Singaporean writers lament US$1 million cuts to Iowa’s influential International Writing Program
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(From left) Poet Yeow Kai Chai, who participated in the International Writing Program in 2014, with fellow attendees Icelandic writer Gerdur Kristny and Ghanaian writer Mamle Kabu.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF YEOW KAI CHAI
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SINGAPORE – Without the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program (IWP), International Booker Prize-longlisted Singaporean translator Jeremy Tiang
On March 6, the university announced that the United States Department of State had halted its federal funding, which totals nearly US$1 million (S$1.3 million), for its programmes. Its flagship programme, which has brought in writers from over 160 countries for an 11-week residency, has hosted over 1,600 writers – including 36 Singaporean writers – since its inception in 1967.
“This is devastating news,” Tiang tells The Straits Times.
The 2025 cohort will be cut by half from the usual 30 writers.
Tiang, who participated in 2011 with a grant from Singapore’s National Arts Council (NAC), adds: “There really is no other programme that allows writers from across the globe to interact in such a meaningful way.”
According to a March 6 press statement by the university, the grants through the US’ Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs were being terminated as the awards “no longer effectuate agency priorities” nor align “with agency priorities and national interests”.
The cuts come as US President Donald Trump is looking to slash federal funding and downsize the government. A report on March 6 said Mr Trump is expected to issue an executive order aimed at abolishing the US Department of Education.
Poet Yeow Kai Chai, who attended the residency in 2014, is shocked by the news.
The former Singapore Writers Festival (SWF) director says: “The IWP played an instrumental role in shaping and clarifying how I’d approach my directorship of the SWF from 2015 to 2018. I made it my mission to learn from the various literary practitioners in the US and elsewhere.”
Some of the writers he met eventually appeared at the literary festival, including Cuban writer Omar Perez Lopez, son of Che Guevara, and IWP director Christopher Merrill, who is also a poet and non-fiction writer.
Poet Alvin Pang says attending the IWP in 2002 changed his life and writing career.
“It is a shame the current US administration has opted to disregard six decades of soft power, hard-won, and I have many friends affected by this, including in its youth programme,” says Pang. He hopes another institution will “rise to take its place as the most important international writers residency in the world”.
Cultural Medallion recipient and novelist Suchen Christine Lim, who attended the programme on a Fulbright travel grant in 1997, emphasises that the programme helped her “to grow in confidence in terms of my public self”.
On her first overseas writing residency, Lim was paid US$400 for a reading at the University of Kentucky. Paid reading gigs are still rare in Singapore.
Her residency also resulted in her first publication in World Literature Today, a journal of international literature established in 1927.
Cultural Medallion recipient and novelist Suchen Christine Lim participated in the International Writing Program in 1997.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Lim says Singaporean writers should still go for the programme. “Not because of your politics – whether you support Trump or somebody else, it doesn’t matter.
“Go with an open mind because the programme introduces you to other writers from other parts of the world. Perhaps there will not be writers from as many countries now, but perhaps you may meet more writers from the Midwest, and that’s a good thing.”
The writers interviewed all agree that the programme is still an important platform for Singapore writers. IWP’s Merrill has said he would pursue new sources of funding as youth programmes, mentorships and distance-learning courses have been axed.
The NAC is a partner of the University of Iowa and has regularly sponsored Singaporean writers for the residency, with its latest 2024 resident being writer Daryl Li. According to the NAC website, applications remain open until March 31 for a fully paid sponsorship in 2025.
Ms Aruna Johnson, NAC’s director for literary arts in the arts ecosystem group, says in response to ST’s query: “NAC remains committed to this long-standing partnership, and is in close conversation with the university. The 2025 open call for applications is not affected.”
Former Singapore participants include writers Yu-Mei Balasingamchow in 2015, Amanda Lee Koe in 2013, Masuri S.N. and Edwin Thumboo in 1986, Wong Yoon Wah in 1985 and Robert Yeo in 1978. Poet Wong May participated in the inaugural IWP in 1967.
Prominent international writers who participated in the IWP include Nobel Prize laureates South Korean writer Han Kang
Shawn Hoo is a journalist on the arts beat at The Straits Times. He covers books, theatre and the visual arts.
