Growing Up Indian: Call for Entries

Calling all Indians who have a story to share about growing up in Singapore.

Too many of us have grown up with mainstream stories depicting someone else’s interpretation of who we are. We consume these narratives in an attempt to feel represented, but deep down it’s hard to shake that nagging doubt: This isn’t really my story.

In 2018, AWARE published Growing Up Perempuan, an anthology of narratives by Malay-Muslim women in Singapore. Its stories hit a nerve in the community: They were poignant, laugh-out-loud funny and, most importantly, true to life in a way that felt singular and precious. This year, we’re looking for stories about growing up as an Indian person in Singapore, to be published in our forthcoming collection of stories, Growing Up Indian (Title TBC). Like Growing Up Perempuan, this book will centre on the experience of growing up and living as an ethnic minority in a multicultural society.

Send us an account of your most treasured memories of childhood, or your lived experiences navigating cultural norms today. No matter the topic, we want you to be the author of your own truth. Only in unvarnished reality, not distorted reflections, can we really see ourselves.

This collection will prioritise female voices, and will feature primarily women writers. However, if you are not female and would like to contribute writing on themes of gender or masculinity, please write in to us.

Growing Up Indian is slated for publication in early 2022.

Submission criteria

1. The author should identify as an Indian and have lived in Singapore for a minimum of five years.
2. We will be providing an honorarium of SGD$100 per submission selected for publication.
3. You may write to projects@aware.org.sg to pitch your story idea to us first before beginning to write. (Please submit a writing sample when you do so.) Otherwise, we will only contact authors whose submissions are selected for the anthology.
4. Stories will be selected with the aim to reflect the diversity of experiences in Singapore.
5. You do not need to have written or been published formally in order to send in your story.
6. You may submit a previously published article if you have the copyright. Otherwise, you need to get the permission of the publisher or whichever body holds the copyright. Do let us know if you are sending us a reprint.
7. Submissions should touch on cultural norms and lived experiences of being socialised as an Indian in Singapore. Some suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
   – Understanding your Indian identity along the lines of: language, socioeconomic status, skin colour, caste, sexuality, gender identity, religion, immigration, etc.
   – Coping with microaggressions, internalised and/or systemic racism
   – Cultural practices such as female puberty ceremony, arranged marriages, etc.
   – Stereotypes and taboos
   – Experiences with motherhood and caregiving
8. Your submission should be in English. Please write in to us if you would like to submit your story in an Indian language instead.
9. Your stories can either be in the form of poems (no word limit) or essays (between 1,000-2,000 words).
10. Authors can also choose to interview an older female family member and write a reflective piece about their family member’s experience, with their consent. The author should contact the editors at projects@aware.org.sg beforehand to get prior agreement about doing this.
11. We strongly discourage the use of pen names for submissions. However, if you wish to mask your identity for legal and/or safety reasons, send us an email to discuss an exception for your submission.

Details

1. Submissions close on 30 November 2021 14 December 2021 (deadline has been extended!)
2. Email your stories to projects@aware.org.sg, with the subject line “Growing up Indian”
3. Send submissions in either the body of the email or in a Word Document, using Arial font size 11.
4. Include the title of your piece, your name/pen-name, and a 50-word author biography in the text of the document.
5. All submissions selected for the anthology may be edited and our edits will be final. We will get in touch with you if this is the case.
6. The editors reserve the right to reject submissions based on inappropriate content, including (but not limited to) disrespect towards individuals, groups, cultures and religions.
7. For more information, please contact projects@aware.org.sg.