• 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.

Our four esteemed lecturers are uniquely tasked in the following fields of creative nonfiction writing:

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).

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.

1. On matters of content:

   1. 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).

   2. 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:

      1. a working title;

      2. a description / abstract of the project’s creative aims and objectives; 

      3. an envisioned list of chapters / essays;

      4. a sample of writing from the above list of chapters / essays (see rule 1.2.3.).

   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. 

   4. 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.

2. On matters of format:

   1. Portfolios should be in a single paginated .doc / .docx file (not .pdf), Times New Roman pt 12, single-spaced.

   2. 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.

3. On matters of eligibility:

   1. Manuscripts submitted before 1 Apr 2024 and after 30 May 2023, 2359 hours will not be considered for the Bootcamp.

   2. Participants must be physically present for the Bootcamp for all stipulated dates (see Important Dates below).

   3. 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.

   4. 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 were 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.