These two young writers read from their work here on Monday 19 March 2007 (yesterday). Audience was unfortunately thin since there were meetings re Nandigram and other issues going on at the same time. Nevertheless Sharmistha read from her new book New Life (Roli) and Sampurna from her book of poems, Sight May Strike You Blind (Sahitya Akademi). Both were very good, especially the latter.
In other news, we now have all the material for WIPLash. Our editors have been a bit distracted by recent events (as have we all) but things should be settled by the end of the week, so work will restart. As you know, we're not getting funding from the University, so any ideas you may have for sponsorship will be welcome. Please get in touch with the editors with them, or with me.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Friday, February 09, 2007
All right, let's be having you
Who wrote the story where the ragpicker turns out to be Shiva (Bhooter Raja, I think)
Also the Great Haraldo had a story I marked WIP which I now can't remember. Send!!!!! And all the rest of you too!
Also the Great Haraldo had a story I marked WIP which I now can't remember. Send!!!!! And all the rest of you too!
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Christopher Merrill
We had a visit from Professor Christopher Merrill on Friday.
Chris Merrill runs America's coolest writing programme, the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He writes poetry and non-fiction, and he's written on soccer, the Balkan wars, and secretive Eastern orthodox monasteries.
On Friday, he spoke about his life as a writer, including how it felt to be stuck in a basement in Croatia being blitzed by the Serbs, and what to do if you're targeted by a sniper while on the way to a film festival. He also told us that according to the Serbs, the only unbiased journalists in the country were Indians(!) He reminisced about his friend Agha Shahid Ali, the Kashmiri poet who (among other things) introduced the proper ghazal to America.
Chris's talk was followed by a lively interactive session. At the end of the session, Gautam Datta, an engineer based in New Jersey, read a poem in Bangla and his translation of one of Chris's English pieces.
Chris Merrill runs America's coolest writing programme, the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He writes poetry and non-fiction, and he's written on soccer, the Balkan wars, and secretive Eastern orthodox monasteries.
On Friday, he spoke about his life as a writer, including how it felt to be stuck in a basement in Croatia being blitzed by the Serbs, and what to do if you're targeted by a sniper while on the way to a film festival. He also told us that according to the Serbs, the only unbiased journalists in the country were Indians(!) He reminisced about his friend Agha Shahid Ali, the Kashmiri poet who (among other things) introduced the proper ghazal to America.
Chris's talk was followed by a lively interactive session. At the end of the session, Gautam Datta, an engineer based in New Jersey, read a poem in Bangla and his translation of one of Chris's English pieces.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Way-hay! We have mun-nay!
ALERT!!!!
We have been granted funding by the Seed Money fund to publish WIPlash. Everyone who hasn't yet sent me their stuff DO SO NOW. This includes anything I may have marked as suitable for WIP. Email of soft copy is best. If you don't have a comp, give it to me to be typeset. We will return pieces to be edited if they need polishing, or we may edit ourselves in consultation with authors. We are looking at about 80 pages of text and 20 of illustration. Deadline for texts is Feb 20th. NO EXTENSION!
we're also looking for illustrators for the stories and a cover designer. cover will be monochrome, can be grayscale. Apply to Teleute or Wiz of Az or comment this post.
We have been granted funding by the Seed Money fund to publish WIPlash. Everyone who hasn't yet sent me their stuff DO SO NOW. This includes anything I may have marked as suitable for WIP. Email of soft copy is best. If you don't have a comp, give it to me to be typeset. We will return pieces to be edited if they need polishing, or we may edit ourselves in consultation with authors. We are looking at about 80 pages of text and 20 of illustration. Deadline for texts is Feb 20th. NO EXTENSION!
we're also looking for illustrators for the stories and a cover designer. cover will be monochrome, can be grayscale. Apply to Teleute or Wiz of Az or comment this post.
A reminder: Caferati deadline on 4th
Cross posted from http://www.caferati.com/contests/
Contests
Caferati runs contests for writers directly, and in collaboration with other organisations. This page gives you updates on the latest. (You could also subscribe to our Contests newsletter to get alerts in your inbox.)
Writing contests at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2007
We are managing four contests for the Literature and Writing section of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2007.
Go straight through to the individual contest pages for details.
SMS Poetry — 160-character poetry — About | Submit
Flash Fiction — very short stories — About | Submit
Graphic Flash — very short stories, told with visuals — About | Submit
Poetry Slam — performance poetry, live and head-to-head — About | Submit
All these contests are open to anyone, anywhere. However, the Poetry Slam is a live event at the Festival, so it’s a bit pointless to submit if you live elsewhere, unless you are prepared to travel to Kala Ghoda for the event at your own expense, if you are selected.
The deadline for all of them is midnight, IST, 4th February, 2007.
Contests
Caferati runs contests for writers directly, and in collaboration with other organisations. This page gives you updates on the latest. (You could also subscribe to our Contests newsletter to get alerts in your inbox.)
Writing contests at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2007
We are managing four contests for the Literature and Writing section of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2007.
Go straight through to the individual contest pages for details.
SMS Poetry — 160-character poetry — About | Submit
Flash Fiction — very short stories — About | Submit
Graphic Flash — very short stories, told with visuals — About | Submit
Poetry Slam — performance poetry, live and head-to-head — About | Submit
All these contests are open to anyone, anywhere. However, the Poetry Slam is a live event at the Festival, so it’s a bit pointless to submit if you live elsewhere, unless you are prepared to travel to Kala Ghoda for the event at your own expense, if you are selected.
The deadline for all of them is midnight, IST, 4th February, 2007.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
WriterSpeak: ASU-JU students of creative writing share thoughts
The audio-visual room of the Jadavpur University's English department had a buzz of creative energy around it on the 11th of this month. The reason? Well it was a day that creative writers across two countries were meeting and sharing their innermost self-doubts and queries about the art, craft, poetics and politics of taking up the pen (or the keyboard as in most cases these days) for creative purposes. At this rare collection of creative minds were present the well-known American novelist and professor of creative writing – Melissa Pritchard – along with five of her MFA students from Arizona State University, and a room-full of eager JU students of English – all aspiring to greater creative output. Moderating for the event was Rimi B. Chatterjee – a young lecturer of the English Department and a published author of creative fiction in her own right. Kalam: Margins Write was the point of connection between the two
Although the interaction began with usual nervousness of such first meetings, the sheer warmth of both parties involved broke the ice. The students of ASU introduced themselves with humour and candor. There was the rather reticent Darcy, who was honest about her own doubts as an aspiring writer in the initial stages of coming to understand one’s creativity at one’s own pace, as well as her discomfort with the mushrooming of writing workshops, which in her opinion are not always the best thing to participate in. Such workshops could be harmful in two ways – one was that since such workshops involve extensive reading of works just produced so they are open to scathing criticism which could destroy the fragile confidence of the writer who is starting out with her raw, unedited work. Rimi di echoed her views as she also identified with the fear of showing raw, unedited work in the early stages of being a writer. She specified that if she were offered a course like WIP in her college, then most probably she would not have taken it up, which is why she never pushes students to take the course if they have any doubt in their mind.
The second danger, which all the ASU writers and Melissa pointed out in unison, was that of “getting addicted” to these ubiquitous workshops resulting in the loss of one’s own individual voice in the mélange of voices. Although the workshops helped the author with useful critique by a selected peer group, Melissa also brought to attention that “at some time you have to face the page alone”. For this it is essential to find one’s own voice – for which it is imperative to spend a lot of time on your own, maybe traveling or just thinking while looking through the windows of a café.
Melissa was emphatic in her stress on finding one’s voice. The anxiety of influence of the writers we admire and feel inadequate to, has a solution to it. She said that the best way to read authors that you admire is to “learn from them, try to unpack the writer’s work so as to find out what it is exactly you like about the author – read like a taxonomist! You can’t let yourself silence yourself.” Michael, another perceptive student of ASU also reiterated the point by saying that maybe one cannot write exactly like the writer one admires so much but one can find out the reason for that admiration and put it to good use. It’s actually the spirit with which the Bronte represents her times in Wuthering Heights that one admires, so maybe one day the aspiring author could engage with her times in a similar spirited way instead of getting intimidated by the author.
Subhodeep Paul, a final-year MPhil student of Jadavpur University and an aspiring poet and novelist, raised some interesting questions. He spoke about the dual roles of the academic and writer that writers in India usually have to face (this reaffirmed by Rimi di's hilarious comment that “writers have to survive in India hiding deep under the cover of an academic!”). He expressed his dilemma about the time and financial constraint at pursuing a three-year MFA program and queried the possibility of an exchange programme between the students and faculty of JU and ASU.
His query met with an enthusiastic response by Melissa Pritchard who expressed the distinct possibility of such partnerships in the future. She said that her university was very eager for such global partnerships – “global interaction is enrichment on both sides.” Michael was helpful in his advice that there were more than 400 such MFA programs all over the USA that could offer a lot of choice in terms of the cost and the number of course years. Max pointed out the possibility of self-financing through the attainment of teaching assistantships.
Next came the dreaded subject of finding a publisher. There was a simultaneous sense of despair among all the authors with Michael coming up with “we still haven’t figured that out yet!” resulting in the room being in splits with laughter. Michael pointed to Melissa as being the only one who was qualified enough to answer that question, having published six or seven novels to her credit. Melissa was forthcoming about her stories of starting up as a writer. Melissa was a housewife to begin with, who nurtured her love of fiction through writing stories and sending it to various magazines.
At around 30 she realized that she still hadn’t started to work on her lifelong dream of being a writer but after the revelation she worked hard to teach herself the art of writing a novel or story. After many rejections – at the rate of one every afternoon, Melissa started to become depressed and decided that she was not writing for the sake of publication – she was writing for herself only. Once she was at peace with this realization, the acceptance letters started to pour in and one day (while busy at the mundane task of doing laundry at the basement) she received a phone call saying that she had won an award for her story.
Although this sounds like some sort of fairy-tale, there is a distinct lesson to learn. Melissa believes that a writer has to have two things – first to focus on the work itself and reach the perfection that it can and secondly be stubborn enough to carry on despite loads of rejection letters piling up. Ultimately writing should come from an ego-less state where it doesn’t matter who is reading the work. It is important to balance the humility with the desire to publish. Another way of dealing with the issue of publishing is to find a champion for your work – not everyone will like what you write – so it is important to have a champion with similar sensibilities. In a similar vein, a writer could also observe the publishers of her/his favourite authors. That way, publishers with similar sensibilities could publish similar work.
The students of Pritchard like Aimee and Michael also suggested publishing on the Internet. Michael has been regularly sending his stories to English magazines on the Internet and it is a done and an “in” thing these days to do that.
The other valid question, which found many heads nodding to it at the same time, was the question of constructive revision of the creative work, which usually comes out in a steady flow of emotion or passion. A first-year student of JU was concerned about his inability to go back to his work once he had finished it in one flow. The ASU writers had quite a few helpful pointers regarding this particular problem.
Tina (who is a poet herself): It is different for poetry. When you go back you have to see it with a critical eye. With time when you go back to it a month later, then you should be able to edit while you’re writing.
Melissa: You should develop a support community instead of a teardown community – it is very important to do that. Also it is about being honest. You are your own laboratory for characters. There are different motives and mixed emotions that you have felt and they become the material for your characters as well. So your characters can be really complex. The writer is often thrown into challenges – “am I being honest?” is a question you are constantly asking yourself. Sometimes you also grow out of your previous writing.
Aimee: I am very attached to my writing so it usually takes a very long time for me to come back for revising and editing it!
Darcy: I’m very self-critical – everyone has a different way to go about it. The more I write, the less time I need to set it aside. It is important to try and find out what was most truthful about it – the essence of the piece. An MFA is not the only way to start writing and revising your work – try to find two or three readers that you trust and ask them to read your work.
Max: Earlier when I used to write, it was more important for me to get on to the next piece, but as I’m revising my novel now, I see how important it is to go back to your earlier writing and go into the depth of it.
Talking of voices, Melissa suddenly came up with a surprising query – are stories still important? This led to a discussion on how stories are universal and can cut across cultures. It allows everyone to have a voice. The power to tell stories of our contemporary times is the enduring power of artists. And Rimi di added that sometimes the age at which one begins to actually pen down what one has inside could also be an important thing. For example it was only after she turned 30 that she could finally pull a gear on all that she had been meaning to write since her early twenties. Everyone has their own pace at which they write - a lot of it is a process, which includes thinking and could take a long time to find final expression.
The interaction ended with the distribution of the published magazine of original stories by the first batch of Rimi di’s Writing In Practice (WIP) course at Jadavpur University’s English Department.
The power to tell stories is a unique and universal power at the same time. This is what Kalam: margins write has always believed in and through more of such cross-cultural literary interactions we hope to continue executing our beliefs into action. Here's hoping Kalam, ASU's Piper Centre and JU's WIP course get more such opportunities to get together and brainstorm!
Although the interaction began with usual nervousness of such first meetings, the sheer warmth of both parties involved broke the ice. The students of ASU introduced themselves with humour and candor. There was the rather reticent Darcy, who was honest about her own doubts as an aspiring writer in the initial stages of coming to understand one’s creativity at one’s own pace, as well as her discomfort with the mushrooming of writing workshops, which in her opinion are not always the best thing to participate in. Such workshops could be harmful in two ways – one was that since such workshops involve extensive reading of works just produced so they are open to scathing criticism which could destroy the fragile confidence of the writer who is starting out with her raw, unedited work. Rimi di echoed her views as she also identified with the fear of showing raw, unedited work in the early stages of being a writer. She specified that if she were offered a course like WIP in her college, then most probably she would not have taken it up, which is why she never pushes students to take the course if they have any doubt in their mind.
The second danger, which all the ASU writers and Melissa pointed out in unison, was that of “getting addicted” to these ubiquitous workshops resulting in the loss of one’s own individual voice in the mélange of voices. Although the workshops helped the author with useful critique by a selected peer group, Melissa also brought to attention that “at some time you have to face the page alone”. For this it is essential to find one’s own voice – for which it is imperative to spend a lot of time on your own, maybe traveling or just thinking while looking through the windows of a café.
Melissa was emphatic in her stress on finding one’s voice. The anxiety of influence of the writers we admire and feel inadequate to, has a solution to it. She said that the best way to read authors that you admire is to “learn from them, try to unpack the writer’s work so as to find out what it is exactly you like about the author – read like a taxonomist! You can’t let yourself silence yourself.” Michael, another perceptive student of ASU also reiterated the point by saying that maybe one cannot write exactly like the writer one admires so much but one can find out the reason for that admiration and put it to good use. It’s actually the spirit with which the Bronte represents her times in Wuthering Heights that one admires, so maybe one day the aspiring author could engage with her times in a similar spirited way instead of getting intimidated by the author.
Subhodeep Paul, a final-year MPhil student of Jadavpur University and an aspiring poet and novelist, raised some interesting questions. He spoke about the dual roles of the academic and writer that writers in India usually have to face (this reaffirmed by Rimi di's hilarious comment that “writers have to survive in India hiding deep under the cover of an academic!”). He expressed his dilemma about the time and financial constraint at pursuing a three-year MFA program and queried the possibility of an exchange programme between the students and faculty of JU and ASU.
His query met with an enthusiastic response by Melissa Pritchard who expressed the distinct possibility of such partnerships in the future. She said that her university was very eager for such global partnerships – “global interaction is enrichment on both sides.” Michael was helpful in his advice that there were more than 400 such MFA programs all over the USA that could offer a lot of choice in terms of the cost and the number of course years. Max pointed out the possibility of self-financing through the attainment of teaching assistantships.
Next came the dreaded subject of finding a publisher. There was a simultaneous sense of despair among all the authors with Michael coming up with “we still haven’t figured that out yet!” resulting in the room being in splits with laughter. Michael pointed to Melissa as being the only one who was qualified enough to answer that question, having published six or seven novels to her credit. Melissa was forthcoming about her stories of starting up as a writer. Melissa was a housewife to begin with, who nurtured her love of fiction through writing stories and sending it to various magazines.
At around 30 she realized that she still hadn’t started to work on her lifelong dream of being a writer but after the revelation she worked hard to teach herself the art of writing a novel or story. After many rejections – at the rate of one every afternoon, Melissa started to become depressed and decided that she was not writing for the sake of publication – she was writing for herself only. Once she was at peace with this realization, the acceptance letters started to pour in and one day (while busy at the mundane task of doing laundry at the basement) she received a phone call saying that she had won an award for her story.
Although this sounds like some sort of fairy-tale, there is a distinct lesson to learn. Melissa believes that a writer has to have two things – first to focus on the work itself and reach the perfection that it can and secondly be stubborn enough to carry on despite loads of rejection letters piling up. Ultimately writing should come from an ego-less state where it doesn’t matter who is reading the work. It is important to balance the humility with the desire to publish. Another way of dealing with the issue of publishing is to find a champion for your work – not everyone will like what you write – so it is important to have a champion with similar sensibilities. In a similar vein, a writer could also observe the publishers of her/his favourite authors. That way, publishers with similar sensibilities could publish similar work.
The students of Pritchard like Aimee and Michael also suggested publishing on the Internet. Michael has been regularly sending his stories to English magazines on the Internet and it is a done and an “in” thing these days to do that.
The other valid question, which found many heads nodding to it at the same time, was the question of constructive revision of the creative work, which usually comes out in a steady flow of emotion or passion. A first-year student of JU was concerned about his inability to go back to his work once he had finished it in one flow. The ASU writers had quite a few helpful pointers regarding this particular problem.
Tina (who is a poet herself): It is different for poetry. When you go back you have to see it with a critical eye. With time when you go back to it a month later, then you should be able to edit while you’re writing.
Melissa: You should develop a support community instead of a teardown community – it is very important to do that. Also it is about being honest. You are your own laboratory for characters. There are different motives and mixed emotions that you have felt and they become the material for your characters as well. So your characters can be really complex. The writer is often thrown into challenges – “am I being honest?” is a question you are constantly asking yourself. Sometimes you also grow out of your previous writing.
Aimee: I am very attached to my writing so it usually takes a very long time for me to come back for revising and editing it!
Darcy: I’m very self-critical – everyone has a different way to go about it. The more I write, the less time I need to set it aside. It is important to try and find out what was most truthful about it – the essence of the piece. An MFA is not the only way to start writing and revising your work – try to find two or three readers that you trust and ask them to read your work.
Max: Earlier when I used to write, it was more important for me to get on to the next piece, but as I’m revising my novel now, I see how important it is to go back to your earlier writing and go into the depth of it.
Talking of voices, Melissa suddenly came up with a surprising query – are stories still important? This led to a discussion on how stories are universal and can cut across cultures. It allows everyone to have a voice. The power to tell stories of our contemporary times is the enduring power of artists. And Rimi di added that sometimes the age at which one begins to actually pen down what one has inside could also be an important thing. For example it was only after she turned 30 that she could finally pull a gear on all that she had been meaning to write since her early twenties. Everyone has their own pace at which they write - a lot of it is a process, which includes thinking and could take a long time to find final expression.
The interaction ended with the distribution of the published magazine of original stories by the first batch of Rimi di’s Writing In Practice (WIP) course at Jadavpur University’s English Department.
The power to tell stories is a unique and universal power at the same time. This is what Kalam: margins write has always believed in and through more of such cross-cultural literary interactions we hope to continue executing our beliefs into action. Here's hoping Kalam, ASU's Piper Centre and JU's WIP course get more such opportunities to get together and brainstorm!
Friday, January 19, 2007
The ASU Meet on 11 January 2007
The meet with the ASU team went off well, thanks to our very own Pooja and Bishan of Kalam. Professor Pritchard and her students spent an interesting morning sharing their experiences with JU students, and a great time was had by all. If you were there, or even if you couldn't make it, here is a link to their place, the Virginia G. Piper Centre for Creative Writingat Arizona State University. You will find there a lot of resources and facts relating to their programmes.
Check out their online book club run by Aimee Baker.
Also check out Kalam and their work.
Check out their online book club run by Aimee Baker.
Also check out Kalam and their work.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Vikram Chandra tells it like it is
If you're feeling lost as to how to be an Indian writer in this increasingly confusing world, be not afraid, Vikram Chandra will guide you through the wilderness and bring you the laughter of Borges-bhai.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Arizona State University team
Here is a potted biography of Professor Melissa Pritchard of Arizona State University, courtesy Bishan Samaddar of Kalam.
Melissa Pritchard
Professor of English and Women's Studies at Arizona State University, Melissa Pritchard is the nationally acclaimed author of three short story collections: Spirit Seizures, The Instinct for Bliss, and Disappearing Ingenue; three novels: Phoenix, Selene of the Spirits, and Late Bloomer; and a biography: Devotedly Always, Virginia: The Life of Virginia Galvin Piper. A recipient of numerous prestigious literary awards, including the Flannery O'Connor Award, the Carl Sandburg Award, the James Phelan Award, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for best fiction by an American woman and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Writers Voice YMCA, and Brown University's Howard Foundation, Pritchard's fiction has appeared widely in such literary journals as: The Southern Review, Boulevard, Open City, The Gettysburg Review, Conjunctions, and The Paris Review. Her stories are frequently cited and reprinted in anthologies such as: Pushcart Prize XX and XXVI; Prize Stories: The O Henry Awards; Best American Short Stories; The Prentice Hall Anthology of Women's Literature; Best of the West; Great Contemporary Ghost Stories; Mothers: Twenty Stories of Contemporary Motherhood; and American Gothic Tales, as well as college textbooks such as: Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Writers; Behind the Short Story: From First to Final Draft; and A Garden of Forking Paths: An Anthology for Creative Writers.
She has received the Claudia Ortese Memorial Lecture Prize in North American Literature from the University of Florence and her fiction has been translated into Spanish and Italian. Her novel Selene of the Spirits was selected for the Barnes and Noble “Discover Great New Writers” series and her short story collection, Disappearing Ingenue, featured in Doubleday's “Fiction for the Rest of Us” series, was chosen by Alan Cheuse for National Public Radio's 2002 Annual Summer Reading List. Her latest novel Late Bloomer, published by Doubleday in 2004, has been called “brilliant” by Publishers Weekly in a starred review, “ravishing” by Vanity Fair magazine, and was named a 2004 Best Book of the Year by the Chicago Tribune. She is at work on a new collection of stories, The Odditorium.
Nominated for the 2005 Outstanding Achievement and Contribution Award by Arizona State University's Commission on the Status of Women, Pritchard is Director of Creative Partnerships for the Daywalka Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending human trafficking and modern day slavery. Pritchard is currently working to establish outreach projects with the Phoenix Children's Hospital and Daywalka's Kalam project, for the MFA Program at ASU where she has taught since 1992. She is also serving as story consultant for a documentary about the Lost Boys of Sudan.
Her team comprises Michael Green, Max Doty, Tina Hammerton, Darcy Courteaux and Aimee Baker.
Melissa Pritchard
Professor of English and Women's Studies at Arizona State University, Melissa Pritchard is the nationally acclaimed author of three short story collections: Spirit Seizures, The Instinct for Bliss, and Disappearing Ingenue; three novels: Phoenix, Selene of the Spirits, and Late Bloomer; and a biography: Devotedly Always, Virginia: The Life of Virginia Galvin Piper. A recipient of numerous prestigious literary awards, including the Flannery O'Connor Award, the Carl Sandburg Award, the James Phelan Award, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for best fiction by an American woman and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Writers Voice YMCA, and Brown University's Howard Foundation, Pritchard's fiction has appeared widely in such literary journals as: The Southern Review, Boulevard, Open City, The Gettysburg Review, Conjunctions, and The Paris Review. Her stories are frequently cited and reprinted in anthologies such as: Pushcart Prize XX and XXVI; Prize Stories: The O Henry Awards; Best American Short Stories; The Prentice Hall Anthology of Women's Literature; Best of the West; Great Contemporary Ghost Stories; Mothers: Twenty Stories of Contemporary Motherhood; and American Gothic Tales, as well as college textbooks such as: Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Writers; Behind the Short Story: From First to Final Draft; and A Garden of Forking Paths: An Anthology for Creative Writers.
She has received the Claudia Ortese Memorial Lecture Prize in North American Literature from the University of Florence and her fiction has been translated into Spanish and Italian. Her novel Selene of the Spirits was selected for the Barnes and Noble “Discover Great New Writers” series and her short story collection, Disappearing Ingenue, featured in Doubleday's “Fiction for the Rest of Us” series, was chosen by Alan Cheuse for National Public Radio's 2002 Annual Summer Reading List. Her latest novel Late Bloomer, published by Doubleday in 2004, has been called “brilliant” by Publishers Weekly in a starred review, “ravishing” by Vanity Fair magazine, and was named a 2004 Best Book of the Year by the Chicago Tribune. She is at work on a new collection of stories, The Odditorium.
Nominated for the 2005 Outstanding Achievement and Contribution Award by Arizona State University's Commission on the Status of Women, Pritchard is Director of Creative Partnerships for the Daywalka Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending human trafficking and modern day slavery. Pritchard is currently working to establish outreach projects with the Phoenix Children's Hospital and Daywalka's Kalam project, for the MFA Program at ASU where she has taught since 1992. She is also serving as story consultant for a documentary about the Lost Boys of Sudan.
Her team comprises Michael Green, Max Doty, Tina Hammerton, Darcy Courteaux and Aimee Baker.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
2006 End sem Question Paper
Here is the 2006 End sem question paper:
b. ‘That’s interesting,’ she said softly.
‘What is?’ he asked, idly turning the pages of a magazine.
‘The Agarwals have called the painters in. Maybe at last they’re going to get that ugly daughter of theirs married off.’
He looked interested. ‘You mean Reshma? How old is she now?’
‘Twenty nine.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘The girl’s been twenty nine for the past five years.’
He crossed the room to join her at the window. ‘What a lot of activity. You know, you could be right.’
‘Hmmm. I wonder if they know she’s been secretly meeting that Rajat for years.’
‘I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve just found out.’
1. Complete this dialogue.
‘Why have you called me here?’ she asked, unable any longer to bear my silence.
‘Haven’t you guessed?’ I fingered the edge of the file I was carrying. Surely she had recognised it, understood why I was meeting her like this. ‘Malavika, how long has this been going on?’
She frowned. ‘You mean the financial irregularities? Since August, I guess. At any rate, it can’t have been longer than that.’
I put the file down on top of the water cooler and drew myself a glass. ‘Why did you take so long to tell me?’
‘I wanted to be sure.’
‘Who were you protecting?’
It seemed as if a shutter fell inside her face. Her lips thinned; she turned her face away and looked out of the floor-length window, her eyes tracing the line of the sea in the distance. I noticed the polish on one of her nails was chipped. ‘No one.’
2. Write a full story (not a plot outline) taking one element each from each column of this story grid.
| Character | Place | Thing | Emotion |
| Actress | Desert | Letter | Bitterness |
| Miner | Nuclear shelter | Compass | Wonder |
| Politician | Beauty parlour | Knife | Satisfaction |
| Poet | Farm | Shoe | Ambition |
3. Here is the back-story of a character. Write a ‘front story’ (starting from this point in time) about him. You may make up any additional people or incidents.
Shantanu Mahajan is 43 years old. He’s a successful engineer with a construction company specialising in city planning. He grew up in Nasik in a middle class family; his father was the headmaster of a boys’ school and his mother a tribal from the interior of Madhya Pradesh, who went to school on a government scholarship and became a teacher of physics. Mahajan, an only child, is immensely proud of his mother, but also a bit defensive about her. When he went to his father’s school, he was acutely aware that it was his father’s status that prevented the boys from teasing him about her. He lives in Mumbai, and the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the city is a relief; he’s happy there but not very socially active, loves his work and relaxes by watching national geographic and going for hikes in the Western Ghats, which he loves. He belongs to a hiking club and has a photoblog of digital pictures he’s taken in the hills. But to his parents’ eternal grief he never married: he wasn’t good at finding anyone for himself, and caste considerations prevented them from finding a match for him. Now he’s comfortably settled, spends moderately on fine wines and his flat in Bandra, his pride and joy. Only once in a while, especially after his parents visit, he regrets the way his life has turned out and wonders if it could have been different.
4. Rewrite this descriptive passage, introducing colour and atmosphere:
The alley is cobbled. The houses on either side are high. Narrow windows occasionally look out onto it, but mostly the walls are blank and dirty. Here and there graffiti and torn posters can be seen. A stray donkey has made its home near the garbage dump at the end where it munches on kitchen waste and discarded leaves. The alley winds behind the houses, giving access to back doors where servants, traders and workers enter and leave the grand yet ancient buildings. From this side, it’s hard to recognise where one house ends and the other begins, although the fronts are painted in different colours and designs. If you don’t know where the alley opens, it’s easy to miss it altogether.
5. Here is a plot outline. Complete it and write a story based on it.
The fort is extremely old, most of its roofs decayed and gone. It frowns over the valley of Suvarnam. Bhanwarlal, the old master, is dying, but he has no children and only a young wife of seventeen years whom he married in the spring. She weeps bitterly, but no one pays her any attention. When he’s been carried to the river and burned with the last of the fort’s firewood, she comes back in her white sari and bars the door behind her. The valley and its village forget about her, except Munni Dai, who brought her here and is resigned to staying with her. The two women sit together, preparing their meagre meals and passing the time each day till the sun goes down. Sometimes Munni Dai scolds the young girl, saying no one in this day and age behaves like this, but she always calms down and goes back to cleaning the rice. Until one day …
Bonus Bootleg Track!
Some questions I didn’t use
1. This is the beginning of a story outline. Complete it. You may introduce one or two additional characters.
Rama is a spoilt rich girl who thinks she can have everything. Her parents have brought her up with the best of everything, and she’s used to always getting her way. Then she’s caught cheating in her board selection tests, using a state-of-the-art WAP mobile phone to download answers from the internet. She’s expelled from school. When her parents go to plead for her, the principal agrees to take her back, on one condition: she must earn the price of the phone, Rs 15,000, with her own labours.
[Describe what happens after that.]
2. Create a plot outline choosing one emotion, object, character or place from each of the following sets and weaving it into the outline. You may add other elements and characters as necessary, but the four things you choose must figure prominently. State your four choices at the head of your answer.
| Character | Place | Emotion | Object |
| A policewoman | A condemned house | Rage | Cellphone |
| A cook | A shopping mall | Sorrow | Rolling pin |
| A fisherman | A train compartment | Anticipation | Mirror |
| A painter | A riverbank | Gratititude | Ball |
3. Complete any one of the following pieces of dialogue:
a. ‘What are we going to do?’ he cried in despair.
‘You ask me now?’ Rajlakshmi’s eye blazed. ‘When all our wealth has already been poured by you down the throat of that landlord, just because you can’t hold your liquor?’
Haranath hung his head. ‘Yes, there’s a devil in me, I know. That devil would drink the sea and kill me with the salt. But the deed is done, Raji, our land is gone, and now we must try to survive it. I am sorry.’
‘Will your sorry give my children education, or put food in their hollow bellies?’
‘I wish I could wring out of me all the liquor I’ve drunk,’ Haranath moaned, ‘and be a man again.’
‘Well you can’t,’ she said, and crossed her arms, ‘so you’d better start thinking fast.’
‘Where shall we go?’ he asked, and looked with fearful eyes at the rail track across the distant green fields.
b. ‘That’s interesting,’ she said softly.
‘What is?’ he asked, idly turning the pages of a magazine.
‘The Agarwals have called the painters in. Maybe at last they’re going to get that ugly daughter of theirs married off.’
He looked interested. ‘You mean Reshma? How old is she now?’
‘Twenty nine.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘The girl’s been twenty nine for the past five years.’
He crossed the room to join her at the window. ‘What a lot of activity. You know, you could be right.’
‘Hmmm. I wonder if they know she’s been secretly meeting that Rajat for years.’
‘I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve just found out.’
4. Rewrite any one of these paragraphs, giving the scene emotional colour. Invent the details you need to flesh out the scene, such as colours, sounds, sights, objects, activity, people and animals, smells etc. but do not introduce a plot or principal characters.
There is a busy road leading from the station. On one side is a market. On the other there is a pond. By the pond women wash clothes and pots. There are children and stray dogs in the field beyond the market. Many fruiting and flowering trees grow around the spot. The houses are mostly two-storeyed with verandahs. People watch the bustle from them.
There is a slick mall on the corner. Lots of people shop there, or pass the time. There are often traffic jams outside. All kinds of shops fill the mall. In the middle, there is a kids’ playground. On the top floor, there is a restaurant where they often have live music. There are also stalls in the middle, one for icecream and one for rolls. Young people hang out there.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Kalam: Margins Write and University of Arizona meeting
On either Thursday Jan 11 or Friday Jan 12, 2007 (depending on when our American friends get in) there's going to be a meeting in the AV Room with some students and a professor of creative writing from Arizona State University. This comes to us courtesy Kalam: Margins Write (an NGO) . I'll need 5-10 people, preferably past and present WIPers but other creative people also welcome, to come sign up with me beforehand. When we meet in the new year is fine.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Upgrade to Beta ... Ooops!
Calling all members
I've just upgraded the blog to the Blogger beta platform, which is why your names have disappeared from the sidebar. However, you all still have permission to post to this blog. You just have to log in to blogger in beta (easy if you have a google account) and your name will magically reappear. Hopefully this upgrade will remove some of the more irritating features of the blogger platform.
I've just upgraded the blog to the Blogger beta platform, which is why your names have disappeared from the sidebar. However, you all still have permission to post to this blog. You just have to log in to blogger in beta (easy if you have a google account) and your name will magically reappear. Hopefully this upgrade will remove some of the more irritating features of the blogger platform.
Job offer and call for submissions
Crossposted from Caferati listings
--
1. Journalists Wanted
for a new Bombay magazine
Wanted: Sub-editors / copy editors / Full-time journalists / writers / reporters. Also designers. A new magazine is being launched in Bombay. It is city-centric and will focus on celebrities. Obviously, they don't want to reveal more since the magazine isn't out yet. They're offering competitive salaries. And they would like to make it clear that this a 6 days a week job, and the work doesn't stop till the next issue is out. They're looking to put together a team by early December. (Our apologies for not posting this earlier. To apply, please email Suren Bhatia at surinATgmail.com
[Information courtesy: Rushina Munshaw - Ghildiyal of A Perfect Bitehttp://a-perfect-bite.blogspot.com/]
--
2. Call for submissions; Writer's Bloc Festival
Rage Productions (Rahul da Cunha, Rajit Kapur and Shernaz Patel) is organising Writer's Bloc, a festival of plays written by new writers, to be staged at Prithvi (Jan 9th-21st) and NCPA (Jan 23rd-Feb 4th). The festival is a culmination of a year-long process, in conjuction with the Royal Court Theatre London, of conducting workshops for new playwrights to help them complete a full-length play. Part of the programme is a section called the Platform Performances that will precede each of the Prithvi shows. These will be held at 8 pm each day, Jan 9th-21st. In keeping with the festival theme, each Platform performance will be a 20-min reading of original writing in any form: poetry, short fiction, an except from long fiction, skit, play except, song, or a combination of all these. Actors are available to read out/enact pieces, if required. (But writers may choose to read their own work.) If you'd like to submit your original writing to be read, please mail the piece(s) to Niloufer Sagar at nilousaATgmail.com. RAGE needs to finalise the platform listings by the end of this week. So hurry!
[Information courtesy Mukul Chadda]
--
Until next time, then.
May your muses treat you with kind, tender care.
Thank you
Manisha Lakhe, Annie Zaidi, Peter Griffin
(Feedback welcome at editors at caferati dot com.) And please keep those suggestions coming in. We need them!)
--
1. Journalists Wanted
for a new Bombay magazine
Wanted: Sub-editors / copy editors / Full-time journalists / writers / reporters. Also designers. A new magazine is being launched in Bombay. It is city-centric and will focus on celebrities. Obviously, they don't want to reveal more since the magazine isn't out yet. They're offering competitive salaries. And they would like to make it clear that this a 6 days a week job, and the work doesn't stop till the next issue is out. They're looking to put together a team by early December. (Our apologies for not posting this earlier. To apply, please email Suren Bhatia at surinATgmail.com
[Information courtesy: Rushina Munshaw - Ghildiyal of A Perfect Bitehttp://a-perfect-bite.blogspot.com/]
--
2. Call for submissions; Writer's Bloc Festival
Rage Productions (Rahul da Cunha, Rajit Kapur and Shernaz Patel) is organising Writer's Bloc, a festival of plays written by new writers, to be staged at Prithvi (Jan 9th-21st) and NCPA (Jan 23rd-Feb 4th). The festival is a culmination of a year-long process, in conjuction with the Royal Court Theatre London, of conducting workshops for new playwrights to help them complete a full-length play. Part of the programme is a section called the Platform Performances that will precede each of the Prithvi shows. These will be held at 8 pm each day, Jan 9th-21st. In keeping with the festival theme, each Platform performance will be a 20-min reading of original writing in any form: poetry, short fiction, an except from long fiction, skit, play except, song, or a combination of all these. Actors are available to read out/enact pieces, if required. (But writers may choose to read their own work.) If you'd like to submit your original writing to be read, please mail the piece(s) to Niloufer Sagar at nilousaATgmail.com. RAGE needs to finalise the platform listings by the end of this week. So hurry!
[Information courtesy Mukul Chadda]
--
Until next time, then.
May your muses treat you with kind, tender care.
Thank you
Manisha Lakhe, Annie Zaidi, Peter Griffin
(Feedback welcome at editors at caferati dot com.) And please keep those suggestions coming in. We need them!)
Monday, November 27, 2006
95 more to go!
I have 95 copies of the old WIPLash to sell @ Rs 30 a piece. Anyone interested should contact me either online or in person. We're clearing stocks for next year's crop.
This year's WIPers, the deadline for submission of stories from this year's course will be January 31, 2007. I'll then need someone to help me edit it, preferably not a course attendee. A previous student would be ideal. If any of you read this post, please volunteer. You'll have to read the page proofs of WIPLash 2006 for errors and help with the layout. Also we would like a cover design done properly this year. The book will be about 100 pages A5 size. We should have copies in hand well before term ends so everyone gets theirs before they leave.
This is your chance to get into print.
To recap: editor and cover designer, please step forward. We'll get working on this through February, print in March and have copies out before April.
This year's WIPers, the deadline for submission of stories from this year's course will be January 31, 2007. I'll then need someone to help me edit it, preferably not a course attendee. A previous student would be ideal. If any of you read this post, please volunteer. You'll have to read the page proofs of WIPLash 2006 for errors and help with the layout. Also we would like a cover design done properly this year. The book will be about 100 pages A5 size. We should have copies in hand well before term ends so everyone gets theirs before they leave.
This is your chance to get into print.
To recap: editor and cover designer, please step forward. We'll get working on this through February, print in March and have copies out before April.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Take a bow
Well, we’ve had a scintillating three sessions of storytelling to end the WIP programme this year. I was particularly pleased at the progress made by the people who stuck with it against all odds, especially one person who struggled and struggled through the course but in the end came up with a WINNER. It definitely showed me that the course IS making a difference, and that there is a qualitative difference between people who attended class and worked hard at their writing and those who didn’t. There were of course others who attended class but didn’t listen to repeated suggestions from me and from the class that their stories weren’t working: my sympathies, guys, because I know how hard it is to pay attention to the reader and take the necessary knife to your creation. Nevertheless, falling in love with your story doesn’t do it any good. You just end up spoiling it rotten.
There was also a demonstration of the truism that SOME writers are born, not made, and will come through with a stunning piece even if they have attended no classes. This is in spite of having been utterly clueless in the first couple of sessions. Although ‘making’ is a relative term: the true writer goes on making him/herself, no matter what shit goes down, no matter how good life is. The business of writing goes on 24/7, and only a little of it is actually to do with paper and silicon. I respect that: like I said, the class is only one way of becoming a writer. If you can do it on your own, so much the more credit to you. But it’s a rare person who can do it, and for every one, there’s a dozen who think they can but can’t. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference, but in the end it’s the readers – millions of them, over decades – who decide who’s a writer and who isn’t.
But that aside, even if no one in this batch becomes a WRITER, you’ll all have become better at telling stories, and hopefully you’ll all have had fun in spite of the hard slog we’ve had to do.
And so to next year …
I was also very pleased (yay!) with the very good audience response we had, full house every day in spite of classes and class tests. Thank you, people, for making the event a success.
All the stories were good. Some were brilliant. Only one disappointed a little. You’ll all find out which in a month or so…
In the meantime, visitors to this blog, please feel free to comment on the final presentations, give me suggestions for making it better, or anything that comes to mind.
There was also a demonstration of the truism that SOME writers are born, not made, and will come through with a stunning piece even if they have attended no classes. This is in spite of having been utterly clueless in the first couple of sessions. Although ‘making’ is a relative term: the true writer goes on making him/herself, no matter what shit goes down, no matter how good life is. The business of writing goes on 24/7, and only a little of it is actually to do with paper and silicon. I respect that: like I said, the class is only one way of becoming a writer. If you can do it on your own, so much the more credit to you. But it’s a rare person who can do it, and for every one, there’s a dozen who think they can but can’t. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference, but in the end it’s the readers – millions of them, over decades – who decide who’s a writer and who isn’t.
But that aside, even if no one in this batch becomes a WRITER, you’ll all have become better at telling stories, and hopefully you’ll all have had fun in spite of the hard slog we’ve had to do.
And so to next year …
I was also very pleased (yay!) with the very good audience response we had, full house every day in spite of classes and class tests. Thank you, people, for making the event a success.
All the stories were good. Some were brilliant. Only one disappointed a little. You’ll all find out which in a month or so…
In the meantime, visitors to this blog, please feel free to comment on the final presentations, give me suggestions for making it better, or anything that comes to mind.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Final Presentations
So our final presentations are scheduled for the 14th, 15th and 16th from 3 to 5 in the AV room. On Monday I'll be putting up on the AV Room door the names of people who'll speak on each day. There won't be a mike as it's more of a pain than a help in the tiny space, so be loud. Fans of WIP and general department people, please come to hear your friends tell stories. It should give us some welcome relief in the most hectic week of the semester. Unfortunately the final day clashes with the Food seminar (which I'll have to bunk in the afternoon) but that's just the usual JU madness.
People have been asking what I'm looking for, and whether it's possible to do a good presentation of a bad story. Well, up to a point it's not; unless the story's halfway decent even the best storyteller can't make it sizzle. But you can ruin a good story with bad telling, and you can rivet people with a good reading of an OK story. The most basic points are: 1. Read slow enough for people to assimilate and follow, ie much slower than usual, with lots of pauses, (but don't put 'em to sleep) 2. Be loud and clear, 3. Pause when transiting between speech and narration, 4. Vary your tone appropriately, but only change your pitch, not your volume, 5. Make eye contact when you can, 5. Be engaged with the story; don't read it like a seminar paper or a news report. This is similar to, but not the same as, reading a character in a play, beacuse here you have to be ALL the characters as well as the narrator.
Finally, what constitutes a good story? This is a question that authors, publishers and readers have tried to answer for generations, with no end to the search in sight (different ages answer it differently, with some results agreeing across time). Funnily enough, it's not a question that critics concern themselves with all that much. Critics are generally rather embarrassed at humanity's insistence on a story. Perhaps it's because stories enter our lives so early in life: an eighteen-month-old baby, otherwise unmanageable, will listen openmouthed to a story and swallow their pap without demur. But you can read Barthes till your eyes pop and never find out why.
Many modern writers have been half-nelsoned by critics to prove that the narrative is dead: look at Joyce, they yowl. Joyce was, however, a consummate storyteller; he just loved to OD on narrative. He's a stories-teller, in fact. The truth is, people who write novels (or even poems) without stories are forgotten by history. No one wants to read them over and over again and give them to their children, or buy them for their closest friend who's dying of cancer, or give to their parents on their seventieth wedding anniversary. But say that to any modern critic and they'll look at you like you've crawled out of a Mills and Boon. Or a Terry Pratchett.
Rather, read your stories to your sisters and brothers, and your parents, and to your domestic help if you can translate on the fly, and see how they react. Buttonhole friends who are NOT literature students and ask them. If there's one thing being an author has taught me, it's never to underestimate readers. They're the smartest people on the planet. Go to them, thou sluggard, consider their ways, and be wise.
So I'm looking for a kind of narrative honesty which goes beyond surfaces, which is rooted in reality but which makes us see things with fresh eyes. It's not made of statistical averages -- in fact it's just the opposite, it looks for the remarkable within the ordinary. Some of it only comes with experience, and I will of course allow for that. But the first rule of good writing is: don't be satisfied with easy stuff. The spontaneous good story is a rare treat, bless its little cotton socks. Most of the time, you have to slog for it (like another category of human endeavour which I will not name). So PLEASE read over your stuff as you have consistently failed to do throughout this course (sigh). And CHANGE stuff that doesn't work until it does.
Good luck!
People have been asking what I'm looking for, and whether it's possible to do a good presentation of a bad story. Well, up to a point it's not; unless the story's halfway decent even the best storyteller can't make it sizzle. But you can ruin a good story with bad telling, and you can rivet people with a good reading of an OK story. The most basic points are: 1. Read slow enough for people to assimilate and follow, ie much slower than usual, with lots of pauses, (but don't put 'em to sleep) 2. Be loud and clear, 3. Pause when transiting between speech and narration, 4. Vary your tone appropriately, but only change your pitch, not your volume, 5. Make eye contact when you can, 5. Be engaged with the story; don't read it like a seminar paper or a news report. This is similar to, but not the same as, reading a character in a play, beacuse here you have to be ALL the characters as well as the narrator.
Finally, what constitutes a good story? This is a question that authors, publishers and readers have tried to answer for generations, with no end to the search in sight (different ages answer it differently, with some results agreeing across time). Funnily enough, it's not a question that critics concern themselves with all that much. Critics are generally rather embarrassed at humanity's insistence on a story. Perhaps it's because stories enter our lives so early in life: an eighteen-month-old baby, otherwise unmanageable, will listen openmouthed to a story and swallow their pap without demur. But you can read Barthes till your eyes pop and never find out why.
Many modern writers have been half-nelsoned by critics to prove that the narrative is dead: look at Joyce, they yowl. Joyce was, however, a consummate storyteller; he just loved to OD on narrative. He's a stories-teller, in fact. The truth is, people who write novels (or even poems) without stories are forgotten by history. No one wants to read them over and over again and give them to their children, or buy them for their closest friend who's dying of cancer, or give to their parents on their seventieth wedding anniversary. But say that to any modern critic and they'll look at you like you've crawled out of a Mills and Boon. Or a Terry Pratchett.
Rather, read your stories to your sisters and brothers, and your parents, and to your domestic help if you can translate on the fly, and see how they react. Buttonhole friends who are NOT literature students and ask them. If there's one thing being an author has taught me, it's never to underestimate readers. They're the smartest people on the planet. Go to them, thou sluggard, consider their ways, and be wise.
So I'm looking for a kind of narrative honesty which goes beyond surfaces, which is rooted in reality but which makes us see things with fresh eyes. It's not made of statistical averages -- in fact it's just the opposite, it looks for the remarkable within the ordinary. Some of it only comes with experience, and I will of course allow for that. But the first rule of good writing is: don't be satisfied with easy stuff. The spontaneous good story is a rare treat, bless its little cotton socks. Most of the time, you have to slog for it (like another category of human endeavour which I will not name). So PLEASE read over your stuff as you have consistently failed to do throughout this course (sigh). And CHANGE stuff that doesn't work until it does.
Good luck!
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Happy holidays
Happy puja holidays to all WIPers past and present. This year's batch: don't forget to write your final stories over the holidays. Story clinic when we rejoin after the break.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Caferati Listings mailing list: from Peter Griffin
Caferati - Calcutta
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-CalcuttaCaferati-Calcutta@googlegroups.com
Today's topics: Introducing: Caferati Listings (beta)
From: "peter griffin"
Hello. This is to inform you that we have now started a new mailing list, Caferati Listings <http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Listings>. Unlike most of our newsgroups, this one doesn't require moderator approval to join. And it is a send-only list, so you you will not be subjected to endless replies, debates and chatter. To subscribe go to http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Listings and sign up. (Or mail one of us, and we'll send you an invitation.)
About Caferati Listings
Since we have access to a bunch of writers, we get a lot of requests to help publicise contests and submissions to anthologies, list job openings and stuff like that. Some of these we post to our forum, or forward to our local groups. This can get tedious when done piecemeal. So we decided to create a separate newsletter devoted to just that task. Caferati Listings will send out information about interesting writing opportunities, paid and unpaid (provided we think they're cool) and events. This includes:
• Contests, online or in print.
• Calls For Submissions from publishing houses and the media, online or in print.
• Information on literary events and festivals that seek participation fromoutside their own geographical area.
• Job opportunities for writers, full-time, part-time, freelance, retainer-based or one-off assignments.
Frequency
Emails to this list will never exceed one a week. More likely than not, it will be a comprehensive monthly mail, unless something very juicy, but with a very short deadline crops up. You can also choose not to receive any emails, and only visit the group's home page whenever you please. (Just remember to bookmark it, hm?) You can adjust those settings when you sign up, or later, by visiting the group's page.
Privacy
Caferati's editors are the only ones who will have access to the email address you use to subscribe to Caferati Listings. We will never sell, rent or lend this list to any other person ororganisation.
Submissions to Caferati Listings
You are invited, nay, urged, to send in information about contests, events, writing opportunities, calls for submissions, literature festivals and the like. You need not be the person behind whatever it is you're submitting. You're welcome to send us tip-offs and links as well. In the case of tip-offs, we will credit the first person to send in a particular item. Like so: "Via: Salman Naipaul, yourURL" (if you send us one). Please let us know if you do not want to be credited. Mail editorsATcaferatiDOTcom, and use the words "For Listings -Submission" or "For Listings - Tip" in the subject line to ensure you get past our spam filters. (Do NOT mail the group directly. It is, as we said, a one-way mailing list, so your mail won't reach us or Caferati Listings subscribers.) Make your submission brief, and do include URLs where those interested can get more info.
Ideal submission:
Name of event or opportunity
Brief explanation
Rewards
Conditions / restrictions / deadlines
URL for more information, if necessary
Your name and URL
Conditions for Submissions
Do NOT send us email with attachments. We won't open them. If there is any kind of entry, admission or application fee, please state that clearly. Likewise with deadlines, and any other restrictions or conditions. For unpaid writing opportunities, please state why you think the opportunity is worth the application. If you submit a paid job opportunity, please state clearly the experience, qualifications and/or certifications you consider mandatory, contact details for queries, and the preferred method of, and deadline for, application. If you're including a "more information" URL, please link directly to the relevant page or permalink. Don't post a parent site site link and expect people to go search. If you're expecting us to hunt and then list your submission, we have two words for you. Ha. Ha.
Caferati's editors reserve the right to refuse to include your submission, and to not give you any reasons for refusal. Listing events or opportunities will be free for as long as we can manage it. However, if this list becomes insanely popular (we wish!), and begins to take up large amounts of the time we set aside to earn our livings, we may consider charging for submissions, particularly where the person or organisation making the submission stands to make money. This will be with plenty of advance notice. And if we do so, paid submissions will be in a separate, clearly marked section.
Strictly local events
For information on Caferati's own local read-meets and other strictly local writing-related events and opportunities, please check if we have your city covered in our list of local newsgroups (URLs below the signature line), and subscribe to one of those. Just to make this clear, you don't have to be a Caferati member to subscribe to Caferati Listings <http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Listings>.
Of course, for those of you who aren't, we would be thrilled to see you on our free Forum <http://bwc-network.ryze.com/>, currently hosted on Ryze<http://www.ryze.com/>.
http://caferati.com/ListingsAnnouncement.htm
Thank you.
Annie Zaidi, Manisha Lakhe, Peter Griffin--for Caferati
<http://www.caferati.com/> http://www.caferati.com
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Today's topics: Introducing: Caferati Listings (beta)
From: "peter griffin"
Hello. This is to inform you that we have now started a new mailing list, Caferati Listings <http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Listings>. Unlike most of our newsgroups, this one doesn't require moderator approval to join. And it is a send-only list, so you you will not be subjected to endless replies, debates and chatter. To subscribe go to http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Listings and sign up. (Or mail one of us, and we'll send you an invitation.)
About Caferati Listings
Since we have access to a bunch of writers, we get a lot of requests to help publicise contests and submissions to anthologies, list job openings and stuff like that. Some of these we post to our forum, or forward to our local groups. This can get tedious when done piecemeal. So we decided to create a separate newsletter devoted to just that task. Caferati Listings will send out information about interesting writing opportunities, paid and unpaid (provided we think they're cool) and events. This includes:
• Contests, online or in print.
• Calls For Submissions from publishing houses and the media, online or in print.
• Information on literary events and festivals that seek participation fromoutside their own geographical area.
• Job opportunities for writers, full-time, part-time, freelance, retainer-based or one-off assignments.
Frequency
Emails to this list will never exceed one a week. More likely than not, it will be a comprehensive monthly mail, unless something very juicy, but with a very short deadline crops up. You can also choose not to receive any emails, and only visit the group's home page whenever you please. (Just remember to bookmark it, hm?) You can adjust those settings when you sign up, or later, by visiting the group's page.
Privacy
Caferati's editors are the only ones who will have access to the email address you use to subscribe to Caferati Listings. We will never sell, rent or lend this list to any other person ororganisation.
Submissions to Caferati Listings
You are invited, nay, urged, to send in information about contests, events, writing opportunities, calls for submissions, literature festivals and the like. You need not be the person behind whatever it is you're submitting. You're welcome to send us tip-offs and links as well. In the case of tip-offs, we will credit the first person to send in a particular item. Like so: "Via: Salman Naipaul, yourURL" (if you send us one). Please let us know if you do not want to be credited. Mail editorsATcaferatiDOTcom, and use the words "For Listings -Submission" or "For Listings - Tip" in the subject line to ensure you get past our spam filters. (Do NOT mail the group directly. It is, as we said, a one-way mailing list, so your mail won't reach us or Caferati Listings subscribers.) Make your submission brief, and do include URLs where those interested can get more info.
Ideal submission:
Name of event or opportunity
Brief explanation
Rewards
Conditions / restrictions / deadlines
URL for more information, if necessary
Your name and URL
Conditions for Submissions
Do NOT send us email with attachments. We won't open them. If there is any kind of entry, admission or application fee, please state that clearly. Likewise with deadlines, and any other restrictions or conditions. For unpaid writing opportunities, please state why you think the opportunity is worth the application. If you submit a paid job opportunity, please state clearly the experience, qualifications and/or certifications you consider mandatory, contact details for queries, and the preferred method of, and deadline for, application. If you're including a "more information" URL, please link directly to the relevant page or permalink. Don't post a parent site site link and expect people to go search. If you're expecting us to hunt and then list your submission, we have two words for you. Ha. Ha.
Caferati's editors reserve the right to refuse to include your submission, and to not give you any reasons for refusal. Listing events or opportunities will be free for as long as we can manage it. However, if this list becomes insanely popular (we wish!), and begins to take up large amounts of the time we set aside to earn our livings, we may consider charging for submissions, particularly where the person or organisation making the submission stands to make money. This will be with plenty of advance notice. And if we do so, paid submissions will be in a separate, clearly marked section.
Strictly local events
For information on Caferati's own local read-meets and other strictly local writing-related events and opportunities, please check if we have your city covered in our list of local newsgroups (URLs below the signature line), and subscribe to one of those. Just to make this clear, you don't have to be a Caferati member to subscribe to Caferati Listings <http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Listings>.
Of course, for those of you who aren't, we would be thrilled to see you on our free Forum <http://bwc-network.ryze.com/>, currently hosted on Ryze<http://www.ryze.com/>.
http://caferati.com/ListingsAnnouncement.htm
Thank you.
Annie Zaidi, Manisha Lakhe, Peter Griffin--for Caferati
<http://www.caferati.com/> http://www.caferati.com
Blog: http://caferati.blogspot.com
Forum: http://bwc-network.ryze.com
News for members: http://groups.google.com/group/CaferatiUpdates
Announcements of contests we run, endorse or partner:
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Contests
Local Groups in India:
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Ahmedabad
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Bombay
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Bangalore
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Calcutta
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Delhi
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Hyderabad
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Jaipur
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Jodhpur
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Kanpur
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Lucknow
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Madras
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Nagpur
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Pune
Local Groups elsewhere:
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Dubai
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Singapore
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-BayArea
http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-London
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Submissions wanted
Submissions wanted from past and present WIPers for the Blabberwocky journal (see TT Metro for today) of stories of not more than 100 words. This will be an extremely high-powered deal with stuff from Terry Pratchett, Julian Barnes and Benjamin Zephaniah. Submit to me or sudiptoDOTsanyalATgmailDOTcom. You have till September 20.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Midsemester examination question paper
Here is the question paper of the recently concluded mid sem test, in case anyone feels like breaking their head on it.
Answer any ONE question. Where you are asked to complete a passage, your contribution should be at least as long as the given text.
1. This is a flat factual description of a street scene. Rewrite it, adding emotional colour in the form of scents, sounds, metaphors, and figurative language. Your additions should contribute to the vividness of the scene. Note: Do not introduce action or main characters.
It was a wide street with skyscrapers along it. The cars were mostly private, a few taxis, some buses. People were walking along, looking at the shops. The shops were smart with big windows and window displays. There were some beggars. The traffic island had a little garden on it. On the corner there was a café. There were tables on the street where people were sitting under umbrellas. College had just given over and kids were going home. Office goers were returning, carrying leather briefcases and looking for taxis.
Or
2. Choose one of these plot outlines and finish it.
a) A girl is born blind. She is very intelligent, but her parents feel guilty for the way she is and overprotect her, not letting her go to school for fear she won’t be able to handle it. She spends most of the time on the roof, listening to an old tape-recorder and a selection of Rabindrasangeet. Next to their house, unbeknownst to them, an ex-convict has rented the rooftop room. He’s trying to rehabilitate himself, but no one will give him work. He wonders why he always hears music, and one day he spots her swaying alone in her little room on the roof. He calls her over and lends her a Rabindrasangeet tape. Invent what happens next.
b) A businessman’s car breaks down on the Mehrauli Road, in a very dark and deserted part of it. He tries to flag a car down but has no success. It’s late at night and the following day is a national holiday. He can’t get a connection on his mobile phone. He starts to walk north along the road. After a while a car stops. It’s full of young people coming back from a party. They’re all a little high, and they expansively agree to drop the businessman off at his Gurgaon home. They set off, but soon they seem to be lost. The young people aren’t bothered. They bring out food and wine and have a picnic on the car’s bonnet. The businessman’s watch now says two am. He’s really worried and a little out of his depth. Invent what happens next.
Or
3. Create a plot outline using one item from each of the following sets. The item from category (a) should be your dominant mood, (b) should figure in some way in the story, (c) should be your main character (d) should be your setting. You may add other elements and characters as necessary:
a. Rage, love, resentment, gratitude,
b. A chain, a box, a mirror, a ball,
c. a housewife, a vagrant, a fireman, a painter,
d. a condemned house, a laboratory, a train compartment, a riverbank.
Or
4. Complete the following dialogue:
‘Did you see that?’
‘What?’
‘That guy winked at me!’
‘He didn’t. Stop imagining things, Sonia, and read your book. There’s still five hours to go before we land at Dum Dum.’
‘You’re such a spoilsport, Mahua,’ Sonia pouted and looked out of the window.
Mahua sighed. ‘It is just possible, Sonia, that every guy in the world isn’t destined to fall automatically and hopelessly in love with you.’
‘And what would you know about it? All you ever do is tie guys in knots with your intellectual fundas. Guys don’t like brains, sweetie. It makes them go all awkward and spill their Coke.’
Answer any ONE question. Where you are asked to complete a passage, your contribution should be at least as long as the given text.
1. This is a flat factual description of a street scene. Rewrite it, adding emotional colour in the form of scents, sounds, metaphors, and figurative language. Your additions should contribute to the vividness of the scene. Note: Do not introduce action or main characters.
It was a wide street with skyscrapers along it. The cars were mostly private, a few taxis, some buses. People were walking along, looking at the shops. The shops were smart with big windows and window displays. There were some beggars. The traffic island had a little garden on it. On the corner there was a café. There were tables on the street where people were sitting under umbrellas. College had just given over and kids were going home. Office goers were returning, carrying leather briefcases and looking for taxis.
Or
2. Choose one of these plot outlines and finish it.
a) A girl is born blind. She is very intelligent, but her parents feel guilty for the way she is and overprotect her, not letting her go to school for fear she won’t be able to handle it. She spends most of the time on the roof, listening to an old tape-recorder and a selection of Rabindrasangeet. Next to their house, unbeknownst to them, an ex-convict has rented the rooftop room. He’s trying to rehabilitate himself, but no one will give him work. He wonders why he always hears music, and one day he spots her swaying alone in her little room on the roof. He calls her over and lends her a Rabindrasangeet tape. Invent what happens next.
b) A businessman’s car breaks down on the Mehrauli Road, in a very dark and deserted part of it. He tries to flag a car down but has no success. It’s late at night and the following day is a national holiday. He can’t get a connection on his mobile phone. He starts to walk north along the road. After a while a car stops. It’s full of young people coming back from a party. They’re all a little high, and they expansively agree to drop the businessman off at his Gurgaon home. They set off, but soon they seem to be lost. The young people aren’t bothered. They bring out food and wine and have a picnic on the car’s bonnet. The businessman’s watch now says two am. He’s really worried and a little out of his depth. Invent what happens next.
Or
3. Create a plot outline using one item from each of the following sets. The item from category (a) should be your dominant mood, (b) should figure in some way in the story, (c) should be your main character (d) should be your setting. You may add other elements and characters as necessary:
a. Rage, love, resentment, gratitude,
b. A chain, a box, a mirror, a ball,
c. a housewife, a vagrant, a fireman, a painter,
d. a condemned house, a laboratory, a train compartment, a riverbank.
Or
4. Complete the following dialogue:
‘Did you see that?’
‘What?’
‘That guy winked at me!’
‘He didn’t. Stop imagining things, Sonia, and read your book. There’s still five hours to go before we land at Dum Dum.’
‘You’re such a spoilsport, Mahua,’ Sonia pouted and looked out of the window.
Mahua sighed. ‘It is just possible, Sonia, that every guy in the world isn’t destined to fall automatically and hopelessly in love with you.’
‘And what would you know about it? All you ever do is tie guys in knots with your intellectual fundas. Guys don’t like brains, sweetie. It makes them go all awkward and spill their Coke.’
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