In October 2013 WrICE Directors Francesca Rendle-Short and David Carlin participated in the Asia Pacific Writers (AP Writers) ‘Reaching the World 2013: creative writing and translation: teaching and practice’ conference in Bangkok, at the Faculty of Arts of Chulalongkorn University. It was held in conjunction with UNESCO’s Bangkok World Book Capital 2013 and celebrated all things to do with writers and writing in the region. More than 150 writers and translators from 22 different countries were part of the conference. The Governor of Bangkok, Mom Rajawongse Sukhumbhand Paribatra, welcomed them all and hosted a gala dinner in the ballroom of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

‘We need literature as an art form, as a means to convey and transfer knowledge, ideas and emotions, but foremost we need [it] to feed imagination,’ said Ms Voorbraak, whose nation funded airfares for five writers from emerging countries through the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development. Her speech set the tone for the meeting. ‘We need imagination to challenge set norms, to push boundaries and help us progress as humankind,’ she said.

Francesca and David facilitated highly successful creative writing workshops for enthusiastic writers and participants. David’s workshop, Essaying across Cultures, used the essay form of writing as a starting point to explore the possibilities open to the creative writer of writing nonfiction. It introduced participants to the idea of the essay (from Latin to try),  to the ‘urgency and beauty’ of writing nonfiction, and to refreshing ways of engaging in cross-cultural dialogue. ‘The thrilling thing about nonfiction is its awkwardness,’ writes Carlin.

Francesca’s workshop, Writing the Mother (Tongue), began with a line from Australian–Filipino writer Merlinda Bobis, ‘Be with the body. Here find the tongue.’ – and questions about how do you ‘write the mother’ – thinking here of our own mothers (flesh and blood), our ‘mother land’ (place), mother tongue (voice)? What sort of courage do you need to muster? How does the imagination fit in? Both workshops allowed participants to test their ideas and find their own material – by writing, experimenting and playing – and gave ample time for sharing their work with each other.

More information about AP Writers and the Reaching the World 2013 conference can be found at http://apwriters.org