EARLY DAYS – 2005-2011
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AP Writers evolved from the Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership, an initiative established in 2005 at Griffith University in Australia. It was conceived originally as a broker of collaborative activities and research projects among universities and other organisations interested in exploring and supporting excellence in creative writing from the region. The Partnership grew into a think tank of individuals rather than institutions, though some members hold senior academic posts.
The APWP first organised panel discussions on writing from the region in Australia and Hong Kong, funded by Australia’s Copyright Agency Ltd (CAL). The first international meeting was held in Bali in September 2007, funded by a small grant from the International Centre of Excellence in Asia-Pacific Studies. The meeting took place in a thatched hut in the middle of a rice paddy at the time of the Ubud Writers’ Festival.
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First Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership in Bali, 2007
In 2008 the APWP met in New Delhi at a symposiu, ‘Asia-Pacific Writing the Future’, hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). See Writing the Future. Creative Writing and Translation workshops were held in association at the Indian Academy of Letters in Shimla and at Jamia Millia University in Delhi.
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In early 2009, the Partnership relocated to the University of Adelaide’s Creative Writing program. See Relocation. Due to the world financial crisis, the Partnership did not hold an event in 2009, but in 2010 a conference was held in conjunction with Hong Kong’s international literary festival. (See HERE. ). A major outcome of the conference was the production of a special issue of of the on-line peer-reviewed publication TEXT on Teaching Creative Writing In Asia (available HERE).
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In 2011 the conference was held at the University of Western Australia in conjunction with the 14th Biennial Symposium on Literatures and Cultures of the Asia Pacific Region. A decision was taken at the AGM to free the AP Writers from the Australian university where it was hampered in fund-raising and to register as an independent entity in Hong Kong.
AP Writers’ inaugural gathering will be held in Bangkok, Thailand in the first week of November.
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