Jane Camens, acting executive director of AP Writers, has this message for readers of Asian Books Blog.
AP Writers began almost 10 years ago with a mission to bring
to Asia some of the tremendous resources available to emerging writers in other
parts of the world which, at that time, were not available here.
Singapore now has or brings in many of the resources that were
missing a decade ago. We are honoured that the City-State is hosting our conference
this year as part of its efforts to facilitate writers and help grow networks
around Asia and beyond.
Click here for the Bridging Cultures program, which gives a sense of the fascinating and provocative talks and
discussions running from next Thursday to Saturday.
Each day starts with a keynote talk by an established author who
has gained great respect for her work. Singaporean author Suchen Christine Lim
kicks off the event. Her talk, Bridging/Misrepresenting
Cultures in Writing & Translation questions the conference’s
premise of bridging cultures through writing. We then bring together the other two keynote
speakers, Linda Jaivin and Merlinda Bobis, for a free-for-all discussion, What is Literature For?
Don’t miss the sessions on what women in Asia write about today and the two sessions on new publishing opportunities.
Authors are also invited to use our conferences to launch their
latest books. This year in Singapore at least 15 books will be launched into local and
world markets.
Meanwhile, only one of our workshops still has space, so if you haven’t
already registered you might have missed out. This is such a great opportunity
to work with international mentors.
This year we also gave registered participants the chance of a
one-on-one consultation with one of the most successful literary agents in our
region, Kelly Falconer. Next year we hope to offer this again, so have your
manuscripts in shape by then!
AP Writers events are excellent
opportunities to make writer friends around our region - perhaps to get
yourself invited to speak or read on other platforms!
If you can’t join us this year, I hope you’ll try to join us in
the years ahead. Next year we’ll be in Manila. The year after…we should know
after our annual general meeting on Saturday 20th July.
If you are not yet a member of AP Writers you can join at the conference - see me or Ian Smith.
Our Singapore conference would not have been possible without
the support of the National Book Development Council of Singapore and The Arts
House, with support for a number of visiting writers provided by the Australian Council
for the Arts, the Cultural Fund of Australia’s Copyright Agency, the Prince
Claus Fund of the Netherlands,Yale-NUS, Istituto
Italiano di Cultura, Melbourne PEN and Closetful of
Books. On behalf of AP Writers, I thank
all of them.
