Writing and Editing Workshops
VENUE: The Arts House, 1 Old Parliament Lane, Singapore. Rooms will
be advised after registration.
COST: All workshops run for a half-day (about 4 hours) and cost S$40,
to be paid online. If experiencing registration difficulties, contact Jane on
admin@apwriters.com.
NUMBER LIMITS. We suggest early registration to confirm a place as we
aim to keep the workshops intimate with no more than 12 people in
each.
1) Friday, 18 July 2014, Starting 9 pm
Creative Writing Fiction – with Dr. Tony Birch.
This workshop is suitable for both beginning and developing writers. It
will focus on both the short story and skills for novel writing. Whether
discussing beginnings and endings, dialogue and description, or
character and plot, the workshop is designed to help writers move from
a creative idea to a completed piece of writing. Technical approaches
and exercises will be introduced that should become integral to each
writer's tool box.
Tony Birch was a judge on the AU$50,000 2014 Stella Prize for fiction
in Australia. He was born into a family of Aboriginal, West Indian and
Irish descent and experienced a challenging upbringing that is depicted
in his remarkable semi-autobiographical Shadowboxing. His acclaimed
novel Blood (2011) was shortlisted for Australia’s prestigious Miles
Franklin Award. His short fiction is also widely published. He teaches in
the Creative Writing program at Melbourne University and runs
community writing programs as part of the his outreach work.
2) Friday, 18 July 2014, Starting 9 pm
The Global Storyteller: How to write for readers from English/
Chinese/ Hindi and other backgrounds – with Nury Vittachi.
How do readers appetites and expectations differ? How can a writer
simultaneously serve multiple audiences? Nury Vittachi is an author
whose works have been published in Hindi, Chinese, Indonesian,
Spanish, English, Portuguese, and many other languages.
Comprehensive handouts for all who register for this workshop.
3) Friday, 18 July 2014, Starting 2 pm
Editing Your Manuscript with Dr. Sally Breen.
AP Writers is proud to work together with Asia Literary Review and
the respected Australian literary magazine Griffith REVIEW to
present a yet-to-be-formally-announced joint issue of the two
publications in 2015. Sally Breen, an editor at Griffith REVIEW, will
help you hone contributions.
Sally Breen estimates that in her various roles of lecturer, editor and
short fiction judge she must read thousands of stories each year. She
brings this experience to a workshop focused on eliminating
the common errors many writers make with the end goal of getting your
fiction publication and prize ready.
Dr. Sally Breen is a writer and lecturer in creative writing and
publishing at Griffith University. She is fiction Editor of the
Griffith REVIEW and judge of Australia's richest short story prize the
Josephine Ulrick prize for literature. In 2010 she signed a two book deal
with Harper Collins. Her memoir The Casuals was released in 2011 and
Atomic City a literary noir in 2013.
4) Friday, 18 July 2014, Starting 2 pm
Remembering Place: From the Lived Life to Poetry to Prose – with
Dr. Merlinda Bobis
To keep a place alive in your heart, it must dwell in your mouth.
Remembering a lived and loved place is a homecoming. This writing
workshop will come home to the body sensing-knowing place, then reimagining it in poetry, then ‘translating’ the poem to micro-fiction. Dr.
Merlinda Bobis, an award-winning writer (poetry, short story, novel,
drama), performer for stage and radio, and creative writing senior
lecturer at University of Wollongong, will facilitate this border-crossing
creative journey informed by her own practice across literary genres.
Merlinda Bobis has published three novels, a collection of short stories,
five poetry books, a monograph on creative research, and scholarly
essays on creative-critical production, migration, postcolonial writing
and the transnational imaginary. She has received various awards for
her works. (Click to see full bio).
5) Saturday, 19 July 2014, Starting 9 am
Finding Voice: Dance Your Way Into Writing — with Francesca
Rendle-Short.
Paul Auster says Writing begins in the body, it is the music of the body.
This workshop explores what it means to "begin writing", how to locate
"the music of writing" in the body, how to find your own particular
voice. It is a practical writing workshop where participants
will experiment and play with ideas of voice and style through
nonfiction (and fictional) writing exercises as well as poetry.
Francesca Rendle-Short’s most recent book is the critically acclaimed
novel-cum-memoir Bite Your Tongue (Spinifex Press). She is an
associate professor in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT
University and co-director of the nonfictionLab research group. In 2013
she was a writing fellow at the Nonfiction Writing Program in the
Department of English at the University of Francesca RendleShort’s most recent book is the critically acclaimed novel-cum-memoir
Bite Your Tongue (Spinifex Press). She is an associate professor in the
School of Media and Communication at RMIT University and co-director
of the nonfictionLab research group. In 2013 she was a writing fellow at
the Nonfiction Writing Program in the Department of English at the
University of Iowa. Website: http://francescarendleshort.com/