RMIT University’s non/fictionLAB is proud to partner with Mekong Review to commission a new series of short, collaboratively-written literary works or criticism (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, comics work, book reviews etc) for publication in forthcoming issues of the international publication.

Mekong Review, under the managing editorship of Kirsten Han, is a quarterly English-language magazine of arts, literature, culture, politics, the environment and society in Asia, written by people from the region or those who know it well. From its founding in 2015 by Minh Bui Jones, its aim has been to provide a fresh perspective: one that covers Asian histories, lives and cultures through emerging regional voices. Its approach is close to that of publications like the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books—that is, basing its writing around new publications of interest—but its view is distinctly Asian. Contributors are requested to please familiarise themselves with the content and style of Mekong Review.

In line with the publication’s position as a cosmopolitan and free press in Asia, this series will examine the notions of space and place through creative exchange and collaboration between writers from Australia and SE Asia. Questions that these pieces might consider/respond to include: What are the pressing conversations or exchanges we might have today about space, place, home, housing, belonging and/or unbelonging? How do writers understand and/or represent place and space? How does the politics of place inform our writing/art? What kinds of spaces do we create through writing? What opinions do we share or differ on regarding space/place phenomena? How might we approach the writing of place together from our respective positions?

Works will be commissioned IN PAIRS but published as a single work. We would like one writer to be based in Australia and one in the SE Asia region. You might like to discuss and debate a book, cocreate a poem, story or comic, review one another’s books, interview one another, or anything in between or beyond! It is up to you to choose your writing companion and approach.

There will be up to EIGHT works commissioned. Prose: 1000-1200 words; 50-60 lines poetry; comics up to half a page (dimensions W 24.96 x H 16.74 cm).

How to submit your EOI:

Interested contributors need to submit:

• 150-word abstract articulating the form and nature of the intended work
• Bios for each author
• A piece (or excerpt) of writing by each contributor in the form (e.g. fiction, review, poem)proposed in the abstract (or similar sample of writing).

Please submit the above to both Sree Iyer sreedhevi.iyer@rmit.edu.au and Kirsten Han kirstenhan@mekongreview.com by 20 January 2024. Decisions on abstracts will be made by first week of February 2024, and final pieces will be due on a rolling basis as negotiated with Mekong Review. *

*Please note that the first issue in the series (May) has a deadline of 20 March for final pieces. Please indicate in your submission if you would be able to make that deadline.

Industry-based writers (ie non-salaried practitioners without university affiliation) will be paid for their work.