Asia Creative Writing Programme

Settings grow differently when they come from somewhere you actually are. So, what world would you build if you turned to your own history, land, language, the things only you could put on a page? 📝

Nnedi Okorafor calls hers Africanfuturism. Africanjujuism. A history, land, language and belief grown from her own, not borrowed from anyone else's tradition.

✨ Join Nnedi's masterclass to learn how to build a world that knows itself from the inside out. Don't wait, seats are filling up fast!

🎟 Visit www.bit.ly/acwpday26 for full programme and ticketing details.

We did the math and tbh, it's a little embarrassing for us oops. 🙈

Add up what a day at ACWP Practitioners Day would cost if you bought each piece on its own, and you're at a whopping $140. (Yes, we've done the research 👀)

But guess what? 𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 $𝟒𝟓 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. $23 if you're a student, NSF, or 55 and up. For that, you'll be in good company with fellow writers and literary lovers, plus the squad we've flown in: Cathy Park Hong, Nnedi Okorafor, Amanda Eke and Joseph Scapellato. That's a goal in our books. 🥅

Saving $95?! In this economy?! WHY NOT?
🎟 Visit www.bit.ly/acwpday26 for full programme and ticketing details.

What is the definition of a writer? Who gets to define a writer? If you’ve been told you’re not a real writer until you’re published, then sit in this conversation. 📝

The industry often equates legitimacy with a book contract, but where does that leave the (experienced) writer without one? As publishing models evolve, so too does the meaning of authorship. O Thiam Chin, Charlene Shepherdson and Yeow Kai Chai challenge the assumption that publication is the only marker of credibility, asking whether craft, consistency, and contribution can stand without a bound spine. This session will be moderated by Khoo Sim Eng.

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘆 ☀️
✦ Opening panel with Cathy Park Hong, Marylyn Tan and Kamal Al-Solaylee
✦ This session, plus another panel of your choice
✦ Masterclass with Nnedi Okorafor, The Write Match or workshop with Amanda Eke
✦ Exclusive tote bag, notebook and sticker set, with coffee and tea provided

🎟️ Tickets at bit.ly/acwpday26
General admission SGD 45 · Concession SGD 23 (terms and conditions apply)

Ever been told to keep your voice down? 𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝑻𝑼𝑹𝑵 𝑰𝑻 𝑼𝑷 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑪𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒚 𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝑯𝒐𝒏𝒈 📣

Some voices arrive with passion and conviction intact. Others get handed a volume dial and told to keep it low. Loudness, it turns out, has little to do with yelling and everything to do with whose voice gets to count. Join Cathy Park Hong to consider what it means to claim that volume as an identity rather than a liability, and how a voice, pitched right, stops being noise and starts to mean something. Hosted by Michelle Martin.

Leave with a sharper sense of your own register, and fewer apologies for it. 😉

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘆 😱
✦ Opening panel with Cathy Park Hong, Marylyn Tan and Kamal Al-Solaylee
✦ This session, plus another panel of your choice
✦ Masterclass with Nnedi Okorafor, The Write Match or workshop with Amanda Eke
✦ Exclusive tote bag, notebook and sticker set, with coffee and tea provided

🎟️ Tickets at bit.ly/acwpday26
General admission SGD 45 · Concession SGD 23 (terms and conditions apply)

Get in, we're writing (and hugging) it out. 𝐉𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐩𝐡 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐬 𝐀𝐂𝐖𝐏'𝐬 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫!

Drafting a novel can feel like a very long conversation with yourself, but it doesn't have to be. Novelist Joseph Scapellato is here to change that in 𝑷𝒍𝒐𝒕 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒔 & 𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒑 𝑯𝒖𝒈𝒔: 𝑨 𝑵𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒍 𝑺𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒑. Work in groups. Expect practical craft and interactive exercises. You'll generate new pages on the spot. And you'll figure out what your project really needs: craft, community, or a blend of both. Walk out with sharper instincts and a small but mighty network writing alongside you.

𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫 // Share your ideas, gain fresh insights. Book a one-on-one mentoring session with novelist Joseph Scapellato for conversation and expert guidance on your writing journey. No drafts needed as this isn’t a manuscript critique, so just bring your curiosity.

Joseph is also appearing at the 𝐀𝐂𝐖𝐏 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐲! Visit www.linktr.ee/acwp for Joseph's programmes and registration details, and tickets to the ACWP Practitioners Day.

𝔸𝕓𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕁𝕠𝕤𝕖𝕡𝕙 𝕊𝕔𝕒𝕡𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕒𝕥𝕠
Joseph is the author of the novel The Made-Up Man and the story collection Big Lonesome. He directs the Stadler Center for Poetry and Literary Arts at Bucknell University, where he's an Associate Professor of creative writing, and is Editor-in-Chief of the national literary magazine West Branch. Originally from the western suburbs of Chicago, he lives in Lewisburg, PA, with his wife and children.

The magic 8 ball has been consulted. 😱 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝟏𝟐 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐂𝐖𝐏 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 !! (ok we used to be called Conference but why not switch it up) 🥳

We’re throwing out the safe bet and questioning the default at this year’s ACWP Practitioners Day with the theme, “𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝑵𝒐𝒕?” A question that teases, taunts, and tantalises every writer to go beyond easy answers, join us in knocking down doors of tired tropes and colouring outside the lines. When the riskiest bet is the only one worth making, and black and white doesn’t mean grey, the question reigns supreme: why not?

✨ Tickets now available at www.bit.ly/acwpday26!

Concession available for students, NSFs and senior citizens. Terms and conditions apply.

Key Visual by Kristal Melson🔥

ACWP Practitioners Day 2026 | Asia Creative Writing Programme ACWP Practitioners Day 2026

Pinch us. 𝐂𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐠 will be teaching a masterclass with us !!! (We’ll give you a moment.) And if you’re thinking “is that all for Cathy?!”... NO IT’S NOT. Keep your eyes peeled next week 👀 (Hint: ACWP Practitioners Day 2026 is almost here 😭)

Some feelings get filed under “minor.” But what if they’ve been seriously miscatalogued? In this masterclass, Cathy Park Hong shows how shame, rage, and the emotions we’ve been told are too ugly, too untelegenic, too minor are often the ones doing the most interesting work on the page. The instinct may be to ice them. But see what happens when you don’t.

✨ Visit www.bit.ly/mc-cph into your browser for full programme and ticketing details. Limited seats, first come first served! ✨

About Cathy Park Hong ☀️
Cathy Park Hong is an award-winning poet, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the author of Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. She is a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her poems have been published in Poetry, The New York Times, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, The Boston Review, and other journals. She is the poetry editor of the New Republic and full professor at the Rutgers University-Newark MFA program in poetry.

Skin deep won’t do. Three authors go deeper. 📝

There’s a version of yourself the world reads off you. And then there’s the one you’re still figuring out. Because race and identity are never just skin deep. They sit in memory, in language, in the stories we’re handed long before we begin telling our own. Jess Row, Mysara Aljaru, and Max Pasakorn explore how literature dismantles stereotypes and challenges assumptions, and unpack what it takes to write past the surface. Session will be moderated by Kristian-Marc Paul.

🧴This programme is free with registration, and is co-presented with the Singapore Book Council.

✨ Visit www.bit.ly/pe-jr for full programme and registration details.

Fiction, race, and the uncomfortable questions in between. Let’s get into it. 𝗝𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗥𝗼𝘄 is ACWP’s next Visiting Writer! ✍️

What does power mean in a post-human world, where AI, robotics, and other technologies keep eroding the line between “us” and “them”? Join Jess Row in the workshop series 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐂𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐈 𝐁𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮? 𝐅𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 to explore works that unsettle our sense of what a character can be, engage in exercises in character creation and manipulation, and workshop short stories with a special focus on characterisation and the intrusions of contemporary technology.

𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫 // Share your ideas, gain fresh insights. Book a one-on-one mentoring session with author Jess Row for conversation and expert guidance on your writing journey. No drafts needed as this isn’t a manuscript critique, so just bring your curiosity.

✨ Visit www.linktr.ee/acwp for Jess Row’s programmes and registration details.

𝘼𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙅𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙍𝙤𝙬
Jess Row is the author of two novels, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘌𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩 and 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘍𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘦, an essay collection, 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘍𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴: 𝘙𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘍𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘐𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, and three short story collections, most recently 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺𝘬𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘦. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Paris Review, n+1, The New York Times, and Kyoto Review, among others. He began his teaching career at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in the 1990s and now teaches creative writing at New York University.

Some of the most compelling women in literature aren't entirely human. Femme Fatales. Witches. Monsters. And maybe that's exactly the point. Because in the hands of the right storyteller, the "monstrous feminine" becomes something far more complex than just a scare.

Join Marjorie Liu (Monstress, X-23, Black Widow), Wen-yi Lee (The Dark We Know) and Meihan Boey (The Formidable Miss Cassidy) in I'm In Love With Momoks: Romancing The Monstrous Feminine as they explore how horror and speculative fiction can celebrate, vilify, and subvert the best and worst of the female experience. Till death do us part... NOT!

✨Visit www.bit.ly/pe-ml for programme and registration details!

This programme is co-presented with our good friends over at Difference Engine, and is part of You Think You Know? Think Again!, a programme series by ACWP that pushes you out of your comfort zone, confronts your blind spots, and challenges assumptions on subjects you thought you had figured out. (Don’t worry, we’re all learning here!)