Literary Arts, Open Call

Write for This Is Southeast Asia

Organised by: This Is Southeast Asia
  • Date:
    20 Aug 2021 - 20 Aug 2022
  • Admission:
    Submit via email
  • Advisory:
    Open to residents of Singapore aged 16-40.

Synopsis:

This Is Southeast Asia launches at the end of 2021. We will publish literary non-fiction by Southeast Asian writers under 40. Our aim is to paint a fine-grained portrait of the everyday lived experiences and attitudes of young people across the ASEAN region.

We're pleased to issue an open call for submissions from young writers in Singapore.

We want you to write a first-person essay focussed on a place - any place you know well, anywhere in Singapore. It can be an entire neighbourhood, district or suburb. It can be a university campus or restaurant, a place of worship or patch of nature, an office, street, park, dorm, shop, school, bus, beach, apartment complex, home, etc. We will be most interested in essays about places where different people meet, where various elements of society come together. We will be looking for deft use of first-person narration: more than 'objective' descriptions of places, we're interested in peoples' own perceptions of and interactions with places.

Submissions are open to residents of Singapore aged 16 to 40 – as well as Singaporean citizens we're keen to hear from migrant workers and international students. Currently we can only accept essays in English and Bahasa Indonesia, though we hope to add more languages in future. Submissions may be any length up to 2,000 words. A modest payment will be given, calculated at the equivalent of 10 Singapore cents per word. There is no final deadline: we will be accepting writing from Singapore well into 2022.

Send either a pitch or a full article to editor@thisissoutheastasia.com.

Poster image by @dolorezhase.

Write for This Is Southeast Asia


advertisewithus

UPCOMING EVENTS