Languages of Water – a cross-lingual hybrid by Eugen Bacon (ed)…

Photo by Terry Vlisidis on Unsplash

Languages of Water is a rare but intimate fusion of East, West and Africa, a stunning artefact of writerly immersion and cultural exchange. This child of digital collaboration brings together writers and translators of poetry, fiction and nonfiction from Singapore, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan and Australia. 

In a playful interrogation of French literary theorist, critic and philosopher Roland Barthes’ le plaisir du texte and death of the author, Languages of Water opens with the homing story ‘When the Water Stops’. Cross-cultural creators interpret the story in different forms of itself, offering subversive fiction, poetry, essays, monochrome graphics and sudden fiction, and translations of the homing story in English, Swahili, French, Cantonese, Malay, Vietnamese and Bengali.

‘When the Water Stops’ (Locus recommended reading) was first published in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and now resurrects collaboratively in an original cross-lingual hybrid anthology interpreting the story in different forms of itself: short story, essay, translation, poetry and art. 

Themes transverse climate change, crossing cultures, translation, interpretation, writing the ‘other’, betwixt.

Featuring (in alphabetical order): Aldegunda Matoyo, Alvin Pang, Andrew Hook, Audrey Chin, Cheng Tim Tim, Clara Chow, Clare Rhoden, David Carlin, Dominique Hecq, E. Don Harpe, Erin Latimer, Eugen Bacon, Francesca Rendle-Short, Jill Jones, Kyongmi Park, Nikki Bacon, Nuzo Onoh, Oz Hardwick, Pandora, Quyên Nguyễn-Hoàng, Ramya Jirasinghe, Rina Kikuchi, Seb Doubinsky, Stephen Embleton, Sudeep Chatterjee, Tamantha Smith, Zephyr Li. Meet the Creators…

How it started: The concept of this cross-lingual hybrid is birthed from the Writers Immersion and Cultural Exchange (WrICE). At the heart of WrICE is a simple idea: to give writers of different backgrounds a chance to step outside familiar writing practices and contexts and connect deeply with writers from different cultures and across generations in an immersive residency. The respectful and generative space for reflection, conversation, creative sharing and surprise that WrICE offers affords writers a muse—a precious opportunity to explore possibilities outside comfort zones and borrow something new into own creative practice. It sparks connections and grows a cohesive community of writers that spans boundaries.

In October 2021 WrICE brought together 12 writers and translators of poetry, fiction and nonfiction from Singapore, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan and Australia in a three-week digital residency.

Together with WrICE 2021 fellows, including Singaporean poet, writer, editor and translator Alvin Pang, Southeast Asian writer Audrey Chin, award-winning novelist, memoirist, and essayist Francesca Rendle-Short, Languages of Water offers work by acclaimed authors—award-winning writer of Scottish and English heritage David Carlin; Korean essayist and translator Kyong-mi Park; ‘Queen of African Horror’ Nuzo Onoh; renowned slipstream writer Andrew Hook; widely-published scholar in international journals and anthologies Oz Hardwick; bilingual and award-winning Seb Doubinsky; newly awarded James Currey Fellow for African literature Stephen Embleton; award-winning Belgian poet and translator who writes across genres and tongues Dominique Hecq; and specially invited contributors.   

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