Courses

The South East Asian Uncanny

with Sharlene Teo

This workshop explores the Asian Gothic and the Asian uncanny in Southeast Asian contemporary fabulist fiction. Participants will look at what is fabulism from a Southeast Asian perspective – where notions of superstition and superstitious figures are culturally distinct in Singapore and Malaysia.
Unfortunately, we are full!

Registrations for this course are now closed but do join our mailing list here to be updated on future courses like this.

Summary

Course code: ST2

3  workshops of 3 hours each

For Intermediate to Advanced Writers

Limited places available

Selective entry – we’ll offer places to writers who show promise

Dates

3 sessions on:

  • 24 July 2022, Sunday
  • 31 July 2022, Sunday
  • 6 August 2022, Saturday

2 to 5 pm

No partial sessions accepted

Venue

24 July:
National Library Board
100 Victoria Street
Singapore 188064

31 July and 6 August:
Prime 53
53 Mohamed Sultan Road Singapore 238993

Overview

In these workshops, participants will explore the Asian Gothic, the Asian uncanny and Southeast Asian contemporary fabulist fiction. Participants will look at how to integrate the uncanny in short fiction or a novel, uses of the uncanny, adaptations of existing myths, and finally editing.

Week 1: What is the Asian Gothic? What is the Uncanny? What is fabulist fiction? Does genre matter? What’s at the heart of ghost stories, and why do they matter to you?

Week 2:  You’ll be asked to research and prepare 1-2 SE Asian myths to bring to class with you. Combining mythology and aspects of the contemporary/everyday to craft a short story or beginning of a novel. Where to start, how to go about it.

Week 3: Thematic codas; borrowing from cinema; editing and refining.

Learning Outcomes

After completion of this course,

  1. Participants will develop their creative ability to generate stories/manuscript ideas to do with the Asian uncanny.
  2. Participants’ writing will be improved via peer critique and workshop guidance.
  3. Participants will emerge as more attentive readers and better editors.

Please note particiants are required to attend all 3 workshops.

Who should register?

Fiction Writers including:

  1. Intermediate Writers — Writers who have chosen to pursue writing as a full time or part time career with a serious, professional intent but who are not yet published with a mainstream or recognised independent publisher, or
  2. Advanced Writers — Writers who have published at least one book with a mainstream or recognised independent publisher, and/or published in at least one literary journal and/or anthology

Participants will be selected by the Visiting Writer with assistance from the Asia Creative Writing programme. A waiting list will be maintained.

Registration and Pricing

Course Prerequisites

To sign up, please register at the link above with the following documents:

  1. A 500 word writing sample
  2. A short summary of your writing project of ~100 words
  3. A short biography of ~100 words

If you have registered with us before, you may send the same information again with an updated bio.

Course Fees

  • For 3 workshops:
    • $110 for adults
    • $30 for students, unemployed, low income migrant workers
  • Free for undergraduates from Singapore tertiary institutions
  • Non refundable if cancellation 2 weeks or less before course starts
  • Please email us if financial assistance is needed

About Sharlene Teo

Sharlene Teo’s debut novel Ponti was published by Picador and Simon and Schuster in 2018. Her work has been translated into eleven languages and featured in places such as the Guardian, the TLS, LitHub, Granta and Vogue. She completed an MA in Prose Fiction and a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of East Anglia. She lectures at the University of Kent and lives in London.

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