The Asia-Pacific writing partnership: an initiative supporting writers in the world's most populous and dynamic region

Abstract

In this paper, I describe the background, rationale and activities of the Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership, a transdisciplinary initiative formed to support writers in the Asia-Pacific region by creating opportunities for writers from the region to further their careers through literary encounters organised with universities and other writers’ organisations in Australia, Asia, the UK, USA and wherever writers can come together to network, develop their skills and promote their work. It seeks to foster links between writers/practitioners in the Creative Writing discipline and scholars of literary theory, cultural studies, translators, post-colonial literary theory and others in and outside the academy. It aims to further stimulate the receptiveness of readers to writing from this the world’s most populous, diverse and creatively dynamic region. As well as facilitating regional and international connections, it serves as a research tool, a virtual laboratory, in which to observe contemporary writing from the ‘margins’ of the so-called World Republic of Letters and to remap such literary world models.