The 2012 Southeast Asian Writers Award (SEA Write Award), in collaboration with Asia Pacific Writers & Translators Association (AP Writers), will present an international writers' and translators' summit entitled "Reaching the World", and a series of author showcases at Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Building, the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University from Nov 5-6.
"Reaching the World" is Bangkok's first international festival for writers and translators, bringing together authors from around Asia and the Pacific to share their work in conjunction with one of Asia's longest-running and most prestigious literary events, the SEA Write Award.
The two-day summit, initiated by AP Writers, brings together about 80 authors, literary translators, publishers, emerging writers, literary scholars and others from some 20 countries.
They include 15 participants from Australia, five participants from nearby Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia, as well as writers from Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sweden, UK, USA and Thailand.
The summit has been designed to look at the value of literary prizes in escalating an award winner's career and also perhaps as recognition of the writer's ability to capture some essence of community or national identity.
It will also discuss the importance of quality literary translations to gain writers the global readerships they deserve.
The summit will be opened by Prof Pirom Kamolratanakul, president of Chulalongkorn University. The special guest speaker kicking off the discussion of literary prizes is Australian author Matthew Condon, who has fought to reinstate the major literary prizes in Queensland after recent government cutbacks resulted in them being axed.
Other special guest speakers and participants include Daniel Hahn from the British Centre for Literary Translation, Prof Edmund Thumboo, 1979 SEA Write award winner from Singapore, Harold Stephens, and Simon Winchester, who was the 2012 SEA Write Awards keynote speaker.
A number of poets and writers will also showcase their work at readings in SaSa International House, Chulalongkorn University.
The full list of readers and speakers is available at http://bit.ly/RgHHk5.
The registration fee for the two-day summit is 1,600 baht per person. Call 02-659-9000 ext Public Relations.
