Asia-Pacific Writers (AP Writers) will hold its inaugural gathering in Bangkok, Thailand, 5-9 November 2012, to dovetail with this year’s Southeast Asian Writers’ (S.E.A.Write) Festival and Gala Awards.
AP Writers is working with the S.E.A.Write Organising Committee to bring together the 2012 S.E.A. Write award winners with translators, festival directors from around the world, publishing professionals, other authors from Asia-Pacific and beyond, and others, for a series of events designed to further support writers from the region.
The S.E.A.Write Awards have been presented annually since 1979 to authors and poets in Southeast Asia. The Award was initiated by Thailand’s legendary hotel – The Oriental – and its business allies in cooperation with two literary associations – PEN Thailand and the Writers Association of Thailand. A member of the Thai royal family presides over the gala awards dinner at Bangkok’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel, famous throughout its 135-year history for its relationship with international authors. Legendary authors who have stayed there include Joseph Conrad, Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward and James Michener.
Books by S.E.A.Write winners have not always been available in English. This partially accounts for the lack of recognition of the writers, the award and much excellent literature from the region. Translation into English is often a first step to translation into many other languages.
AP Writers will work with the British Centre for Literary Translation, the Translators’ and Interpreters Association of Thailand and others to organise translation workshops that produce English excerpts of some of the 2012 award winners’ work.
Readings of the winners’ work, together with readings of the translations, will be held in Suan Pakkard Palace, a former royal residence now operating as a fine arts museum and made available courtesy of S.E.A. Write Organising Committee Chair, M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, Governor of Bangkok.
Working with the Writers’ Association of Thailand, PEN Thailand, and others, AP Writers will organise Creative Writing workshops to enable Thai writers and other emerging writers from the Asia-Pacific region to work with internationally-established authors. Consultations with literary agents and publishers may also be arranged, if possible.
AP Writers’ key forum will be a series of provocations leading to roundtable discussion and debate on the themes ‘TRANSLATING ASIA’ and ‘THE VALUE OF LITERARY PRIZES’. The forum will be held 4-5 November at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.
‘These annual awards have built up invaluable legacies through the works of individual writers whose generative power continues to nourish national literatures as they feed the wellbeing of a people, a nation,’ said Singaporean poet and academic Edwin Thumboo, speaking at the most recent S.E.A.Write Awards.
Professor Thumboo was the first Singaporean recipient of the S.E.A. Write Award in 1979. He spoke also during his keynote address of the need to bring to ASEAN countries writers from all parts of the world and to send abroad more writers from the region. This inaugural joint ‘Translating Asia’ event between Asia-Pacific Writers and the S.E.A. Write Organising Committee seeks to do this.
AP Writers recognises fine writing from the region and works to advance the career of authors. It also assists writers from Asia and the Pacific to participate more fully in global literary discourses.
We thank other members of the organising team and those who have committed to date to working with us. They include:
- Mandarin Oriental Hotel’s General Manager Jan D. Goessing, and Somsri Hansirisawasdi, Director of Public Relations.
- Surapeepan Chatraporn, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Associate Professor of English, Chulalongkorn University.
- Professor Emeritus Srisurang Poolthupya – Translators’ and Interpreters Association of Thailand, & the Royal Institute of Thailand.
- Binlah Songkalagiri – Writers’ Association of Thailand. PEN Thailand.
- Panadda Lerlum-Umpai, S.E.A. Write Committee, formerly a senior executive with the Bangkok Bank and President of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand.
- British Centre for Literary Translation.
- Julianne Schultz, editor Griffith REVIEW and judge of the Miles Franklin Literary Award (Australia).
Sponsors of the S.E.A.Write Award include Bangkok Bank Co., Ltd., the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Thai Airways International, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Chumbhot-Pantip Foundation, Bank of Thailand, Thai Beverage PLC, The Rex Morgan Foundation, SCG Foundation, and World Travel Service.
AP Writers’ activities in support of the award will seek separate additional sponsorship.
2011 S.E.A. Write Award winners and members of the S.E.A. Write Organising Committee with Thailand’s Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana (seated). (From left, foreground) Bounthanong Xomxayphol (Laos), Jadej Kamjorndet (Thailand); Soranat Tailanka (President, PEN Thailand), (Mr) Jane Songsompha (President, Writers’Association); Mohd Zefri Ariff bin Mohd Zain Ariff (Brunei), Mohd Zakir Syed bin Syed Othman (Malaysia). (From left, back row): Nguyen Chi Trung (Vietnam), Robert Yeo Cheng Chuan (Singapore), Romulo P. Baquiran, Jr, (Philippines), M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, (Governor of Bangkok and Committee Chair), Mr. Jan D. Goessing (GM, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Bangkok), Professor Dr. Edwin Thumboo (Guest Speaker), and Mr. D. Zawawi Imron (Indonesia).
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий