About Writers Connect

Our Vision

To build a strong, active and supportive literary community in Singapore by facilitating regular events for writers and the general public.

Our Objectives

1) To form Writers Circles for informal self-work shopping in the following genres:

• Prose – Fiction and Non-Fiction
• Scriptwriting – Film, TV and Theatre
• Poetry
• Song/Hip Hop/Musical Writing

2) To provide an opportunity to hear from local and visiting international writers, scholars, publishers, editors and literary professionals

3) To provide networking opportunities for writers in Singapore

4) To put in place mentorship programme for budding writers

5) To hold open mic/talks/readings on literary, book trade, craft issues and other related topics for writers and general public

Writers Connect Meetings

Day: 2nd and 4th Thursday

Time 7pm to 9.30pm

Venue: The Earshot Cafe, The Arts House @ Old Parliament House.

Annual Membership: $10 only

Benefits: 15% discount on F & B at the Earshot Café for members only

Entry: FREE! All are welcome! Published writers, Observers, New and Budding Writers (Please bring along 6 copies of your work for feedback purposes)

Registration: chris@wordforward.org Tel: 91011844

2006 Season

2nd & 4th Thurs of every month
May 25
June 8
July 13
Aug 10
Sept 14
Oct 12
Nov 9
Dec 14 Xmas party/open reading No meeting

Archive: 2004-2005

The Talks Series

Intellectual Property
How do writers protect their work? What is included in a copyright. (For instance, ideas as such are generally not recognized as covered under IP.) What royalties should accrue for the use of their work? How do they track down those who are using their works illegally? What recourse do they have if someone uses their work without permission.

Getting Published in Singapore - What Do Publishers Really Want (and How Can We Give It To Them)?
What gets published these days and why? The exigencies of the current market. What route should a writer go - small press or big house? How can writers judge the market for their work.

Our Daily Bread - Is It Possible To Survive As A Writer in Singapore?
The classic question - how does a writer earn a living by doing what s/he loves to do or needs to do? How much do writers need to compromise to earn a significant readership? Can it even be done here in Singapore.

If We Had World Enough and Time - When Can I Write?
How can writers who have to earn their bit of crust with another job manage to do the serious writing they need to do? How to balance the demands of family, friends, job- and writing? Is their a best time for writing a bad for writing, when creativity flows more or less freely?

Authors and Editors - The Agony & The Ecstasy
What is the role of the editor, his tasks and what should be her/her limits. What's a good - and bad - writer-editor relationship. How can you achieve the former?

Men Writing For Women, Women Writing For Men
Do men still not get it, and are there really 'guys' things" that women can never plug into? Is there a female sensibility, a male sensibility and how can writer's understand and address these? Can that gender gap be successfully crossed by writers and how so?

What Can I Say? And How Can I Say It?
The eternal writer's question of form and content. Today, in Singapore, what can writers write about and how can they give it the best literary presentation? This discussion will touch on the obvious question of censorship, but will go much beyond that. Does content dictate form, can weak ideas be overcome by strong writing, do ideas even exist outside of their expression? Also, can a poor style be overlooked in the light of brilliant themes and characters, a la Dostoyevsky and Theodore Dreiser.

Taking Reality By The Horns
How can writers deal effectively with present-day realities. Has reality outpaced the imagination? Are there some subjects that are indeed too big for creative literature? Also, can writers change opinions, make a difference. Or is the writer's task, as a Kurt Vonnegut character once put it, simply "to describe blow jobs artistically"?

Self-Publishing - A Tunnel To Wider Recognition or A Dreary Dead-end?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing? What are the different ways of going the self-publishing route? What are the costs involved of the various ways to self-publish.

The Writer's Life - Myths & Reality
At least since the early 19th century (and probably a little earlier), the figure of the bohemian artist has provided a major template for writers and the general public. How real is this figure? Are writers really more sensitive than others. Do we have to suffer for our art? Are the best writers inevitably moody, passionate, mercurial, ultimately doomed to unhappiness? How do lifestyle and creativity play upon each other?

Between You and Me - What Audience Are We Writing For?
I think it was F. Scott Fitzgerald who once said an author should write for the young of his generation, the critics of the next generation, and the teachers of every generation thereafter.

So who do we write for? Is it largely for ourselves, or do we have to keep some target audience in mind? How much do we have to bend and shape our personal to reach that target audience. How can we know what segment of the reading public will be our own audience? Furthermore, once we have targeted an audience, how can we be assured that we'll reach that group?

The Written Word, The Spoken Word

Are there texts written only to be read, others mainly to be spoken or performed? How does the acceptance of one category or another influence how and what a writer can write? Should all authors be better readers of their work?

Guests List

• Mark O’Connor (Australian poet and naturalist)
• Lydia Kwok ( Canadian-Singaporean novelist/poet)
• Dina Roma and Danton Remoto (Philippines)
• Prof Edwin Thumboo
• Phillip Jeyratnam