Emerging writers are invited to apply to participate in workshops with established authors as part of the first ever Asia-Pacific Festival of Writing in October 2008.

The Festival, ‘Writing the Future’, is offering workshops in fiction, poetry, theatre/film scriptwriting, non fiction and translation.
Numbers are strictly limited for each workshop. Some preference will be given to writers from Asia and the Pacific.

As well as distinguished Indian writers, some of the international writers either teaching or presenting at the Festival will include:
v   Professor Jon Cook, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of East Anglia (which runs the UK’s oldest and best-known writing programme);

v   Professor Christopher Merrill, Director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, USA;

v   Professor Nicholas Jose who holds the Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide and edits the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature;

v   Frank Stewart who is professor of English at the University of Hawaii and editor of Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing;

v   APWP-Chair Xu Xi, a Chinese-Indonesian native of Hong Kong who teaches creative writing in Hong Kong, the USA and Stockholm.

When confirmed, a full list of teachers and conference presenters will be posted on the website of the Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership: http://www.apwriters.com.

The workshop schedule is:
13-15 October 2008. Shimla: Fiction and Creative Non Fiction/Scriptwriting

The former Vice Regal Lodge in the hill town of Shimla, the summer residence of the British Raj, is the venue for some of the workshops in Fiction and Scriptwriting or Creative Non-Fiction. Demand will determine whether scriptwriting or non fiction will be held in this special retreat. The venue now operates as the Indian Institute of Advanced Study.

13-15 October 2008. New Delhi/Mysore/ Kolkata/Calcutta Translation
Workshops will be run by the Sahitya Akademi (the Indian National Academy of Letters) in collaboration with the Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi and IIT, Delhi. The workshops focus on translating writing from Indian languages into English.

18-20 October 2008. New Delhi. Translation, Fiction and Poetry
The Translation Workshops will be held at two locations: Jamia Millia Islamia and Sahitya Alademi, Delhi;  Fiction Workshops in Delhi will be held at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). The Delhi Poetry Workshop will be held at Sanskriti Kendra, Delhi.

The fee for a workshop (only) for all non-Indian-resident participants (that is, emerging writers coming from outside India) is US$300. This includes workshop board and meals, as well as any workshop-related travel. Overseas workshop participants are strongly encouraged to seek funding from their local arts bodies or other sponsors to cover airfares and other expenses.

The fee for each workshop for Indian participant is 3,000 Rupees, with possible concessions for students.

*Registration must be made via (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

The Festival is hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, together with Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Jamia Millia Islamia University, as well as with the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, the Indian Council of Cultural Relations and the Sahitya Akademi or Indian Academy of Letters.

The Festival was born out of the first meeting of the Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership (APWP), an international collaboration of scholars and writers’ organizations started by Australian/Hong Kong resident, Jane Camens, who began Asia’s first international writers’ festival, the Hong Kong International Literary Festival.

In addition to workshops, the Writing the Future Festival includes a scholarly conference, readings by distinguished local and foreign writers, and other performance.

The conference is being held in Delhi Monday 21 October – Friday 25 October.

On 23 October, the Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership will hold its 2008 meeting to discuss regional literary events for 2009 and beyond, and other opportunities to promote and assist for writers and literary scholars in the region.

Details of the academic conference will be announced separately.

For more information, contact:
Prof. Rukmini Bhaya Nair, at the IIT, New Delhi.

Tel: +91 11 26591371. Email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)