Given the massive crowds at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival, India’s and the world’s largest free literary event, its sister event BookMark is a relatively sedate. But, for my money, BookMark is a better investment if you’re an emerging writer.

The Jaipur BookMark Festival, organized by the same crowd who organize the main festival, is held on the lawns of the Narain Niwas Palace. This is an upscale heritage hotel built in the 1920s in an Anglo-Indian style. It’s only a 10-15 drive from the lovely Diggi Palace where the main festival is held, but it’s a world away in atmosphere.

Some people, when they realized this wasn’t where they were going to see the festival’s superstars —Margaret Atwood, Steven Fry and the pantheon of other greats—turned tail and headed away.

But BookMark, which was held only for the second year, is where the who’s who of the worlds publishing industry gathered. This is where you could meet publishers, literary agents, literary event organisers, and other heavy hitters who are the faces behind the books we read.

Australian publishers Alice Grundy or Giramondo Publishing, Anna Mouton/ Mahabala Bokks, and Jeanne Ryckmans, Black Inc Books after the Penguin party in Jaipur.

The event was opened by the chairman of Penguin Random House (new York), John Makinsons, who a couple of nights later hosted a Who’s Who in the Publishing Industry cocktail party, at the fabulous Rambagh Palace, now a super-luxurious Taj hotel. Yes, Jaipur is full of fabulous palaces.

Because the numbers were relatively low at BookMark, I asked festival director Neeta Gupta whether the event is open for general participation. To me, this is an ideal time and place for the festival to host publisher/agent pitching events, one-on-one consultations with industry professional, and other events that enable emerging authors to take advantage of the talent.

“BookMark is indeed open for general participation,’ Neeta assured me. “But, given the exclusivity of the heritage venue where we host the event, we didn’t see much general footfall this year. I hope to change that in the coming year.”

Sanjoy Roy, Festival Producer (of both the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival and Jaipur BookMark) greeting guests on day one.

If you’re thinking of heading to the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival in the future, and if you’re already involved in the publishing industry, you can buy a ticket that includes BookMark, including lunches and dinners. Or you can by a BookMark registration only, which includes lunch on the lawns of the Narain Niwas Palace and dinner at Clarks Hotel with the other festival delegates. Participation for students and ‘aspiring authors’ is free. Or it was this year. “I would love to host a workshop with emerging writers and agents,” said Neeta.

So, there you have it. Opportunity awaits. Finding a publisher who will give you a profile in the Asian market is the way of the future. Asia boasts the world’s fastest growing middle class. Asia is where tomorrow’s readers will be.

Jane Camens, founder of Asia Pacific Writers & Translators Inc (APWT), was hosted to India by the Australia-India Council in her capacity as co-editor of ‘New Asia Now’, issue 49 of Griffith Review.  Jane joined a group of Australian publishers and literary festival organisers on an Indian Exploratory hosted by the Australia Council for the Arts.

 For more information on  Asia Pacific Writers & Translators go to: apwriters

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From left to right: Lisa Walker, Jane Camens, Helen Burns and Jessie Cole

For the past ten years Jane Camens has lived in the Northern Rivers but her work has taken her all over Asia organizing the annual conferences for the Asia Pacific Writers and Translators conference.  This year, she writes, it’s taking place in the Philippines in October.

It’s a wonderful thing to be able to work from my home in the Northern Rivers and yet bring together writers—established and emerging— with literary translators, publishers, agents, and teachers of creative writing in different cities around Asia.

Last year, working with Singapore’s National Book Council, we held the event in that city’s grand old Parliament House, now called The Arts House. And I was delighted that, for the first time, writers from the Northern Rivers – Jessie Cole, Lisa Walker, Helen Burns and Victor Marsh— were able to be part of the event. They joined me with about 150 others from Asia and beyond, for four culturally fascinating – and fun – days.

Jessie Cole (author of Darkness on the Edge of Town and Deeper Water), wrote afterwards that it: ‘gave me my first international platform in which to share my work’ and that it was also ‘really lovely to be exposed to different works from around Asia.’

Lisa Walker, whose books to date include Archie’s Pilgrimage to the New Big Thing; Sex Lies and Bonsai, and Liar Bird, wrote: ‘Mixing with such an eclectic and talented group of writers from around the region is highly addictive.’ She chaired several panels, including one which asked what writers can do when their novel gets stuck. On the panel were Tim Tomlinson (co-founder of the New York Writers Workshop, and co-author of its popular text, The Portable MFA in Creative Writing), Nury Vittachi, author and humorist from Hong Kong, and Filipino/Australian author Merlinda Bobis. Walker shared the hot tips: ‘Tim says read around the topic, Nury says set yourself a deadline and Merlinda says dance!’

Dance, sing, eat, drink and laugh is what the writers do, particularly at the social events and book launches, getting to know each other and the work of writers from around our greater geographical region. This year in the Philippines won’t be different, if I know my Filipino friends, our hosts, who are renowned for their ability to enjoy themselves.

Nury Vittachi, an author and humourist from Hong Kong at the APWT conference.

These events aren’t ‘conferences’ in the academic sense, although they started that way when APWT began as an initiative at Griffith University. Apart from panels on which writers talk to themes relevant to their writing, there are readings, chances for writers to launch new books (some of them self published), and master classes in writing and editing workshops with mentors from some of the best creative writing schools in the world.

Many of the same people, and a lot of newcomers, register each year. Not only have friendships developed but also the writers offer each other new platforms to promote their work. It’s not unusual, for instance, for invitations to come in afterwards for attendees to appear in festivals in India, Tahiti, Indonesia and even the World Literature Festival in the UK.

Some of the authors I know are coming this year include Sri Lankan born author Romesh Gunesekera (curtsey of the British Council); Robin Hemley who runs NonFiction Now (an initiative of the Creative Non Fiction at the University of Iowa); Xu Xi who started the low residency MFA in Creative Writing at City University Hong Kong (in which some writers from the Northern Rivers have enrolled); Dai Fan who runs an English language creative writing unit in China; Nick Jose who is one of Australia’s foremost spokespeople on engagement with Asia, and Filipino-Australian author and performer Merlinda Bobis. It’s possible that you haven’t heard of these authors, but that is the point. APWT brings the literatures of Asia and the Pacific to wider readerships. The Australian book market is comparatively very small; not big enough to support many fulltime writers. (The slogan of the APWT, and our new online magazine LEAP Plus—developed with the help of the Verandah Magazine team—is ‘Taking Writers Further’.)

I do this because it’s a passion of mine. I lived in parts of Greater China (Hong Kong, Shanghai and Macau) for around 15 years and felt isolated from a writing and English-language publishing culture until, with Nury Vittachi, I started Asia’s first annual literary festival that showcased writing (in English) from and about Asia. The Asian literary scene has changed hugely since 2001 when that first festival was run. Now, literary agents and publishers are keen to hear the voices of Asian writers with new ways of showing us the world we live in.

Most people who come to APWT conferences organize their own funding, either through universities, arts bodies, or they self fund. I can apply for limited funding from the Arts Council, the Copyright Agency Ltd, and sometimes the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which together last year paid for about 11 Australians to go to Singapore. I ask for funding for a range of authors, always including one or more indigenous Australian authors, Asian-Australian writers, and writers whose work speaks of engagement with Asia.

APWT’s conference this year is titled ‘Against the Grain: Dissidence, Dissonance, and Difference in Asia-Pacific Writing and Translation’, and will take place in Manilla between October 22-25. It will be hosted by several of the universities, and will be led by the University of the Philippines and the Book Council.

Details of the event will be available on the APWT website soon after my return. (apwriters)A teaser about the event is up on LEAP+: leap-plus.com/manila

If you’re interested in what happened at our conference last year in Singapore, there’s a wrap up of the conference on our website here:  apwriterswrap.up.

Jane Camens is Executive Director of Asia Pacific Writers & Translators. She is currently co-editing an issue of Griffith Review entitled ‘New Asia’, published in August this year.

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David Stirling and Adam Rodwell with (front row left to right) their employee-trainees, Mex Po, Channa Cheiv, Vanna Van and Piseth Say. Photograph: Jane Camens

When David Stirling and his partner Adam Rodwell booked an ‘add-on’ to Cambodia for their holiday to Singapore, little did they know it was going to open up a major life-change writes Jane Camens.

It’s not exactly your typical tree or sea change swapping suburban Brisbane in order to run a  café and hair-dressing school in Siem Reap – and it all happened because of a $19 budget airfare, David and Adam told me when I ran into them on a recent trip to Cambodia when our Belgian resort host recommended we stop in at The Little Red Fox for what he said was “the best coffee in Siem Reap’s new trendy district”. It’s where he goes each morning for his coffee fix.

The reccomendation was too good to ignore.  When we got to the café, which was everything we were told it would be,  we were keen to find out how and why two Aussies had decided to start a cafe, having arrived in Cambodia just for a short holiday.

The Little Red Fox’s affogatto made with gourmet coffee ice cream direct from the Glass House Park Hyatt.

Adam, 27, had never travelled far beyond Brisbane’s north and south coasts before David, 29, gave him a budget airline ticket to Singapore with a $19 add-on option to fly to one of half a dozen destinations in Asia. They chose Cambodia – a country neither of them knew nothing anything about.

Their plan was to start the holiday in Siem Reap and travel around the country. Somehow though, the journey never eventuated.  They stopped in Siem Reap – and that was that. When I dropped in for coffee, apart from getting to know Siem Reap – gateway to the astounding UNESCO World Heritage site Angkor Wat – inside out, they still hadn’t seen much more of Cambodia than a nearby village, Anlung Pi.

Anlung Pi is a garbage dump which is home to many families. It’s also the home of a non-government organisation called Volunteer Development Children’s Association (VDCA) which works with children who live on and scavenge for survival among the garbage.

The VDCA offer free education in Khmer, English and morality studies to over 300 children from the Anlung Pi village and rubbish dump.

“We spent some time with VDCA which helps get kids off the dump and into education,” says David. The experience changed them both. “For me, being here is about the Cambodian people,  they’ve had such a difficult time for so long, missing all the benefits of modernization. They are sponges for any kind of information and new skills that can further their country and give them a hand. It’s about giving Khemers chances they wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

Both David and Adam realized their skills were transferable and could make a difference to some of the local young people. Adam had worked at Era Bistro in South Brisbane and teaches  café skills, David, who is an award-winning hair stylist, continues to work with children in Anlung Pi helping with basic head and scalp hygiene.

Their café, and a hair salon that David was in the process of opening upstairs, are employing and training young locals both in hospitality skills and hair styling. They don’t pay a fortune but they are serious about the training. They advise their small staff that if they’re offered a better job they should take it.

The café does indeed serve good coffee, thanks to Adam’s insistence they use ‘real’ milk, as opposed to UHT, endemic in cafés throughout the town.  “I whinged about David buying tickets to a place I’d never heard of,” he says, horrified now at his former ignorance of Cambodia and its people.

The Little Red Fox Espresso shopfront in Hup Guan Street.

They live above their coffee shop in Hup Guan Street.  The area was recently named Kandal (meaning ‘centre’) Village. Or simply ‘The Village’, according to another expat shop owner across the road, a former New York graphic designer the owner of the cool designer men’s wear shop Trunhk. The boys pay $700 a month to their French-Vietnamese landlord and have a five-year lease on the property with first option to renew which makes it an affordable as well as an interesting lifechange.

For information about the inspiring Volunteer Development Children’s Association project, go to vdca-cambodia

Find The Little Red Fox Espresso on thelittleredfoxespresso

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