from Asia
connecting to . . .
Writing the World
AUTHORS AT LARGE is the brainchild of Robin Hemley and Xu Xi, two award winning authors who met in 2002 at the Foreign Correspondents Club bar in Hong Kong. Since that first meeting, their writing lives have crossed transnationally numerous times.
In 2005 or thereabouts, over a drink by the river in Sacramento, they imagined the solitude of their writing lives buoyed by a literary community that connected regularly around the world. An early, over-ambitious attempt to launch AUTHORS AT LARGE was abandoned. Then, their careers as creative writing teachers took unexpected turns towards Asia, where each has a personal stake.
Ten years after they first articulated their idea, the time was right to relaunch AUTHORS AT LARGE. In 2016, they offered their first intensive writing retreat in Asia, on the private island of Telunas in Indonesia. Writers from Asia, Australia and the U.S. participated in this first retreat which was very successful (read their testimonials here). Their hope is to grow their international community of writers by sharing what they've learned in their transnational writing lives.
In the summer of 2017, AUTHORS AT LARGE extends their international reach beyond Asia to Europe, with week-long retreats over the summer in Iceland, Thailand and again on Telunas. Their first urban weekend retreat is scheduled in November in Hong Kong. The Iceland and Thailand retreats are offered as part of the 2017 Iowa Summer Writers Festival.
words connect