The collection will feature the writing of women who are currently expats or who have previously lived in an East Asian country.
For the book, this area includes South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, and all the other Asean countries.
Female expats are encouraged to submit either creative non-fiction or travel memoir pieces that speak about the expat “experience” in modern East Asia.
The anthology aims to showcase stories with a strong and personal narrative arc, not just travel guides or descriptions of the places.
“I would encourage writers living in Phuket to share their stories because they know what it’s like to be outsiders, but they are also working to build a life for themselves and their families in a new country.
“No matter what brought them to Asia, they have had moments of struggle, loneliness, and triumph that are worth sharing with other women who will understand.
“They can offer encouragement, humour, commiseration, and a listening ear to each other through their stories.”
Ms Young said the idea for the book stemmed from a conversation between the publisher, Signal 8 Press, and Xu Xi, a prominent Hong Kong novelist who has spent many years living as an expat.
“Xu Xi mentioned that the voices of women often go under-represented in the larger expatriate conversation. Additionally, while there are a number of collections about and by expat women in general, none so far have focused exclusively on the Asia-Pacific region,” Ms Young said.
“There is a perception that expat women in Asia are only trailing spouses from Western countries. While there are many women who fit that description, there are also career women with trailing husbands, single women, mothers, students, retirees, and so on, and all of them have interesting stories to tell about the expat experience in the region.”
The idea was the perfect project for Ms Young, who is an expat woman herself, and who was already editing manuscripts part-time for the publishing company.
“I am an American who ended up in Asia through a non-traditional path. I moved to Hong Kong to be with a man, so I am in some sense a trailing spouse, but we were not married so I had to get my own job and visa to be able to come here,” she explained.
“A month after I arrived, his company sent him to London. I had to make my way solo for a year and build a life for myself independently.
“We’re now engaged, so I am also about to marry into a local family (he’s half Chinese and half British). I am the only non-Chinese person at my place of work – an experience that is both isolating and invigorating.
“My story, like many others, is unique, but it has elements that will resonate with other expat women in the Asia-Pacific region in a way that the story of an expat in Europe couldn’t.”
Ms Young said contributions should be between approximately 2,000 and 5,000 words in length. Each writer will receive two copies of the completed anthology and a percentage of the royalties to be determined by the final number of contributors.
Submissions, with a brief paragraph about the author, can be sent to shannon@typhoon-media.com. Submissions should be in Microsoft Word, .doc or .docx format, and in a standard font.
The deadline for submissions is March 31. The book will be released worldwide in paperback and e-book formats in 2014.