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Writing in Asia Series was a series of books of Asian writing published from 1966 to 1996 by Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd (often referred to as Heinemann Asia), a subsidiary of
Heinemann Heinemann may refer to: * Heinemann (surname) * Heinemann (publisher), a publishing company * Heinemann Park, a.k.a. Pelican Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States See also * Heineman * Jamie Hyneman James Franklin Hyneman (born Se ...
, London. Initiated and mainly edited by Leon Comber, the series brought attention to various Asian Anglophone writers, like
Shirley Geok-lin Lim Shirley Geok-lin Lim (born 1944) is an American writer of poetry, fiction, and criticism. Her first collection of poems, ''Crossing The Peninsula'', published in 1980, won her the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, a first both for an Asian and for a ...
, Western writers based in Asia like
Austin Coates Austin Coates (1922–1997) was a British civil servant, writer and traveller. He was the son of noted English composer Eric Coates. Austin Coates wrote extensively on topics related to the Asia-Pacific region, particularly Hong Kong and Macau. ...
and
W. Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...
and modern and classic stories and novels in English translation from the
Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...
,
Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...
,
Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...
and more. The series is also credited with contributing prominently to creative writing and the creation of a shared regional identity amongst English-language writers of
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
. After publishing more than 110 titles, the series folded after Heinemann Asia was taken over by a parent group of publishers and Comber left.


History

Inspired by the successful and pioneering
African Writers Series The African Writers Series (AWS) is a collection of books written by African novelists, poets and politicians. Published by Heinemann (publisher), Heinemann, 359 books appeared in the series between 1962 and 2003. The series has provided an int ...
, Leon Comber, the then Southeast Asian Representative of Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., founded the series as its general editor in 1966 in Singapore. Comber thought a similar series focussing initially on Southeast Asia was worth pursuing to "give a tremendous boost to creative writing in English...which was still regarded then as something of a cultural desert". He also wanted to publish the "tremendous body of local writers writing in their local languages" across the entire Asia in English translation "to make it available to a wider reading public" as he felt that existent publishers only focussed on their individual countries. Buoyed by the profits made from textbook publishing, the series first published '' Modern Malaysian Chinese Stories'' in 1967. The anthology, whose stories were edited and mainly translated into English by Ly Singko with a foreword by
Han Suyin Rosalie Matilda Kuanghu Chou (; 12 September 1917 or 1916 – 2 November 2012) was a Chinese-born Eurasian physician and author better known by her pen name Han Suyin (). She wrote in English and French on modern China, set her novels in East an ...
, sold moderately, but Ly was to be detained without trial shortly after by the Singapore authorities under the
Internal Security Act Internal Security Act may refer to: * Internal Security Act 1960, former Malaysian law *Internal Security Act (Singapore) * McCarran Internal Security Act, a United States federal law *Suppression of Communism Act, 1950, a South African law, rename ...
for supposed "Chinese chauvinism". The series met with commercial success a decade later when two reprinted
Austin Coates Austin Coates (1922–1997) was a British civil servant, writer and traveller. He was the son of noted English composer Eric Coates. Austin Coates wrote extensively on topics related to the Asia-Pacific region, particularly Hong Kong and Macau. ...
books in the series, ''
Myself a Mandarin A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that refers to another noun or pronoun (its Antecedent (grammar), antecedent) within the same sentence. In the English language specifically, a reflexive pronoun will end in ''-self'' or ''-selves'', and re ...
'' (1977, c.1968) and '' City of Broken Promises'' (1977, c.1960), became bestsellers. The former was also serialised by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, broadcast on
Radio Hong Kong Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service in Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econom ...
and had its film rights sold, while the latter was adapted into a play at the 1978 Hong Kong Festival of Arts. Other commercially successful titles were Tan Kok Seng's autobiography '' Son of Singapore'' (1972), which sold over 25,000 copies, and
Catherine Lim Catherine Lim Poh Imm (, born 21 March 1942) is a Singaporean fiction author known for writing about Singapore society and of themes of traditional Chinese culture. Hailed as the "doyenne of Singapore writers", Lim has published nine collectio ...
's short-story collection '' Little Ironies: Stories of Singapore'' (1978), which sold 8,000 copies. By 1988, about 15 titles in the series were used as supplementary textbooks in Singapore schools, guaranteeing sales in the thousands. Significantly, as part of the series, Australian
Harry Aveling Harry Aveling (born 1942 in Sydney) is an Australian scholar, translator and teacher. He specialises in Indonesian and Malaysian literature, and Translation Studies. He received the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy in Malay Studies from the Natio ...
translated
Pramoedya Ananta Toer Pramoedya Ananta Toer ( EYD: Pramudya Ananta Tur) (6 February 1925 – 30 April 2006) was an Indonesian author of novels, short stories, essays, polemics and histories of his homeland and its people. His works span the colonial period under Dutc ...
's novel '' The Fugitive (Perburuan)'' (1975, c.1950) and Iwan Simatupang's novel '' The Pilgrim (Ziarah)'' (1969) from the
Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...
to English. ''The Pilgrim'' is considered the first modern Indonesian novel and won the first ASEAN Literary Award for the novel in 1977. The series also met with critical acclaim when
Shirley Geok-lin Lim Shirley Geok-lin Lim (born 1944) is an American writer of poetry, fiction, and criticism. Her first collection of poems, ''Crossing The Peninsula'', published in 1980, won her the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, a first both for an Asian and for a ...
's debut collection '' Crossing The Peninsula & Other Stories'' (1980) won the
Commonwealth Poetry Prize The Commonwealth Poetry Prize was an annual poetry prize established in 1972, for a first published book of English poetry from a country other than the United Kingdom. It was initially administered jointly by the Commonwealth Institute and the Nat ...
, a first both for an Asian and for a woman. The series also published the debut titles of pioneering Singapore poets like
Edwin Thumboo Edwin Nadason Thumboo B.B.M. (born 22 November 1933) is a Singaporean poet and academic who is regarded as one of the pioneers of English literature in Singapore. Thumboo graduated in English from the University of Malaya in 1956. Although he ...
and
Lee Tzu Pheng Anne Lee Tzu Pheng (born May 13, 1946) is a Singaporean poet. She has five volumes of poems to her name; of these, the first three, ''Prospect of a Drowning'' (1980), ''Against the Next Wave'' (1988) and ''The Brink of An Amen'' (1991) were winne ...
. In 1982, however,
Charles Cher Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...
, the then General Manager of Heinemann Educational Books, confirmed that the series had stopped publishing poetry because of poor sales. In 1985, after publishing more than 70 titles, Comber left the series after Heinemann Asia was taken over by a parent group of publishers. In retrospect, Comber notes that in business terms, Heinemann made "very little" from the series, though it neither lost much, with textbook publishing sales subsidising the series. The series continued until around 1996, resuming publishing poetry and diversifying its focus beyond literary fiction to ghost stories. Some Writing in Asia series titles have since been republished by other companies, like
Lloyd Fernando Lloyd Fernando (31 May 1926 – 28 February 2008) was a Malaysian author and professor at the University of Malaya in the English Department. Life Lloyd Fernando was born to a Sinhalese family in Sri Lanka in 1926. In 1938, his family migrate ...
's novel ''
Scorpion Orchid ''Scorpion Orchid'' is a novel by Malaysian author Lloyd Fernando, first published by Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) in 1976 under the Writing in Asia Series. The novel is set in Singapore in the 1950s. It was re-published by Epigram Books in ...
'' (1976) by
Epigram Books Epigram Books is an independent publishing company in Singapore. It publishes works of Singapore-based writers, poets and playwrights. History Epigram was originally set up in 1991 by Edmund Wee as a design agency. Epigram began the publish ...
in 2014.


List of authors and books in the Writing in Asia Series


See also

*
African Writers Series The African Writers Series (AWS) is a collection of books written by African novelists, poets and politicians. Published by Heinemann (publisher), Heinemann, 359 books appeared in the series between 1962 and 2003. The series has provided an int ...
*
List of Malaysian writers The following is a list of writers living or residing in Malaysia ordered by their first name. This list includes writers of all genres and in any language. This is a subsidiary list to the List of Malaysians. A *Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir (179 ...
* List of Indonesian-language poets


References

Series of books Heinemann (publisher) books