Long before everyone was talking about saving the girl child or the glass ceiling for women in the corporate space, Gita Aravamudan had started writing about everything women have to contend with.
And on the eve of International Women’s Day, who better to address the seventh session of Anita’s Attic than the gracious and always inspiring Gita Aravamudan on the twin streams of writing she handles with equal ease and adeptness – fiction and non fiction.
If you don’t find the book you are looking for, write it!
As we hit the half-way mark of the Season 1 at Anita’s Attic, I could see a curious fatigue set in. Writing a piece of fiction is a lot like running a marathon and unless one paces oneself, it is easy to feel defeated a little into the run.
The first flush of enthusiasm gives way to a flatness of thought and a falling of energy: why bother writing this book?
Which is when a writer like Pradeep Sebastian, bibliophile, columnist and a repository of knowledge about the printed word and its many dimensions is the right person to infuse the romance of books into writers who cant see the book for the blank page before them.
A blog is a dark dingy place no one really reaches until they are told how to get there; For an author in these times, visibility is key – How to leave a digital footprint was the theme of the guest speakers segment at Session 4 of Anita’s Attic’s Creative Writing Mentorship program.
My digital partners *conditionsapply talked to the writers explaining what needs to be done to make their presence felt in the digital space. The tools and techniques to be used, and importantly, what not to do.
Thank you Biju Ebenezer and Joshi Jose. As always you guys were terrific !
No writer is ever free of self doubt and especially when one has just begun writing, countless questions fill the mind.
More than anything else, writers need to hear that it is doable. And so the third session of Anita’s Attic had the brilliant Srinath Perur author of If it’s Monday, It Must Be Madurai speak to the writers on his journey from writer to published author.
As for my writers at the Creative Writing Program, with each week I see their enthusiasm for the program and their commitment to their project grow. Could a teacher or mentor ask for more?
Jayapriya Vasudevan from the Jacaranda Literary Agency, based out of Singapore, interacted with the Class at Anita’s Attic, on 31 st January 2015 – the second week in the Creative Writing Course & Mentorship program at Anita’s Attic.
Jayapriya has more than twenty years experience of working in publishing, during which time she has worked in virtually every area of the business. Born in Calcutta, to a family of writers, she studied literature at college and went on to work for numerous publishers, learning the business firsthand. From editing and event management, to sales and distribution, she has ‘done it all.’
Then, having spotted a gap in the market, together with a partner, she set up India’s first bookstore café in Bangalore. It was here that she organized literary salons, inviting up to fifteen authors at a time to speak. Bookseller magazine hailed her as “one of India’s most dynamic booksellers.”
In 1997, she decided to use her years of experience in publishing to set up Jacaranda, India’s first ever literary agency. She went on build up an impressive list, working with distinguished authors such as Anita Nair and Shashi Warrior.
Following a stint living in Beijing, where she continued to develop her list, Jayapriya moved to Singapore in 2006. Once there she founded Books@Jacaranda LLP. Over the years the agency has grown and now represents more than 45 authors across South East Asia and beyond. Jayapriya has spoken at literary conferences all over Asia, from Istanbul and India to Manila and Singapore. Now a Singapore citizen, she is passionate about the visual and performing arts, about books, travel and people.
In less than five months since we first discussed the possibility of setting up a writing academy and mentorship program, Anita’s Attic opened its doors on 24 January 2015 to its first batch of writers. A whole new beginning. A journey that we will undertake over the next twelve Saturdays. Diverse voices but equally exciting talent. Can’t wait to see what emerges at the end of twelve weeks.
It’s exciting, magical and will certainly drain me out…but hey, one must try everything at least once except incest and Morris Dancing.
It was a batch of 13 participants at the first off-site creative thinking and writing workshop held under the auspices of Anita’s Attic at SAP Labs Bangalore. A baker’s dozen, I thought with a secret laugh. And how appropriate it was for I love baking and writing holds the same inexplicable combination of art and science that makes some better bakers than others.
Over two sessions held over two weeks, I saw the initial hint of skepticism fade. No one can teach another person to write but what is possible is to identify the strength of a writer and mentor it. It gave me an incredible high to see how well the writing exercises seemed to draw out latent abilities and how with each assignment, the confidence and the voice of the writer grew stronger. The queries at the end of each session became more focussed and more pertinent.
Just as the participants I had been unsure on what to expect from this workshop. But I think I learnt from the experience just as much as each one of them did. To draw out the shy and reticent participant to bridle rambunctious creative energy to step in only when I needed to or for most parts let the creative vision follow its own path.
For Anita’s Attic is not about creating an army of clones but is about shaping your creativity and your voice to be your own.
Anita’s Attic conducts its first Off-site Creative Writing Workshop in Bangalore for SAP Labs’ Literati, India’s largest corporate book-club.
Spread over two weekends ( Saturdays ) Anita Nair would conduct the creative writing workshop on campus, for SAP employees. In line with the founding principles of Anita’s Attic of helping “Find The Voice”, this Workshop would also introduce the participants into the writing process, techniques, and discussions, so the participant becomes acquainted with both thought and craft that goes into the creation of a piece of creative writing. This will also enable the participant to understand how exactly to locate the ‘voice’ which is the foundation to a literary pursuit.
We will keep you updated on the Workshop right here, as it happens.
It’s been two weeks since Anita’s Attic went live. And we are already oversubscribed but I intend to keep the doors open. I am going to wait till the end of the month to decide who exactly will constitute my first batch.
It is an exciting time and there are some concerns too. I think the last time I felt this avalanche of mixed emotions was when I was published my first novel. The wondering, the not-knowing, an occasional flash of apprehension at what may or may not emerge, the possibilities across the corner and a delirious joy that a long cherished dream was now on the threshold of reality.
For the last two weeks, I have thought of little else but Anita’s Attic and how to make it the best writer’s atelier. It isn’t just about working on crafting and the narrative process. It is also shaping a perspective; to teach how to perceive and absorb differently. All through my long car ride through the length and breadth of Punjab, and or as I sat in the quiet of my publisher’s home in Delhi early in the day sipping a cup of ginger tea, I found I could seldom veer away from Anita’s Attic – detail after detail for each detail is significant in the shaping of a mind.
After all, as David Ogilvy once said,”God is in the details”. It is a lesson that I have drawn from to guide me in both my professional and personal life.
And now in Anita’s Attic.
There isn’t perhaps a more solitary calling than writing. First there are the countless voices of self-doubt: Why write? What do I write? What am I going to do differently from all the other writers out there – published and unpublished? (more…)
