Asia Pacific Writers & Translators is an association of authors and literary translators from the Asia-Pacific, one of the world’s most populous and dynamic regions, rapidly reclaiming its position as a global creative force.

AP Writers is registered as a business in Hong Kong, established as a not-for-profit, non-political association to promote fine writing from the region and advance the careers of authors and the translators of their work. The Directors may not be paid or draw a salary.

The Founding Directors are Sri Lankan-born author, Nury Vittachi, founder the Asia Literary Review, the Man Asian Literary Prize and co-founder of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival;  Chinese-Indonseian author Xu Xi, currently Writer-in-Residence at City University of Hong Kong where she has founded Asia’s first low-residency Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing with a focus on writing of Asia in English; and Korean writer, translator and composer, Shirley Young-Eun Lee (bios below).

Founding Directors

Nury Vittachi has played key roles in judging or helping set up numerous literary prizes in Asia, including the Man Asian Literary Prize in Hong Kong. He was founding chairman of the Scholastic Asia Book Prize, which is the biggest children’s literary prize in the region, and founding chairman of the Australia-Asia Literary Award, the largest book prize ever given out in the region. He is chief judge of the Hong Kong Young Writers Award and several other prizes. The Sri Lanka born author, who lives in Hong Kong, founded the Asia Literary Review. His latest books include a trilogy for Scholastic called The Magic Mirror, and The Curious Diary of Mr Jam, a book which examines the Asian sense of humour.

Xu Xi is a Chinese-Indonesian author of nine books of fiction and essays, and editor of three anthologies of Hong Kong literature in English. Her latest titles include Access: Thirteen Tales (2011), the novel, Habit of a Foreign Sky (2010), a finalist for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize and an essay collection Evanescent Isles (2007). Her work is regularly published in international journals and widely anthologized. She is currently Writer-in-Residence at City University of Hong Kong where she founded and directs Asia’s first low-residency Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, and the only one in the world to focus on writing of Asia in English.

Shirley Young-Eun Lee is a writer, translator and composer, and read Classics and Persian at Oxford. She has co-translated the poetry of ten leading Chinese poets since the Cultural Revolution, as well as the love poems of Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo which was broadcast on the BBC World Service. Recently, she translated for the Asia Literary Review poems by defected North Korean state poet Jang Jin-sung, who will be representing N. Korea at the Poetry Parnassus as part of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Her first book – a memoir about herself and her family in the Korean context – is currently in progress.

 Acting General Manager

Jane Camens is working pro bono as AP Writers Acting GM,until such time as a paid administrator can be employed (i.e. when AP Writers becomes a financially viable entity). She founded the forerunner of AP Writers (the Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership) and has organised ‘Reaching the World’ with our Thai partners and has helped AP Writers’ Founding Directors develop its founding member base. Jane was a co-founder, with Nury Vittachi and Shirley Geok-lin Lim, of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, the first annual literary festival to showcase Asian writers. Jan’es own short fiction has been published in literary magazines in Asia, Australia and the UK and she was the 2010 winner of the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize out of Ireland. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and an MFA in Writing (Fiction) from the Vermont College of Fine Art, USA. She has her own literary management company supporting writers to ‘go further’, Literary Events Asia Pacific Plus (LEAP+).

INAUGURAL BOARD (Election 6 November, 2012)

Founding Members* are eligible for nomination to AP Writers’ inaugural Board, which will be elected at our meeting 3.30 PM, 6 November, 2012 in the Regency Room, Mandarin Oriental Bangkok.  Each Director elected to the Board should be prepared to make a substantial  contribution to the success of AP Writers and to play an active role on one or more working committees.

Directors of the Board may decide the length of their own term on the Board (i.e. whether one year, two years or three), as long as there is regular revitalization of the Board by rotation of Directors. Directors may be re-elected after an absence of one year.

There must be an uneven number of members on the Board. The inaugural Board is expected to be made up of 5 or 7 directors.  More may be appointed depending on requirements and the capacity of individuals to strengthen the organization.  Members of the Board are not paid and are expected to secure their own funding to attend the AGM.

Directors of the Board will assume responsibility for establishing and directing working committees formed at the discretion of the Board and may include, for instance:

• Sponsorship Development – raising funding to support events and the administrative functions of AP Writers

• Membership – growing the membership base & maintaining existing member numbers/annual renewals

• Publications – development of an AP Writers-linked e-zine

• Secretary/Treasurer – responsible for auditing/statutory requirements

• Education – liaising with institutions to promote authors and open opportunities for creative writers/translator exchanges/residencies/fellowships etc.

• Annual Conference – responsible for organising an annual gathering and the AGM.
• Legal Advice

*TO BECOME A FOUNDING MEMBER, SEE ‘MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES’

 Contact:  Jane.camens@APWRITERS.COM