The David T. K. Wong Creative Writing Fellowship is a unique and generous annual award of £26,000 to enable a fiction writer who wants to write in English about the Far East to spend a year in the UK, at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.

The Fellowship is named for its sponsor Mr David Wong, a retired Hong Kong businessman, who has also been a teacher, journalist and senior civil servant, and is a writer of fiction. The Fellowship was launched in 1997 and the first Fellow appointed from 1st October 1998.

The official David T.K. Wong website contains information about David T.K.Wong and his writing; including downloadable content from his first novel The Evergreen Teahouse and the author reading extracts from his most recent novel The Embrace of Harlots. In this radio interview David Wong speaks about his life, his writing and what the David T K Wong Fellowship in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia in the UK is all about.

Fellowship Award 2012-13

We are delighted to announce that the 2012/13 David T. K. Wong Fellowship has been awarded to Ramesh Balakrishna (R. B.) Pillay.

R. B. Pillay was born and raised in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. He received his B.A. in English Literature from Tufts University and his M.F.A. in writing from Columbia University. He was a lecturer at Niagara University, where he taught writing. While at the University of East Anglia, he hopes to complete a novel set in Singapore. Read the press release.

Former David T.K. Wong Fellows

  • Presca Ahn (2011/12)
  • Chau (Cab) Tran (2010/11)
  • Hanh Hoang (2009/10)
  • Nam Le (2008/9)
  • Balli Jaswal (2007/8)
  • Mulaika Hijjas (2006/7)
  • Linh Dinh (2005/6)
  • Rattawut Lapcharoensap (2004/5)
  • Lakambini (Bing) Sitoy (2003/4)
  • Wendy Law-Yone (2002/3)
  • Liisa Laing (2001/2)
  • Simone Lazaroo (2000/1)
  • José Dalisay (1999/2000)
  • Po Wah Lam (1998/99)

Read more about the former Fellows.

Graduates

The David Wong Fellow joins a community of writers founded by Sir Angus Wilson and Sir Malcolm Bradbury in 1971. UEA creative writing graduates include Tash Aw, Trezza Azzopardi, Martyn Bedford, John Boyne, Tracy Chevalier, Andrew Cowan, Diana Evans, Sue Fletcher, Kathryn Hughes, Kazuo Ishiguro, Toby Litt, Ian McEwan and Owen Sheers.