network for creative writing programs and writing teachers.

He noted that the Partnership’s first collaborative conference in India, ‘Asia-Pacific Writing the Future 2008’, featured the directors of the famous North American and British writing programs at Iowa University and the University of East Anglia.

“I welcome the fact that Jane brings all the highest research skills as well as her organisational network to make the University of Adelaide the host institution for this distinguished partnership," he said.

The Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership was started with seed funding from Griffith University where
Ms Camens began a PhD in Creative Writing. She has moved her degree to Adelaide University to work under Professor Castro’s supervision and continue to run the Partnership as its Director.

Others who have honed their craft in Adelaide include:

• Stefan Laszczuk (2007 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award. His manuscript, I Dream of Magda, was published by Allen & Unwin in 2008.)

• Carol Lefevre (2008 Nita B. Kibble Literary Award for her novel, Nights in the Asylum.  Her new novel, If You Were Mine, was published by Vintage in September 2008.)

• Julia Leigh (Second novel, Disquiet, was published by Hamish Hamilton (Penguin) in 2008.)

• Rachel Hennessy (The Quakers - winner of the Adelaide Festival Award in 2006 for best unpublished manuscript. Published by Wakefield Press in 2008. Runner-up for The Australian/Vogel Literary Award.)

• Malcolm Walker (The Stone Crown, was published by Walker Books Australia in 2008. It will be published in the UK in 2009 and the US in 2010.)

• Sean Williams (His new book, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, debuted at #1 on the 7 September New York Times hardcover bestseller list. Other recent Sean Williams books include two children's novels, The Changeling and The Dust Devils (HarperCollins) and Magic Dirt, a definitive "best of Sean Williams" published by Ticonderoga Publications).

The Partnership’s events for 2009 will be announced soon.