The Best Asian Travel Writing (TBATW) series will be a first of its kind, showcasing Asia’s finest travel writing. The inaugural edition of The Best Asian Travel Writing (TBATW) is due for publishing in 2017.

The Best Asian inaugural edition is looking for submissions from travel writers. The edition will choose the best twenty or so pieces from the submissions.

The Best Asian will include a wide variety of work that will capture the wonder, humour, fear and joy that greets us all every time when we travel. Importantly, it will also capture the frisson of excitement and uncertainty that wafts in the air when we embark on a journey to a new place or even to a familiar one.

The Best Asian aims to corral stories on nature/conservation, cultural history, sociological and anthropological manifestations, outdoors and adventure, gastronomy, and any other compelling idea you think that would meld into the edition and add to its freshness.

The Best Asian believes there are a legion of stories in the region waiting to be told through the eyes of all you travel writers. We understand there is no graspable form that defines travel writing. Submit whatever you define as travel writing. But, we are certainly not looking for the 10 best beach resorts in Krabi and why we should go there.

We are looking for arresting pieces, brilliantly written, from writers who have taken the risk of travelling to the heart of the matter for the reward of a discovery or an epiphany. Or just compelling story telling.

The Best Asian would be fair and representative and calls for submissions, preferably new and published in 2016 within or outside the region. Stories should be non-fiction.

The series will be edited by the eminent journalist and travel expert Percy Fernandez. Percy studied at Loyola College, Madras, Delhi School of Economics and Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He holds a PhD. He worked on cinema and popular culture for his doctoral dissertation. As a journalist, he has written for several newspapers and magazines including The New York Times and South China Morning Post. Among other assignments, he managed to interview the 14th Dalai Lama. Percy wanders deep and high in the Himalaya. He was the expedition photographer for the 2013 NCC Everest Expedition. He is the co-founder of FLOW, a learning and development organisation, where he works with children and adults designing classroom and outdoor leadership programmes.

Deadline: 31 October, 2016

Word limit: 2,000 to 5,000 words

Send your submissions to kitaab.sg@gmail.com, with the subject line ‘Submission for TBATW’