AustLit

'what are the challenges of thinking about an Asia Pacific region for life writing; what work, if any, has already raised useful questions or can offer cautionary tales about such a concept; and what are the logistical and institutional difficulties of making such an entity viable?'  (Howes, ‘Pacifying Asia, Orienting the Pacific: What Work Can a Life Writing Region Do?’)

'Over the past decade, in particular, life-writing scholarship, including some excellent work published in this journal, has often focused on regional issues; for instance, locating life writing in its national, cultural, historical, or linguistic context. Such scholarship works to recognise the diverse texts, authors, genres, languages, and so forth that life narrators from different contexts are writing and reading. Centres and research groups for the study of life writing have emerged strongly in this region, for instance, The Center for Biographical Research (CBR) at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, The Centre for Life Writing and Shanghai Jiao Tong University China, The Lingnan University Life Writing Research Program in Hong Kong, the Centre for Cross-Cultural Studies at Kaohsiung Medical University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, The National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University in Australia, and the Flinders University Life Narrative Research Group in South Australia, to name just a handful of examples. National and regional life writing theory and practice has been mapped at various national and international conferences devoted to life writing scholarship. The most notable of these conferences is the International Auto/Biography Association (IABA) conferences.'  (Editorial introduction)