Singapore Unbound is a New York City-based non-profit literary arts organization dedicated to freedom of expression and equal rights for all in Singapore and abroad. It organizes cultural events and publishes books through the Gaudy Boy press. [1] The organization is led by its founder and noted Singaporean author Jee Leong Koh. [1]
Every other year, the organization hosts the Singapore Literary Festival in New York City, which celebrates the work of Singaporean authors and connects the literary community in the United States and to that in Singapore. There is also often a theater component to the festival. Singapore Unbound has partnered with New York University and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop to put on the event in the past. [2] In between festivals, Singapore Unbound hosts the Second Saturdays Reading Series, a monthly event that consists of a featured writer, an open reading, and a potluck. [3] Past writers include Vijay Seshadri, Madeleine Thien, Min Jin Lee, Gina Apostol, Dale Peck, Monique Truong, Jericho Brown, Naomi Novik, Chinelo Okparanta, Martha Cooley, Dan Feng Tan, Amanda Lee Koe, and Jeremy Tiang. [4]
The Singapore Unbound Fellowship awards a writer from Singapore a two week residency in New York City and an honorarium once a year. Previous winners include Nur Sabrina Binte Dzulkifli, [5] Jason Soo, and Ally Chua. [6]
In addition to community building efforts, the organization strongly advocates for freedom of expression through protests and written work. [7]
Singapore Unbound has also organized a relief fund for writers in Singapore during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. [8]
PEN America, founded in 1922, and headquartered in New York City, is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise awareness for the protection of free expression in the United States and worldwide through the advancement of literature and human rights. PEN America is the largest of the more than 100 PEN centers worldwide that together compose PEN International. PEN America has offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.
The World Book Capital (WBC) is an initiative of UNESCO which recognises cities for promoting books and fostering reading for a year starting on April 23, World Book and Copyright Day. Cities designated as UNESCO World Book Capital carry out activities with the aim of encouraging a culture of reading in all ages and sharing UNESCO’s values. The nomination does not provide a financial prize.
The literature of Singapore comprises a collection of literary works by Singaporeans. It is written chiefly in the country's four official languages: English, Malay, Standard Mandarin and Tamil.
Cyril Wong is a poet, fiction author and literary critic.
The Jewish Book Council, founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature. The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of quality English language books of Jewish content in North America". The council sponsors the National Jewish Book Awards, the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, the JBC Network, JBC Book Clubs, the Visiting Scribe series, and Jewish Book Month. It publishes an annual literary journal called Paper Brigade.
The Asian American Writers' Workshop is a New York-based nonprofit literary arts organization founded in 1991 to support Asian American writers, literature and community. Cofounders Curtis Chin, Christina Chiu, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, and Bino A. Realuyo created AAWW because they were searching for New York City community of writers of color who could provide support for new writers.
Alvin Pang was named 2005 Young Artist of the Year (Literature) by the National Arts Council Singapore. He holds a First Class Honours degree in English literature from the University of York and an Honorary Fellowship in Writing from the University of Iowa's International Writing Program (2002). In 2020, he was awarded a PhD in Writing from RMIT University, and appointed to the honorary position of Adjunct Professor of RMIT University in 2021. For his contributions, he was conferred the Singapore Youth Award in 2007, and the JCCI Foundation Education Award in 2008. He is listed in the Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry in English.
The PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature is an annual week-long literary festival held in New York City and Los Angeles. The festival was founded by Salman Rushdie, Esther Allen, and Michael Roberts and was launched in 2005. The festival includes events, readings, conversations, and debates that showcase international literature and new writers. The festival is produced by PEN America, a nonprofit organization that works to advance literature, promote free expression, and foster international literary fellowship.
The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America." Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc., the foundation is the administrator and sponsor of the National Book Awards, a changing set of literary awards inaugurated in 1936 and continuous from 1950. It also organizes and sponsors public and educational programs.
Litquake is San Francisco's annual literary festival. Originally named Litstock, the festival events took place in a single day in Golden Gate Park in the spring of 1999. It now has a two-week run in mid-October, as well as year-round programs and workshops.
Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organizations in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The organization publishes a bi-monthly magazine called Poets & Writers Magazine, and is headquartered in New York City.
The Loft Literary Center is a non-profit literary organization located in Minneapolis, Minnesota incorporated in 1975. The Loft is a large and comprehensive independent literary center and offers a variety of writing classes, conferences, grants, readings, writers' studios and other services to both established and emerging writers.
The Singapore Writers Festival is a literary event organised by the National Arts Council. Inaugurated in 1986, the festival serves a dual function of promoting new and emerging Singaporean and Asian writing to an international audience, as well as presenting foreign writers to Singaporeans.
Jeffery Renard Allen is an American poet, essayist, short story writer and novelist. He is the author of two collections of poetry, Harbors and Spirits and Stellar Places, and four works of fiction, the novel Rails Under My Back, the story collection Holding Pattern a second novel, Song of the Shank, and his most recent book, the short story collection “Fat Time and Other Stories”. He is also the co-author with Leon Ford of “An Unspeakble Hope: Brutality, Forgiveness, and Building A Better Future for My Son”.
Lorene Cary is an American author, educator and social activist.
PEN Center USA was a branch of PEN, an international literary and human rights organization. It was one of two PEN International Centers in the United States, the other being the PEN America in New York City. On March 1, 2018, PEN Center USA unified under the PEN America umbrella as the PEN America Los Angeles office. PEN Center USA was founded in 1943 and incorporated as a nonprofit association in 1981. Much of PEN Center USA's programming continues out of the PEN America Los Angeles office, including the Emerging Voices Fellowship, PEN In The Community writing residencies and guest speaker program, and PEN Presents conversation series.
Joshua Ip is a Singaporean poet, and writer.
The Vancouver Writers Fest is a non-profit organization that produces a variety of literary events in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Its main event is the Vancouver Writers Fest, which is an annual week-long literary festival held on Granville Island, Vancouver in late October. Writers from Canada and abroad attend the festival to perform readings, interviews and panel discussions. The organization also runs the Incite reading series in the spring and the Spreading the Word schools program year-round.
Book fairs and literary festivals are held throughout South Africa each year to promote literacy among children and adults. A country's literacy rate is often a key social indicator of development. In 2005, UNESCO Institute for Statistics reported a literacy rate of 94.37% among the population aged 15 years and older. The literacy rate among the male population in this age group was 95.4% and 93.41 for female counterparts. According to Statistics South Africa, functional illiteracy among those aged 20 years or older, was recorded at 15.4% in 2005. This has improved from 2002's 27.3%. Women are more likely to be functionally illiterate across all age groups, apart from those aged between 20 and 39 years old.
Topaz Winters is the pen name of Singaporean writer Priyanka Balasubramanian Aiyer.