Projects & Programmes
MANUSCRIPT BOOTCAMPWelcome to hell. The 2025 edition of Manuscript Bootcamp (Poetry) will re-open for applications in Mar 2025.
Writers often crave feedback, but lack access to a diverse selection of credible sources. Workshops are great for soliciting thoughts on individual pieces, but it's often difficult to oblige someone (and the correct someone at that) to read your entire manuscript.
Open to submissions on an annual basis, Sing Lit Station's Manuscript Bootcamp is an intensive editorial programme that gathers writers, editors, literary academics and publishers together to critique and workshop a handful of the best manuscripts that Singaporean writers have to offer. Put through days of thorough analyses and feedback from industry professionals, the manuscripts are then revised and edited by the author. What happens next is entirely up to the author, after being given access to the support system formed during the Bootcamp.
Previously managed by Sing Lit Station’s core team, Manuscript Bootcamp is now under the purview of its publishing arm, AFTERIMAGE, as a way to source manuscripts, identify talent and function as an annual gathering place for the literary community. The programme alternates between poetry and prose submissions every year, with poetry manuscripts being received on odd-numbered years (e.g. 2023, 2025, etc.), and prose manuscripts being received on even-numbered years (e.g. 2024, 2026, etc.). Our submissions window traditionally takes place within the first quarter of every year.
The following editions of Manuscript Bootcamp have taken place over the years:
2024 (Nonfiction) / 2023 (Poetry) / 2022 (Prose) / 2021 (Poetry) / 2020 (Prose) / 2019 (Poetry) / 2018 (Prose) / 2017 (Poetry) / 2016 (Prose) / 2015 (Poetry) ↓
Manuscript Bootcamp 2024 (Nonfiction)
We’re switching things up. The fifth edition of our prose-centric Manuscript Bootcamp is entirely focussed, this time, on the production of creative nonfiction in Singapore. Rather than solicit manuscripts of creative nonfiction, we’re also gonna use Bootcamp to seed new manuscripts and to prioritise the imparting of skills and knowledge from experienced practitioners to junior, aspiring nonfictionists.
Our Bootcampers are expected to attend four workshops held in late Jul / early Aug 2024; generate four essays, approx. 2,500 words each, over the month of Aug 2024; and to receive critique from our esteemed lecturers over four follow-up workshops conducted in late Sep 2024. Meals at the start and middle of our programme were attended by guests Chan Lishan, Charmaine Leung, Daryl Li and publishers from Epigram Books and Ethos Books. We offered four places to the following writers in Singapore to participate in Manuscript Bootcamp 2024 (Nonfiction): Ada Cheong, Don Shiau, Euginia Tan and Varsha Sivaram.
Our Finalists
Ada Cheong is a Singaporean writer, academic and activist. She received her PhD from the University of Exeter, and has worked in communications for a variety of NGOs. Driven by the inequalities of global warming, she now advocates for migrant workers with TWC2 and teaches about environment and culture at NTU. Her manuscript-in-progress is Small island speculations in a warming world.
In mid-life, Don Shiau is an occasional writer, an accidental humourist, and a still-aspiring musician. He is active in Singapore’s online and spoken-word poetry communities, and won the first prize in the inaugural National Poetry Recitation Competition (English, Open Category) in 2023. His manuscript-in-progress is My Twenty Names.
Euginia Tan is a Singaporean writer who writes poetry, creative non-fiction and plays. She enjoys cross-pollinating art into multidisciplinary platforms and reviving stories. Contact her at eugtan@hotmail.com. Her manuscript-in-progress is My Father's Clients.
Varsha Sivaram is a writer and the co-editor of What We Inherit: Growing Up Indian. Their writing can be found in publications including Esplanade’s Offstage, the National Gallery’s Perspectives Magazine and Rice Media. Their manuscript-in-progress is Gum.
Our Selection Process
Applicants to Manuscript Bootcamp 2024 (Nonfiction) had to submit a literary CV, and a portfolio of materials comprising a book proposal with accompanying writing sample (max. 5000 words) and a 1,000-word essay written in response to an excerpt from Boey Kim Cheng’s essay “Something Fine”, collected in his seminal essay collection Between Stations (2009):
After comparing the merits of Moroccan hash to the Indian variety, the talk settles on the idea of home.
“So where would you spend the rest of your life, if you had to call a place home?” Mark looks at Suzanne, who with her long dark hair, finely detailed face, bronze sheen and sensuously slim body seems like somebody he would like to spend the rest of his life with.
“Home, my parents’ village in Sussex. Haven’t been back for a few years now. My dad is a baker, makes really beautiful bread. Been thinking about going back to help him.” A shade of disappointment shows in Mark’s face.
“For me, anywhere but my parents’. I would stay forever in Leh, Ladakh, if possible. It’s paradise, you know.” Rudy has spent a year researching Ladakhi customs, inspired by Andrew Harvey’s A Journey in Ladakh. His English is accentless, the heavy German tone shed in years spent travelling and working overseas.
Anita, a Swedish poet with the Chinese words for love and endurance tattooed on her arms, says, “I want to go back to Oaxaca, so different from Sweden. Everybody knows everybody there. The children laughing, they have the most beautiful faces. And the colours they were, it makes you happy to be there.”
Adam, an American Japanese, says, “Tokyo, if I didn’t feel so excluded at times. I was born in San Francisco, grew up in Boston and Honolulu and then it occured to me that maybe my real home is Japan. So I’ve spent the last three years teaching English there. It’s been good but I do miss something. When they hear my Japanese, that’s when I realise I don’t quite belong.”
“How about you, Mark?”
“Right here, right now. This is home, the present. Now.”
It is my turn. I tell them about Singapore, about the walks my father took me on, how walkable it was, the city, the different quarters, the beautiful buildings. How things changed in the late 70s, the fever of developments erasing what to me was a very unique place, a place where different races and cultures had come together and built whole streets and districts that reflected this meeting and blending. I realise it is the first time I have spoken about the longing for the places in my childhood, the places that held for me the few happy memories of my father. Perhaps these vanished places are vital to me because of my father; my memories of our being together are welded to them. Now that I have reached the furthest point on my journey away from home, and prepare to take up a new life in a new country, I am able to confess my love for the country I have lost. Maybe never had. Would it be home for me, if things were to revert to the way they were?
Our applicants were selected internally, solely based on the overall excellence and promise of their portfolio; we also ensured that two-thirds of our finalists comprised writers who were either unpublished or who had yet to publish a full-length manuscript in the genre. In the case of Manuscript Bootcamp 2024 (Nonfiction), this amounted to one published writer within a cohort of four, chosen out of a longlist of 8 writers that included Olivia Tong, Pamela Ho, Ruo Wei Lim and Stephanie Chan.
Our Lecturers
Our four esteemed lecturers are uniquely tasked in the following fields of creative nonfiction writing: memoir; investigation; criticism; and place / travel writing. They are visual artist and writer Tania De Rozario, author of Dinner on Monster Island (Harper Perennial, 2024); Kirsten Han, managing editor of the Mekong Review; essayist and critic Cher Tan; and the Singapore Australian poet Boey Kim Cheng, author of the essay collection Between Stations (Giramondo, 2009), and winner of the 2023 Kenneth Slessor Prize For Poetry.
Boey Kim Cheng is a Singapore Australian poet who has taught creative writing at the University of Newcastle and Nanyang Technological University. He is the author of the novel Gull Between Heaven and Earth (2017) and the essay collection Between Stations (2009). He won the Kenneth Slessor Prize For Poetry in 2023 for his collection, The Singer And Other Poems, published in 2022.
Cher Tan is an essayist and critic. Her work has appeared in Hyperallergic, Catapult, Runway Journal, Cordite Poetry Review and Overland, amongst many others. She is an editor at Liminal and the reviews editor at Meanjin. Her debut essay collection, Peripathetic: Notes on (Un)belonging is out with NewSouth Publishing in May 2024.
Kirsten Han is Managing Editor of Mekong Review, a quarterly Asia-focused literary magazine. She also runs We, The Citizens, a newsletter covering Singapore from a rights-based perspective. Her first book, The Singapore I Recognise: Essays on home, community and hope, was published by Ethos Books in 2023.
Tania De Rozario is a visual artist and writer. Her recent essay collection, Dinner on Monster Island, (Harper Perennial, 2024), has been described as “sharp and searing” (Ms. Magazine), “unique” (Publishers Weekly), “a book with resonance” (Kirkus Reviews), "taut and riveting" (LA Times), "elegant", "droll" and "magnetic" (British Columbia Review).
Our Submission Criteria →
On matters of content:
All applicants must submit, as part of their portfolio, a 1,000-word essay (+/- 10%) written in response to an excerpt from Boey Kim Cheng’s essay “Something Fine”, collected in Between Stations (2009) (see description above).
All applicants must also submit, as part of this portfolio, a book proposal with an accompanying sample of creative writing. While there is no minimum word count, this proposal cannot exceed 5,000 words (+/- 10%), must be situated within the genre of creative nonfiction (see rule 1.3), and should contain at minimum:
a working title;
a description / abstract of the project’s creative aims and objectives;
an envisioned list of chapters / essays;
a sample of writing from the above list of chapters / essays (see rule 1.2.3.).
We are looking for the following examples of creative nonfiction, following submission guidelines for the Singapore Literature Prize, administered by the Singapore Book Council: literary criticism, biographies, memoirs, personal essays and travel writing. We will not accept cookbooks, self-help manuals, travel guides, academic studies, business books, commentaries or textbooks. The work should be accessible to the general reading public and not intended for a specialised or academic readership.
Only 1 submission per person is allowed, and submissions must be authored by a single person. Samples of creative nonfiction should be in English, although nonstandard usage and inclusions of other languages are welcome. Translated work will not be read.
On matters of format:
Portfolios should be in a single paginated .doc / .docx file (not .pdf), Times New Roman pt 12, single-spaced.
While we do not require your CVs to be formatted in a specific way, do ensure that information is laid out in a clear and legible manner.
On matters of eligibility:
Manuscripts submitted before 1 Apr 2024 and after 30 May 2023, 2359 hours will not be considered for the Bootcamp.
Participants must be physically present for the Bootcamp for all stipulated dates (see Important Dates below).
Participants will have to declare if (i) they are a writer who have at least one full-length work of creative nonfiction published / due to be published, and (ii) if they are a previous Manuscript Bootcamp finalist. Participants will thus be expected to provide a supporting CV that includes their name, NRIC, address, contact details, job / occupation history, and all past publication details / literary endeavours. Any inconsistences / falsehoods / deliberate omissions caught by the programme organisers will face automatic disqualification.
Board members and employees of Sing Lit Station, as well as their immediate families and the immediate families of the organisers, are ineligible to apply for Manuscript Bootcamp. Past Manuscript Bootcamp finalists will also not be allowed to re-submit past manuscripts, however reworked / revised.
All works are to be submitted via our Submittable page. Participants will be required to acknowledge Sing Lit Station and Manuscript Bootcamp in their work if their manuscript is eventually published.
Important Dates
1 Apr to 30 May, 2359 hours: Submissions open
3-4 Jul: Announcement of Bootcamp finalists
28 Jul: Welcome Lunch; Workshop (“Criticism”)
3-4 Aug: Workshops (“Memoir”, “Investigation”, “Place”)
30 Aug: Submission of assignments to programme organisers
31 Aug: Check-in Coffee
28-29 Sep: Follow-up Workshops
The Manuscript Bootcamp 2024 (Nonfiction) organiser was Sing Lit Station Managing Editor Daryl Qilin Yam.
Manuscript Bootcamp 2023 (Poetry)
In the fifth edition of Manuscript Bootcamp (Poetry), six finalists will have their work critiqued by a selection of Singapore’s most preeminent and influential poets. As always, Bootcamp will take place over an intense weekend, designed to take our finalists through the stages of (poetic) revision, thinking through core aspects of poetic technique while also learning to identify the through-lines of their poetry collections.
In an aim to make our programme more inclusive, we will be making certain provisions to the way we run Manuscript Bootcamp. First, we will continue to allow longlisted applicants to sit in, observe and participate in the weekend’s activities. Second, while we will not turn away published writers or previous Bootcamp finalists from submitting to Manuscript Bootcamp, we will ensure that two-thirds of our finalists will always comprise writers who are either unpublished or who have yet to publish a full-length manuscript; in the case of Manuscript Bootcamp 2023 (Poetry), this will amount to four of such writers out of our expected total of six.
The 2023 edition of Manuscript Bootcamp was open for submissions of poetry manuscripts from 15 Mar to 14 May, 2359 hours, for a Bootcamp on 1-3 September featuring poets and publishers Cyril Wong, Pooja Nansi, Daryl Lim Wei Jie, Yong Shu Hoong, Tse Hao Guang, Yeow Kai Chai, Andrew Sutherland, Melizarani T Selva, Goh Eck Kheng, Ng Kah Gay and special guest Aaron Maniam. After an initial longlist of 12 writers was announced, the following 6 writers were our finalists for Manuscript Bootcamp 2023 (Poetry): Cheng Him, Christian Yeo, Conan Tan, Dianne Araral, Natalie Wang and Sher Ting.
Our Finalists
Cheng Him is from Singapore. Their work explores form and language, and has been featured in Strange Horizons, QLRS, The Kindling, Tiger Moth Review, among others. They are part of the writing group known as the ATOM Collective. Their manuscript-in-progress is titled Boh Beh Zhao.
Christian Yeo is a writer based in Singapore. His work has been published in The Mays and Gaudy Boy's New Singapore Poetries, among others; it won the Arthur Sale Poetry Prize, placed 2nd for the Aryamati Poetry Prize, and was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. Find him at christianyeo.com. His manuscript-in-progress is titled Carcasses of Light.
Conan Tan (he/they) is a queer Singaporean Chinese writer. Their poems have been published or are forthcoming in Rattle, HAD, Beaver, SUSPECT, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, and elsewhere. The winner of Singapore's 2022 National Poetry Competition, he is matriculating at Oxford University this fall. Their manuscript-in-progress is titled Hurricane Boys.
Dianne Araral is a trans ecolesbian from the Philippines, currently teaching social science at the National University of Singapore. You can find their work on Tiger Moth Review, Literary Hub, and the Fragmentary Institute of Comparative Timelines. They were also a volunteer urban farm worker with Food to Power, ecojustice organization in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and a former organizer of local trans-/queer-led nightlife collective, BussyTemple. Their manuscript-in-progress is titled ARCHIPELA-GOLD.
Natalie Wang is more likely to play video games or write novel-length fanfictions than write poetry, but still insists on calling herself a poet. She has been published in Fairy Tale Review, Cordite Poetry Review, Corvid Queen, Strange Horizons, Cartridge Lit, and Quarterly Literary Review Singapore. You can find her at www.nataliewang.me. Her manuscript-in-progress is titled Why Are You Haunted.
Sher Ting is a 2023 Kenyon Review Winter Workshop participant with work published/forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, Salt Hill and elsewhere. Her debut chapbook, Bodies of Separation, is published with Cathexis Northwest Press (USA) and second chapbook, The Long-Lasting Grief of Foxes, is forthcoming with Mouthfeel Press (USA). She tweets at @sherttt and writes at sherting.carrd.co. Her manuscript-in-progress is titled The Miracle of the Setting Sun.
Our Judges
Our longlisted participants for Manuscript Bootcamp 2023 (Poetry) were: Cheng Him, Christian Yeo, Conan Tan, Dianne Araral, Hao Yang Yap, Jonathan Chan, Laili Abdeen, Laura Jane Lee, Natalie Wang, Nicholas Quek, Sher Ting Chim and Winifred Wong.
Their manuscripts were judged by a panel of three esteemed poets: Grace Chia, author of over 10 books; Samuel Lee, winner of the 2018 Singapore Literature Prize for A Field Guide to Supermarkets in Singapore; and 2023 DAAD artist-in-Berlin fellow Nhã Thuyên.
Grace Chia is a prolific author of multiple genres. Her published books include poetry collections, womango, Cordelia, and Mother of All Questions; a short story collection, Every Moving Thing That Lives Shall Be Food; three novels, The Arches of Gerrard Street, White Cloud Mountain, and The Wanderlusters; and two nonfiction titles.
Samuel Lee’s most recent poetry collection, A Field Guide to Supermarkets in Singapore (Math Paper Press, 2016), was the winner of the 2018 Singapore Literature Prize for Poetry in English. He works across art history and literature, with a special interest in visual cultures of the 19th century.
Nhã Thuyên was born in Vietnam and works as a writer and an editor in Hà Nội. Her most recent books are un\ \martyred: [self-]vanishing presences in Vietnamese poetry (2019) and moon fevers (2019). She has been talking to walls and soliloquies some nonsense when having no other emergencies of life to deal with. Her book of poetic poetry vị nước (taste of water) has been waiting to see the moon.
Our Submission Criteria
On matters of content:
All participants must submit a manuscript of at least 20 poems or 20 pages (for long poems / sequences) in order to be considered. Only 1 submission per person is allowed, and submissions must be authored by a single person. While there is no maximum length, our invited judges and panellists will not be obliged to read beyond 25 poems / pages.
All genres of poetry that can be represented as text will be accepted, including but not limited to epic poetry, prose poetry, concrete poetry / text-based art, textual transcription of performance poetry, and found and other process-based work.
Manuscripts should also be titled and blurbed with a one-paragraph synopsis — this can either encapsulate your artistic intent or the content and flow of your poems.
Poems should be in English, although nonstandard usage and inclusions of other languages are welcome. Translated work will not be read.
On matters of format:
Manuscripts should be in a single paginated .doc / .docx file (not .pdf), Times New Roman pt 12, single-spaced, with each poem laid out on a separate page. Do clearly state if the manuscripts are to be laid out with a specific font and line spacing.
As manuscripts will be read blind by an external panel, writers’ names should be excluded from the manuscript. Judges with any conflict of interest will be asked to recuse themselves from assessing those manuscripts in question.
On matters of eligibility:
Manuscripts submitted before 15 Mar 2023 and after 14 May 2023, 2359 hours will not be considered for the Bootcamp.
Participants must be physically present for the Bootcamp from the evening of 1 Sep to 3 Sep 2023.
Participants will have to declare if 1) they are a writer who have at least one full-length poetry collection published / due to be published, and 2) if they are a previous Manuscript Bootcamp finalist. Participants will thus be expected to provide a supporting CV that includes their name, NRIC, address, contact details, job / occupation history, and all past publication details / literary endeavours; any inconsistences / falsehoods / deliberate omissions caught by the programme organisers will face automatic disqualification.
Board members and employees of Sing Lit Station, as well as their immediate families and the immediate families of the organisers, are ineligible to apply for Manuscript Bootcamp. Past Manuscript Bootcamp finalists will also not be allowed to re-submit past manuscripts, however reworked / revised.
All works are to be submitted via our Submittable page. Participants will be required to acknowledge Sing Lit Station and Manuscript Bootcamp in their work if their manuscript is eventually published.
Important Dates
15 Mar–14 May, 2359 hours: Submissions open
31 May: Announcement of longlisted participants
By 10 Jul: Announcement of Bootcamp finalists
1–3 Sep: Commencement of Bootcamp
The Manuscript Bootcamp 2023 (Poetry) organiser was Managing Editor Daryl Qilin Yam with assistance from manager Tamara Craiu and director Joshua Ip.
Manuscript Bootcamp 2022 (Prose)
In the fourth edition of Manuscript Bootcamp (Prose), four finalists had their works critiqued by some of Singapore’s best writers, editors, publishers and critics. Happening over an intense weekend, the Bootcamp gave them the space to rethink purpose, plot, emotional resonance, audience and more aspects as to what makes a book, a book. We encouraged them to take the leap, and to be prepared to give and receive thoughtful feedback in an environment with people who were as deeply invested in writing as they were.
Over the years, our judging panel had received stellar manuscripts that did not make the final selection; as such, longlisted applicants who were not chosen as finalists were also invited to observe the Bootcamp sessions with industry experts.
The 2022 edition of Manuscript Bootcamp was open for submissions of prose manuscripts from 1–30 May, for a Bootcamp on 26–28 August. After an initial longlist of 8 writers were announced, the following 4 writers were announced as our finalists for the 2022 edition of Manuscript Bootcamp: Mohamed Shaker, Ng Yi-Sheng, Yap Shi Quan and Steven Justin Sy.
Our Finalists
Mohamed Shaker is a Singaporean writer based in Singapore. He holds an MA in Creative Writing from LaSalle College of the Arts. Currently an educator, his writing explores how Singapore and Singaporeans continue to live with and in their past in the present. His manuscript-in-progress is a novel titled Rewang.
Ng Yi-Sheng is a Singaporean poet, playwright, fictionist, researcher and activist with a deep interest in Southeast Asian history and myth. He is the author of the science fiction and fantasy collection Lion City, which was developed under Sing Lit Station’s Manuscript Bootcamp 2016 (Prose), and which later received the Singapore Book Awards Best Literary Work 2019, Singapore Literature Prize for English Fiction 2020. His website is ngyisheng.com, and he tweets and Instagrams at @yishkabob. His manuscript-in-progress is a novella titled TOYOL: Baby’s Breath.
Yap Shi Quan is an aspiring writer. He experiences backache frequently from playing games, watching shows, staring at a blank Word document, or all together at once. His works have appeared in Singapore Unbound and QLRS. His manuscript-in-progress is a collection of stories titled We Were Here All Along.
Steven Justin Sy (he/him) is a Filipino writer currently living and working in Singapore. In September 2021, he published his debut fantasy novel, Vacant Steppes, with Balestier Press. He primarily writes fantasy and is particularly invested in queering the genre of fantasy, but he also dabbles as a playwright, having staged Tiwala: A Musical, a musical he co-wrote and co-directed, at Yale-NUS College earlier this year. His manuscript-in-progress is a novel titled My Lady Hiraya.
Our Judges
Our longlisted participants for Manuscript Bootcamp 2022 (Prose) are: Benedict Lim, Clara Mok, Joelyn Yep, Larnchana Alehandra, Mohamed Shaker, Ng Yi-Sheng, Shi Quan Yap and Steven Justin Sy. Our final list of participants will be decided by a panel of writers comprising: Clarissa Goenawan, Daryl Qilin Yam and Yeo Wei Wei.
Clarissa Goenawan is an Indonesian-born Singaporean writer. Her award-winning short fiction has appeared in literary magazines and anthologies in Singapore, Australia, Japan, Indonesia, the UK, and the US. Rainbirds, her first novel, has been published in eleven different languages.
Daryl Qilin Yam (b. 1991) is a writer, editor and arts organiser from Singapore. He is the author of the novella Shantih Shantih Shantih (2021), shortlisted for the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize, and the novel Lovelier, Lonelier (2021), the Singapore nominee for the 2023 International Dublin Literary Award.
Yeo Wei Wei (b. 1973) is a writer, translator and educator. She has twenty years of experience in teaching, and has worked with students at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Literature and Creative Writing were her areas of specialisation at SOTA, NUS and NTU. In 2017 she graduated with Distinction in her MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) from the University of East Anglia. She was awarded the National Arts Council Postgraduate Scholarship in 2016 to pursue the MA. She also holds a PhD in English from the University of Cambridge. Her latest books are translations and transcreations of Soon Ailing’s short stories, titled Diasporic (2023) and Clan (2022).
Our Submission Criteria →
The following genres are open for consideration: short story collections; novellas; novels; long-form creative non-fiction works.
The suggested submission length is 20,000 words. Manuscripts that fail to meet the length might be disqualified, and much longer ones may not be read or workshopped beyond 20,000 words. Incomplete works meeting the suggested length will still be accepted.
Manuscripts should be titled and blurbed with a one-paragraph synopsis (containing either a plot summary, "elevator pitch" or a description of artistic intentions).
Manuscripts should be in a single paginated .doc / .docx file (not PDF), Times New Roman pt 12, double spaced, with each new chapter or short story laid out on a separate page.
As manuscripts will be read blind by an external panel, writers’ names should be excluded from the manuscript. Judges with any conflict of interest will be asked to recuse themselves from assessing those manuscripts in question.
Manuscripts must be in English, although nonstandard usage and minor meaningful inclusions of other languages are welcome. Translated work is not accepted.
Manuscripts must be original, and authored by a single person.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed. Please inform us as soon as your manuscript has been accepted elsewhere for a prize, fellowship, other award, or publication.
With the easing of COVID-19 regulations, we hope to hold a fully physical Bootcamp in Sing Lit Station’s office from the evening of 26 August through the weekend of 27 and 28 August.
All works are to be submitted via our Submittable page. Participants will be required to acknowledge Sing Lit Station and Manuscript Bootcamp in their work if their manuscript is eventually published.
Important Dates
1–30 May, 2359 hours: Submissions open
10 Jun: Announcement of longlisted participants
22 Jul: Announcement of Bootcamp finalists
26-28 Aug: Commencement of Bootcamp
Mid-Mar: Presentation of works
The Manuscript Bootcamp 2022 (Prose) organiser was Sing Lit Station Director Daryl Qilin Yam with assistance from managers Annika Mock and Tamara Craiu.
Manuscript Bootcamp 2021 (Poetry)
At Bootcamp, our finalists’ work were taken apart and put back together by established Singapore-based writers, editors, academics and critics. Writers with manuscripts of poetry were invited to submit.
After an initial longlist of 12 writers was announced, we’re pleased to announce that the following 6 writers will be our finalists for the 2021 edition of Manuscript Bootcamp: Adeline Loh, Anurak Saelaow, Kendrick Loo, Lean, Natalie Foo and Tricia Tan.
Our Finalists
Adeline Loh is a writer and recent graduate in Literature from Yale-NUS College. Her work has been published in anthologies and journals including SingPoWriMo 2018: The Anthology, sinθ and SPOONFEED. She can be found napping, cooking or knitting at home most of the time. Adeline’s manuscript-in-progress is titled In Every Place, a Reckoning.
Anurak Saelaow is a Singaporean poet and writer. His work has been published or is forthcoming in Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Hayden's Ferry Review, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Cultural Weekly, The Kindling, Ceriph, and elsewhere. He is the author of one chapbook, Schema (The Operating System, 2015), and holds a BA in creative writing and English from Columbia University. Anurak’s manuscript-in-progress is titled Sketchy Conjecture.
Kendrick Loo is the reviews editor for Singapore Unbound, a literary non-profit organisation facilitating cultural exchange between USA and Singapore. His poetry and reviews appear or are forthcoming in Sundog Lit, EcoTheo, The Hopper and fourteen poems, among others. He can be found on Twitter and Instagram at @stagpoetics. Kendrick’s manuscript-in-progress is titled Havens.
make art n cry lor, says Lean. Lean’s maunscript-in-progress is titled heart.
Natalie Foo Mei-Yi is a writer by profession. After studying literature, film and philosophy at a local university, she embarked on an eclectic series of jobs as a film reviewer, a police intelligence officer, a bartender, a creative copywriter, an architectural magazine editor, the writer-editor at a performing arts centre, and an arts writer. Now, she writes for a living and makes poetry and art in private, surrounded by kiddy clutter, 80s and 90s cassettes, sci-fi DVDs, a lifetime collection of books, and a hoard of shells, twigs and rocks gathered from nature trails. Natalie’s manuscript-in-progress is titled A Book of Small Phenomena.
Tricia Tan is an undergraduate medical student passionate about writing, community work and global health. Out of wards, she runs a global health podcast titled Morning Rounds and an online cookie shop. She serves actively in the community and her local church. Tricia’s manuscript-in-progress is titled Patient History.
Our Judges
After an initial longlist of writers was announced (including Chrystal Ho, Elizabeth Fong, Faye Ng, Jasmine Goh, Kimberley Chia and Low Kian Seh), a final list of 6 writers was selected to participate in Manuscript Bootcamp 2021 (Poetry) by an external panel of esteemed writers, comprising: Aaron Maniam, Pooja Nansi, Yeow Kai Chai.
Aaron Maniam's second collection of poems, Second Persons was published in August 2018. His first, Morning at Memory's Border (2005) was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize (2007) and contained poems that received the Golden Point Award (First Prize) for English poetry in 2004. He has mentored younger writers under the Ministry of Education's Creative Arts Programme and National Arts Council (NAC)'s Mentor Access Project.
Pooja Nansi’s latest and third collection of poetry We Make Spaces Divine was published in January 2021. Her previous collections include Stiletto Scars and Love is an Empty Barstool. She is also the co-founder of Other Tongues, a literary festival of minority voices and the current festival director of the Singapore Writers Festival.
Yeow Kai Chai is a poet, fiction writer, and editor. He has three poetry collections, One to the Dark Tower Comes (2020), Pretend I’m Not Here (2006), and Secret Manta (2001).
Our Submission Criteria
All participants must submit a manuscript of at least 20 poems or 20 pages (for long poems / sequences) in order to be considered. A small fee of AUD$5 (automatically converts to ~SGD $5.15) will be levied for all submissions. Only 1 submission per person is allowed, and submissions must be authored by a single person.
All genres of poetry that can be represented as text will be accepted, including but not limited to epic poem, prose poetry, concrete poetry / text-based art, textual transcription of performance poetry, and found and other process-based work.
Manuscripts should also be titled and blurbed with a one-paragraph synopsis—this can either encapsulate your artistic intent or the content and flow of your poems.
Manuscripts should be in a single paginated .doc / .docx file (not PDF), Times New Roman pt 12, single spaced, with each poem laid out on a separate page. Do clearly state if the manuscripts are to be laid out with a specific font and line spacing.
As manuscripts will be read blind by external readers, all identifying information should be excluded from the manuscript.
Poems should be in English, although nonstandard usage and inclusions of other languages are welcome. Translated work will not be read.
Participants must be physically present for the Bootcamp from the evening of 27 Aug to 29 Aug 2021. An additional fee of $100 ($50 for students) will be paid by each participant to cover logistical costs. Successful participants who need financial support may apply to the HALP Fund to cover this fee.
Do attach a CV separate from your manuscript that includes your name, NRIC, address, contact details, job / occupation history, and all past publication details / literary endeavours. Only Singaporean citizens or PRs are eligible to apply.
Manuscripts submitted before 16 April 2020 and after 30 May 2020, 2359 hours will strictly not be considered for the Bootcamp.
Board members and employees of Sing Lit Station, as well as their immediate families and the immediate families of the organisers, are ineligible to apply for Manuscript Bootcamp. Finalists of the previous editions of Manuscript Bootcamp (in 2015, 2017 and 2019) will also be ineligible.
All works are to be submitted via our Submittable page. Participants will be required to acknowledge Sing Lit Station and Manuscript Bootcamp in their work if their manuscript is eventually published.
This year’s Manuscript Bootcamp will feature post-Bootcamp process sessions to guide you in processing the feedback you received during the camp. These will occur between September 2021 - February 2022. The dates for these will be confirmed in consultation with the participants.
Important Dates
16 Apr–30 May, 2359 hours: Submissions open
Week of 1 Jun: Announcement of longlisted participants
Week of 16 Jul: Announcement of Bootcamp finalists
27–29 Aug: Commencement of Bootcamp
Sep–Feb 2022: Post-Bootcamp process sessions
The Manuscript Bootcamp 2021 (Poetry) organising team consists of alumni Ang Shuang, Joses Ho, Qamar Firdaus Saini and See Wern Hao with support and assistance from Sing Lit Station.
Manuscript Bootcamp 2020 (Prose)
Now that you have a manuscript bubbling in your hands, what are the next steps you can take to bring it closer to what you want it to be? How can you grow your practice as a writer? In Manuscript Bootcamp 2020 (Prose), we tackled these questions (and more) together with an entire host of established writers, editors, academics, agents and critics in our first ever digital Bootcamp.
Happening over an intense weekend, the Bootcamp allowed our participants the space to rethink purpose, plot, emotional resonance, audience and more aspects as to what makes a book, a book. They were encouraged to take the leap and be prepared to give and receive thoughtful feedback in an environment with people who were as deeply invested in writing as they were.
The 2020 edition of Manuscript Bootcamp was open for submissions of prose manuscripts from 1 Feb–22 Mar 2020 for a Bootcamp on 24–26 Jul 2020. Four writers were chosen to undergo the sixth edition of Bootcamp: Siang Choo; Weetee Neu; Norah Lea; Timothy Yeo.
Our Finalists
Siang Choo's two loves are learning and laughing. Oh, but she's also quite fond of her family, her friends, all things related to plants, cello music, eating ice-cream and James McAvoy. I guess the point she's trying to make is that she finds the world a fascinating and funny place, and she strives to capture some of this in her writing. Which, predictably enough, is often about plants and/or her family and friends, and is often done while listening to cello music and eating ice-cream. To her regret, she has not found a way to bring James McAvoy into this picture. Her manuscript-in-progress is a work of creative non-fiction titled East Coast Park.
Weetee Neu is a writer currently based in Singapore. He has been published in Petua: Reminiscing Grandmother Tales & Superstitions and Voxs.co. His manuscript-in-progress is a collection of short stories titled Ordainment.
Nor is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans across photography, film, video, performance, text and spoken word poetry. Rooted in self-portraiture, Norah engages with ideas of belonging and identity through frameworks such as gender performance, ethnographic portraits and the interweaving of transnational histories. Her manuscript-in-progress is a collection of short stories titled The Neosantara Chronicles.
Timothy Yeo is an IT professional by day, hopeless romantic by night. He ignores good advice and writes novels instead of short stories. He loves mala hotpot even though it leaves him in eternal pain. He insists anime is not just for children and makes hopeless recommendations. His life goal is to meet every different personality type in the world, and try to like at least half of them. Writing is not something he’s good at, but he’ll try his best. His manuscript-in-progress is a novel titled Festival Royale.
Our Judges
Eight writers were shortlisted for Manuscript Bootcamp 2020 (Prose): Siang Choo; Alice Huang Wijaya; Tam Lin; Weetee Neu; Norah Lea; Marcus Ong; HJ Pang; Timothy Yeo.
The above shortlist was whittled down to a final list of four Manuscript Bootcamp participants by an external panel of esteemed writers and industry fellows comprising: Bernice Chauly, Xu Xi and Yeo Wei Wei.
Bernice Chauly is an award-winning Malaysian novelist, poet and educator. She is the author of seven books of poetry and prose which include the acclaimed memoir Growing Up With Ghosts, and the novel Once We Were There, which won the Penang Book Prize 2017. An Honorary Fellow in Writing from the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program (IWP2014), she directed seven editions of the George Town Literary Festival which won the London Book Fair's 'International Excellence Awards' 2018. She is the founder of the KL Writers Workshop and is the first President of PEN Malaysia.
Xu Xi (許素細) is author of fourteen books. Her latest is This Fish is Fowl: Essays of Being (Nebraska, 2019). Other recent titles include the novel That Man In Our Lives (C&R, 2016), a memoir Dear Hong Kong: An Elegy for A City (Penguin, 2017) and Insignificance: Hong Kong Stories (Signal 8, 2018). As well, she is editor of four anthologies of creative writing and has a fifth title The Art & Craft of Asian Stories forthcoming (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020-21). She is the co-founder of Authors at Large, Inc., a partnership that hosts international writing retreats and offers editorial services, and is also a faculty co-director of The International MFA. An Indonesian-Chinese-American diehard transnational, she previously inhabited the flight path connecting New York, Hong Kong and the South Island of New Zealand. These days, she splits her life, unevenly, between the state of New York and the rest of the world.
Yeo Wei Wei (b. 1973) is a writer, translator and educator. She has twenty years of experience in teaching, and has worked with students at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Literature and Creative Writing were her areas of specialisation at SOTA, NUS and NTU. In 2017 she graduated with Distinction in her MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) from the University of East Anglia. She was awarded the National Arts Council Postgraduate Scholarship in 2016 to pursue the MA. She also holds a PhD in English from the University of Cambridge. Her collection of short stories These Foolish Things & Other Stories was published by Ethos Books in 2015.
Our Submission Criteria
The following genres are open for consideration: short story collections; novellas; novels; long-form creative non-fiction works.
The suggested submission length is 20,000 words. Manuscripts that fail to meet the length might be disqualified, and much longer ones may not be read or workshopped beyond 20,000 words. Incomplete works meeting the suggested length will still be accepted.
Manuscripts should be titled and blurbed with a one-paragraph synopsis (containing either a plot summary, "elevator pitch" or a description of artistic intentions).
Manuscripts should be in a single paginated .doc / .docx file (not PDF), Times New Roman pt 12, double spaced, with each new chapter or short story laid out on a separate page.
As manuscripts will be read blind by an external panel, writers’ names should be excluded from the manuscript. Judges with any conflict of interest will be asked to recuse themselves from assessing those manuscripts in question.
Manuscripts must be in English, although nonstandard usage and minor meaningful inclusions of other languages are welcome. Translated work is not accepted.
Manuscripts must be original, and authored by a single person.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed. Please inform us as soon as your manuscript has been accepted elsewhere for a prize, fellowship, other award, or publication.
In view of COVID-19, Bootcamp 2020 will be held entirely online, starting from the evening of 24 Jul and through the weekend of 25 and 26 Jul. A small fee will be paid by each participant to cover logistical costs.
All works were submitted via our Submittable page with a submission fee of 10 AUD. Do note that participants will be required to acknowledge Sing Lit Station and Manuscript Bootcamp in their work if their manuscript is eventually published. A follow-up session in 2020 / 2021 will also be organised; the date for this will be confirmed in consultation with the participants.
Important Dates
1 Feb – 22 Mar, 2359 hours: Submissions open
22 Apr: Announcement of shortlisted participants (infographic)
20 Jun: Announcement of Bootcamp participants
24–26 Jul: Commencement of Bootcamp
Early Aug: Presentation of works
The Manuscript Bootcamp 2020 (Prose) organiser was Sing Lit Station Associate Teo Xiao Ting, with support and assistance from Qamar Firdaus Saini and advice from Tse Hao Guang.
Manuscript Bootcamp 2019 (Poetry)
The 2019 edition of the Bootcamp expanded its reach with the Manuscript Assessment Scheme (MASS). Through MASS, shortlisted applicants of the Bootcamp gained access to detailed feedback from The Literary Consultancy (TLC) based in the UK, effectively benefiting from the best of both worlds—feedback from TLC, as well as a closer, more intimate look at the work in Manuscript Bootcamp.
At Bootcamp, our finalists’ work were taken apart and put back together by established Singapore-based writers, editors, academics and critics. They talked narrative, sequencing, theme, titling; anything that answers the question, "How can and why should these poems be a book?" All of our finalists were informed to be prepared to give and take feedback of the highest quality in a challenging and collegial environment.
The 2019 edition of Bootcamp was open for submissions of poetry manuscripts from 1 Feb 2019 to 30 Mar 2019; the Bootcamp was held on 2–4 Aug 2019. Six writers were chosen to undergo the fifth edition of Bootcamp: Carissa Cheow; Nicholas Chng; Joses Ho; Valen Lim; Qamar Firdaus Saini; See Wern Hao.
Our Finalists
Against the well-meaning advice from her friends, Carissa Cheow survives on four to seven cups of coffee every morning and in those moments of caffeine-induced clarity, aspires to do research in unexplored areas of political science and putting these findings into practice rather than pulling all-nighters to meet assignment deadlines. Her manuscript-in-progress is titled you need a very small space to read these poems.
Nicholas Chng studies Law at Singapore Management University. His work has been awarded a Commendation from the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, as well as appeared in Ceriph, QLRS, Softblow and the exhibition MICROCOSMOS by studioKALEIDO. His manuscript-in-progress is titled disquiet.
Joses Ho is a neuroscientist developing analytic and visualization tools for estimation statistics. During SingPoWriMo he archives and analyses the poems posted on the titular Facebook group. His fiction is in Nature Futures 2 and LabLit.com; his poetry is found in QLRS, LONTAR, and other places. Follow him on Twitter @jacuzzijo. His manuscript-in-progress is titled Moving Downwards in a Straight Line.
Valen Lim is a member of local literary collective /s@ber and a full-time hoarder of books. He has a finger in every pie he can find. His work has been published in Mistake House, QLRS and more. Otherwise, he can be found at uglystage.com. His manuscript-in-progress is titled Nervous System.
Qamar Firdaus Saini is in the public service, and is especially fond of Explosions in the Sky. He writes to remember things. His poems can be found in QLRS, Moving Words (Ethos Books), ASINGBOL (Squircle Line Press), This is Not A Safety Barrier (Ethos Books) and various editions of SingPoWriMo (Math Paper Press), among others. His works have also been commissioned by National Gallery Singapore and the Singapore Art Museum. His manuscript-in-progress is titled let me chart these ribs.
See Wern Hao is pursuing Law and Liberal Arts at the National University of Singapore and Yale-NUS College. His works have been featured in Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, QLRS, Softblow, and Apercus Quarterly. He has also contributed to anthologies such as the SingPoWriMo series. His manuscript-in-progress is titled flaring & recurring.
Our Judges
12 writers were shortlisted for the 2019 edition of the Bootcamp, taken from the best poetry manuscripts from MASS (Cycle 1) written by writers with no prior full-length poetry publication. Aside from the shortlisted six, the other six writers on the longlist were: Al Lim, Cheyenne Phillips, Faye Ng, Julius Li, Joshua Choo, Max Pasakorn Konwohrachet.
The final list of participants was decided by an external panel of esteemed industry fellows: the poets Aaron Maniam and Conchitina Cruz, and academic Koh Tai Ann.
Conchitina Cruz teaches literature and creative writing at the University of the Philippines. She earned her Ph.D. in English from State University of New York (SUNY) Albany. Her books of poetry include Dark Hours (which won the National Book Award for Poetry in the Philippines), elsewhere held and lingered and There Is No Emergency.
Prof Koh Tai Ann is a Senior Associate at the Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, NTU. She has published extensively on the arts, culture and literature of Singapore, most recently in The State & the Arts in Singapore: Policies and Institutions (2018), and edited Singapore Chronicles: Literature (2018) which includes her chapter, “First Language, Second Tongue: Singapore Literature in English”. Her pioneering, comprehensive, continually updated digital Annotated Bibliography of Singapore Literature in English has attracted numerous user-visits locally and worldwide.
Aaron Maniam's second collection of poems, Second Persons was published in August 2018. His first, Morning at Memory's Border (2005) was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize (2007) and contained poems that received the Golden Point Award (First Prize) for English poetry in 2004. He has mentored younger writers under the Ministry of Education's Creative Arts Programme and National Arts Council (NAC)'s Mentor Access Project. A career civil servant, he is currently pursuing doctoral research at Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government.
Our Submission Criteria
All participants must submit a manuscript of at least 20 poems or 20 pages (for long poems / sequences) in order to be considered. A small fee of $10 will be levied for all submissions, which will automatically place your manuscript under consideration for both Bootcamp and MASS. Only 1 submission per person is allowed, and submissions must be authored by a single person.
All genres of poetry that can be represented as text will be accepted, including but not limited to epic poem, prose poetry, concrete poetry / text-based art, textual transcription of performance poetry, and found and other process-based work.
Manuscripts should also be titled and blurbed with a one-paragraph synopsis—this can either encapsulate your artistic intent or the content and flow of your poems.
Manuscripts should be in a single paginated .doc / .docx file (not PDF), Times New Roman pt 12, single spaced, with each poem laid out on a separate page. Do clearly state if the manuscripts are to be laid out with a specific font and line spacing.
As manuscripts will be read blind by external readers, all identifying information should be excluded from the manuscript.
Poems should be in English, although nonstandard usage and inclusions of other languages are welcome. Translated work will not be read.
Participants must be physically present for the Bootcamp from the evening of 2 Aug to 4 Aug 2019. A further $10 fee will be paid by each participant to cover logistical costs. A tiered fee depending on manuscript length will also be paid by participants who wish to accept the MASS opportunity.
Do attach a CV separate from your manuscript that includes your name, NRIC, address, contact details, job / occupation history, and all past publication details / literary endeavours. Only Singaporean citizens or PRs are eligible to apply.
Manuscripts submitted before 1 Feb 2019 and after 30 Mar 2019, 2359 hours will strictly not be considered for the Bootcamp.
Board members and employees of Sing Lit Station, as well as their immediate families and the immediate families of the organisers, are ineligible to apply for Manuscript Bootcamp. Participants of the 2015 and 2017 editions of Manuscript Bootcamp will also be ineligible.
All works are to be submitted via our Submittable page. Participants will be required to acknowledge Sing Lit Station and Manuscript Bootcamp in their work if their manuscript is eventually published. A follow-up session in 2020 will also be organised; the date for this will be confirmed in consultation with the participants.
Important Dates
1 Feb – 30 Mar, 11.59pm: Submissions open (concurrent with Manuscript Assessment Scheme)
22 Apr: Announcement of shortlisted participants
1 Jun: Announcement of Bootcamp finalists
2–4 Aug: Commencement of Bootcamp
23 Aug, 8pm: Presentation of works (RSVP)
The Manuscript Bootcamp 2019 (Poetry) organisers are Tse Hao Guang and Teo Xiao Ting, with support and assistance from Sing Lit Station.
Manuscript Bootcamp 2018 (Prose)
Is the next great Singapore novel, short story collection or work of creative non-fiction sitting in your drawer, or burning in your brain? Writers wondering how to revise and bring a manuscript to publication looked no further than Manuscript Bootcamp 2018 (Prose). Their work was taken apart by established writers, editors, academics, agents, and critics. They reviewed purpose, story, character, style, audience; anything that answers the question, “Why must my words be read?” Participants were prepared to give and take feedback of the highest quality in a challenging and collegial environment.
The 2018 edition of Manuscript Bootcamp was open for submissions of prose manuscripts from 1 Feb 2018 to 30 Apr 2018, for a Bootcamp on 3-5 August 2018. Four writers were chosen to undergo the fourth edition of Manuscript Bootcamp: Hidhir Razak, Aleithia Low, Jocelyn Suarez and Annabel Tan.
Our Finalists
Hidhir Razak recently graduated from NTU’s School of Humanities with an M.A in English, where he specialised in fiction writing. A lover of cats, he also writes poetry and likes mee soto. Hidhir was selected for his novel-in-progress, Kemunting.
An Arts and Humanities graduate from Yale-NUS College, Aleithia Low has worked with non-profit and philanthropic organisations across Southeast Asia, using writing and photography to drive social impact and environmental awareness. Aleithia was selected for her work of creative non-fiction, Written By Light.
Jocelyn Suarez moved to Singapore at fifteen carrying the old wives’ tales of her small rice-paddy hometown in the Philippines. Her stories are a retelling of these tales. Jocelyn was selected for her novel-in-progress, The Literature Historian.
Annabel Tan’s life goals: chaperoning a herd of children without raising her voice, writing a novel on Post-its, and bawling out “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” in all of Singapore’s gardens. Annabel was selected for her collection of short stories, Potted Jungle.
Our Judges
Nine writers were shortlisted for the 2018 edition of Manuscript Bootcamp; apart from the above-mentioned four, the other five writers were: Ho Kin Yunn, Desiree Khng, Ash Lim, Daniel Soo and Grace Tang.
The final list of Bootcamp participants was decided by an external panel of esteemed writers: Yu-mei Balasingamchow, Jon Gresham and Wena Poon.
Yu-Mei Balasingamchow is the co-author of Singapore: A Biography (2009), and co-editor of the literary collection, In Transit: An Anthology from Singapore on Airports and Air Travel (2016). Her short fiction has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and published in the UK, US and Singapore. In 2015, she was an honorary fellow in writing at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. In 2017, she was writer-in-residence at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She lives in Singapore and is working on a novel. Her website is http://www.toomanythoughts.org.
Jon Gresham was born in England, grew up in Australia and has lived in Singapore and Thailand for the last 17 years. His debut collection of short stories, We Rose Up Slowly, was published by Math Paper Press in 2015. Jon leads the Writing the City Creative Writing Workshops at Toa Payoh Library each month.
He also takes photos and blogs at www.igloomelts.com
Wena Poon is a novelist and photographer. Through her work, she documents diaspora culture, transnational identity, and gender roles. Her first novel Alex y Robert, about a Texan woman bullfighter in Spain, was adapted by the BBC and broadcast as a 10 episode Radio 4 series. Her play The Wood Orchid, about the Chinese woman warrior Hua Mulan, was professionally staged in Westminster Abbey, London by the Bush Theatre. Author of 15 books of literary fiction, she won the UK's Willesden Herald Short Story Prize and was nominated for France's Prix Hemingway and the UK's Bridport Prize for Poetry. She is also a two-time nominee for Ireland's Frank O'Connor Award and the Singapore Literature Prize. She graduated magna cum laude in English Literature from Harvard College and holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She is a lawyer by profession.
Our Submission Criteria
The following genres are open for consideration: short story collections; novellas; novels; long-form creative non-fiction works.
The suggested submission length is 20,000 words. Manuscripts that fail to meet the length might be disqualified, and much longer ones may not be read or workshopped beyond 20,000 words. Incomplete works meeting the suggested length will still be accepted.
Manuscripts should be titled and blurbed with a one-paragraph synopsis (containing either a plot summary, "elevator pitch" or a description of artistic intentions).
Manuscripts should be in a single paginated .doc / .docx file (not PDF), Times New Roman pt 12, double spaced, with each new chapter or short story laid out on a separate page.
As manuscripts will be read blind by an external panel, writers’ names should be excluded from the manuscript. Judges with any conflict of interest will be asked to recuse themselves from assessing those manuscripts in question.
Manuscripts must be in English, although nonstandard usage and minor meaningful inclusions of other languages are welcome. Translated work is not accepted.
Manuscripts must be original, and authored by a single person.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed. Please inform us as soon as your manuscript has been accepted elsewhere for a prize, fellowship, other award, or publication.
Participants must be physically present for the Bootcamp on the evening of 3 August and the whole weekend of 4 and 5 August 2018. A small fee will be paid by each participant to cover logistical costs.
All works are to be submitted via our Submittable page. Do note that participants will be required to acknowledge Sing Lit Station and Manuscript Bootcamp in their work if their manuscript is eventually published. A follow-up session in 2019 will also be organised; the date for this will be confirmed in consultation with the participants.
Important Dates
1 Feb – 30 Apr, 2359 hours: Submissions open
14 May: Announcement of shortlisted participants
1 Jul: Announcement of Bootcamp participants
3 – 5 Aug: Commencement of Bootcamp
18 Aug: Presentation of works (event link)
The Manuscript Bootcamp 2018 (Prose) organiser is Tse Hao Guang, with support and assistance from Sing Lit Station's Jon Gresham.
Manuscript Bootcamp 2017 (Poetry)
This is not your usual poetry workshop. Your work will be taken apart and put back together by established writers, editors, academics and critics. You will talk narrative, sequencing, theme, titling; anything that answers the question, "How can and why should these poems be a book?" Be prepared to give and take feedback of the highest quality in a challenging and collegial environment.
The 2017 edition of Manuscript Bootcamp were open for submissions of poetry manuscripts from 1 April to 14 May 2017, for a Bootcamp scheduled on 28-30 July 2017. Six writers were chosen to undergo the third edition of Manuscript Bootcamp: Abdul Hamid, Ang Shuang, Jerome Lim, Min Lim, Ruth Tang and Teo Xiao Ting.
Our Finalists
Ang Shuang is a senior year law student at Singapore Management University. Her work has been seen in SingPoWriMo 2016, QLRS, and Words Dance Magazine. Her manuscript-in-progress is titled Dormant Seeds.
Hamid Roslan is a graduate from Yale-NUS College and a recipient of the NAC Arts (Undergraduate) Scholarship. His manuscript-in-progress is titled parsetreeforestfire.
Jerome Lim is a third year student of English / Latin Literature at the University of York. He is the deputy editor-in-chief of Unseen the Magazine, and a poetry.sg associate. His manuscript-in-progress is titled Full Circle Meander.
Min Lim is an undergraduate at Yale-NUS College and a freelance graphic designer. She is the winner of the National Poetry Competition 2016. Her manuscript-in-progress is titled Effigy.
Ruth Tang writes poetry and plays. Her poetry has appeared in QLRS and was shortlisted for the 2016 Manchester Poetry Prize. Her manuscript-in-progress is titled Closed-Loop Time Travel.
Teo Xiao Ting is currently an undergraduate at Yale-NUS College, and is particularly interested in social causes and charity work. Her manuscript-in-progress is titled et al..
Our Judges
The above final list of participants in the 2017 edition of Manuscript Bootcamp was decided by an external panel of esteemed poets: Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Alvin Pang and Nicholas Wong:
Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s Crossing the Peninsula received the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. Awarded the Multiethnic Literatures of the United States Lifetime Achievement Award and University of California Santa Barbara Faculty Research Lecture Award, she’s published ten poetry collections and several chapbooks; three short story collections; two novels; a children’s novel, Princess Shawl, translated into Chinese; and The Shirley Lim Collection. She won the American Book Award twice, the second time for her memoir, Among the White Moon Faces, and has published and edited/co-edited books and articles on Singapore, South-east Asian, postcolonial and feminist studies. She served as UCSB Chair of Women’s Studies and as Chair Professor of English at University of Hong Kong, and is Research Professor at UCSB.
Alvin Pang is a poet, writer and editor from Singapore. He is a Fellow of the Iowa International Writing Program, an advisor to the International Poetry Studies Institute, and a founding director of The Literary Centre, Singapore. Listed in the Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry in English, he has appeared in festivals and publications worldwide. His writings have been published in more than twenty languages, including Swedish, Macedonian, Croatian and Slovene.
His recent publications include Tumasik: Contemporary Writing from Singapore (Autumn Hill, USA: 2010), What Gives Us Our Names (Math Paper Press: 2011), Other Things and Other Poems (Brutal, Croatia: 2012), When The Barbarians Arrive (Arc Publications, UK: 2012), UNION: 15 Years of Drunken Boat / 50 Years of Writing from Singapore (Ethos / Drunken Boat: 2015) and När barbarerna kommer (Rámus Forlag, Sweden: 2015).
Nicholas Wong is the author of Crevasse (Kaya Press), the winner of the 28th Lambda Literary Award. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Wasafiri, Gulf Coast, Third Coast, The Missouri Review Online, Copper Nickel, and others. He teaches at the Education University of Hong Kong, and is a Vice President of PEN HK.
Our Submission Criteria
All participants must submit a manuscript of at least 30 poems in order to be considered.
Manuscripts should also be titled and blurbed with a one-paragraph synopsis – this can either encapsulate your artistic intent or the content and flow of your poems.
Manuscripts should be in a single paginated .doc / .docx file (not PDF), Times New Roman pt 12, single spaced, with each poem laid out on a separate page. Do clearly state if the manuscripts are to be laid out with a specific font and line spacing.
As manuscripts will be read blind by an external panel, writers' names are also requested to be excluded from the manuscript.
Poems should be in English, although nonstandard usage and meaningful inclusions of other languages are welcome.
Participants must be physically present for the Bootcamp from the evening of 28 July to 30 July 2017. Manuscripts submitted after 14 May 2017 will also not be considered for the Bootcamp.
Email your submissions to singlitstation@gmail.com, with the subject header "MANUSCRIPT BOOTCAMP 2017 (POETRY): SUBMISSION". Do attach a CV separate to your manuscript that includes your name, NRIC, address, contact details, job / occupation history, and all past publication details / literary endeavours.
Important Dates
1 Apr – 14 May, 2359 hours: Submissions open (infographic)
21 May: Announcement of shortlisted participants (infographic)
18 Jun: Announcement of Bootcamp participants
28-30 Jul: Commencement of Bootcamp
20 Aug: Presentation of works (event link)
The Manuscript Bootcamp 2017 (Poetry) organiser is Tse Hao Guang, with support and assistance from Sing Lit Station.
Manuscript Bootcamp 2016 (Prose)
The 2016 edition of Manuscript Bootcamp aimed to take rough drafts of prose and forge them into print-ready manuscripts through intensive input from industry professionals: successful practitioners, academics, critics, publishers, and editors alike. Four writers were chosen to undergo the second Manuscript Bootcamp in December 2016: Clarissa N. Goenawan, Ng Yi-Sheng, Teoh Ren Jie and Toh Hsien Min.
Over the course of two days, the manuscripts of these four writers received feedback and critique from the following groups of people: literary and creative writing academics from three tertiary institutions specialising in local literature (NIE, NTU, NUS, LASALLE); the founders and editors of Singapore's foremost literary presses (Ethos Books and Math Paper Press); five experienced practitioners of the craft; literary agent Helen Mangham, from Jacaranda Press.
Our Finalists
Clarissa N. Goenawan is an Indonesian-born Singaporean writer. She studied novel-writing with the Curtis Brown Creative and was formerly a mentee on the WoMentoring Project. Her first novel, Rainbirds (Soho 2018), is the winner of the 2015 Bath Novel Award. Her novel-in-progress is titled Sleeping Lotus.
Ng Yi-Sheng is a Singaporean writer and LGBT activist. He won the 2008 Singapore Literature Prize for his debut poetry collection last boy (2006). His other books include Eating Air (2008), SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century (2006) and Loud Poems for a Very Obliging Audience (2016). The manuscript-in-progress of his short story collection is titled Lion City & Other New Myths of Singapore.
Teoh Ren Jie graduated from Raffles Institution and Harvard University with a degree in English Literature. He is currently discharging his National Service obligations, and will be subsequently pursuing a career in the civil service. His novel-in-progress is titled Lion City.
Toh Hsien Min is a poet. His books include Iambus (1994), The Enclosure of Love (2001), Means to an End (2008), and Dans quel sens tombent les feuilles (2016). He is also the founding editor of Quarterly Literary Review Singapore. His manuscript-in-progress is titled Aubrey Low's Dictionary of Food.
Our Submission Criteria
The following genres were open for consideration: short story collections; creative non-fiction essay collections; novellas / novels; long-form creative non-fiction works.
The minimum submission length for novels and long-form non-fiction was 30,000 words.
The minimum submission length for short story and essay collections was 10 pieces each.
All works had to be original.
Work from present and former Singaporean citizens and permanent residents could only be accepted.
All applicants had to attach a CV with at least 2 previous publication credits (print/online). Writers with no previous publication history may submit, but writers with a track record were prioritised, and for the shorter forms, work that has been previously published. Credits pending publication were acceptable with verification.
Simultaneous submissions were allowed.
Important Dates
Due to the length of the prose works considered, the entire Bootcamp process will consist of:
a 2-day bootcamp in Dec 2016;
a half-year developmental workshop process;
a 2-day follow-up bootcamp in Jun 2017.
The Manuscript Bootcamp 2016 (Prose) organisers and selection panel were Krishna Udayasankar and Jon Gresham. They were supported by Daryl Qilin Yam.
Manuscript Bootcamp 2015 (Poetry)
The inaugural Manuscript Bootcamp aimed to take rough drafts of poetry and forge them into print-ready manuscripts through intensive input from industry professionals: successful practitioners, academics, critics, publishers, and editors alike. Six writers were chosen to undergo the first Manuscript Bootcamp in March 2015: Jennifer Anne Champion, Amanda Chong, Samuel Lee, Daryl Lim Wei Jie, Tse Hao Guang and David Wong Hsien Ming.
Over the course of three days, they underwent intensive bombardment by a battery of professionals from a variety of fields, with funding support from the National Arts Council: academics from three tertiary institutions specialising in local literature (NIE, NTU, NUS); two founders of Singapore's foremost literary publishers (Ethos Books and Math Paper Press); three pioneering editors of local online journals (Softblow, QLRS, The Literary Centre) and print anthologies; six experienced practitioners of the craft.
Our Finalists
Jennifer Anne Champion’s manuscript-in-progress, Caterwaul, was published under the Ten Year Series imprint of Math Paper Press in 2016.
Amanda Chong’s manuscript-in-progress, Professions, was published under the Ten Year Series imprint of Math Paper Press in 2016. It was shortlisted for the 2018 Singapore Literature Prize in English Poetry.
Samuel Lee’s manuscript-in-progress, A Field Guide to Supermarkets in Singapore, was published under the Ten Year Series imprint of Math Paper Press in 2016. It won the 2018 Singapore Literature Prize in English Poetry.
Daryl Lim Wei Jie’s manuscript-in-progress, A Book of Changes, was published under the Ten Year Series imprint of Math Paper Press in 2016. His sophomore title would go on to be shortlisted for the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize in English Poetry.
Tse Hao Guang’s manuscript-in-progress, Deeds of Light, was published under the Ten Year Series imprint of Math Paper Press in 2015. It was shortlisted for the 2016 Singapore Literature Prize in English Poetry.
David Wong Hsien Ming’s manuscript-in-progress, For The End Comes Reaching, was published under the Ten Year Series imprint of Math Paper Press in 2015.
Important Dates
The Bootcamp was held over a weekend in Aug 2015, and was crucial in introducing a new generation of pioneering Singapore poets. The sessions took place a year before Sing Lit Station was formally an organisation, and were planned and facilitated by local writers Ann Ang, Pooja Nansi, Teh Su Ching and Joshua Ip with the support of interns. Without Bootcamp, Sing Lit Station would not exist.