Wednesday 29 July 2015

Published Today: New Asia Now

49 authors under 45 from across Asia have today been published in a themed edition of the Griffith Review, one of Australia’s leading literary magazines. Griffith Review 49: New Asia Now, edited by Julianne Schultz and Jane Camens, and published in parallel with an edition of  Asia Literary Reviewtakes a journey through the region’s diversity, featuring a new generation of literary stars.

All the contributors were born since 1970 and so, despite national and regional differences, they have grown up during a period of extraordinary change: countries decolonised, civil wars fought and won, political systems turned inside out, authoritarian states fallen to democracies. In the process, relentless economic growth has lifted the standard of living in the region at an unprecedented pace, and has created the largest middle class the world has ever known. 

The contributors explore the meanings of these enormous changes in country after country, in family and community, for the diasporas and for those who stayed in traditional homelands. Their contributions are feisty, elegant, thoughtful and curious about pasts that have largely been swept aside, for fear that narratives of what went before may get in the way of modernisation. Some pieces explore what was lost along the way.

Overall, New Asia Now reveals the shifts that are bringing the continents of Australia and Asia closer; they bring Australian readers in particular into a greater awareness of their place in the larger regional picture.

Contributors from Asia
China: Sheng Keyi, Murong Xuecun, Jenn Chan Lyman, Merriden Varrall
Hong Kong: Keane Shum, Nicholas Wong
Thailand: Vornai Vanijaka, Ploy Pirapokin
Philippines: Miguel Syjuco, Glenn L Diaz, Johanna Lynn B. Cruz,
Indonesia: Maggie Tiojakin, Okky Maasari, Dewi Anggraeni, Eliza Vitri Handayani, Prodita Sabarini, Dea Anugrah,
India: Annie Zaidi, Siddhartha Deb, Anjum Hasan, Mohit Parikh, Majid Maqbool, Lavanya Shanbhogue
Pakistan: Shandana Minhas
Singapore: Joshua Ip, Damyanti Biswas
Malaysia: Jarni Blakkarly, Ted Mahsun, Omar Musa, Lian Low
Vietnam: André Dao, Shiela Ngoc Pham
Cambodia: Romi Grossberg, Laura Jean McKay
Japan: Sally McLaren, Romy Ash, Siobhan Harvey
Nepal: Manan Karki
North Korea: Jang Jin-Sung
Burma: Ko Ko Thett
Mongolia: Kirrl Shields
Sri Lanka: Danushka Silva

Contributors based in Australia and New Zealand
Candice Chung, Omar Musa, Michelle Law, Ellen van Neerven, Lian Low, André Dao, Jarni Blakkarly, Danushka Silva, Laura Jean McKay, Alice Bishop, Michele Lee, Elaine Laforteza, Cameron Muir, Merriden Varrall, Kirril Shields, Shiela Ngoc Pham, Michelle Law, Tammy Law, Jessie Cole, Romy Ash, Siobhan Harvey

New Asia Now is available here in both print and electronic formats.