Category: Creative Writing Workshops

It isn’t often that a 25 year old writer appears on the horizon with a 694 page book of which 120 pages are just notes. The writer : Manu S Pillai and the book : The Ivory Throne [Chronicles of the House of Travancore].

In what could only be termed an invigorating session, Manu talked to the writers of Season 3 at Anita’s Attic on what started him on the book and its writing. As I sat there watching him address the class, what struck me was not just the brilliance of this young writer but also his passion for what he was doing and his diligence.

Without passion, any piece of writing no matter how brilliantly researched will not leap off the page and it is this I hope was the greatest takeaway for my writers along with some of these nuggets:

* Women’s bodies were not sexualized then as it were now
* Myth making is part of holding onto power

Thank you Manu Pillai. You are a star! And I personally look forward to seeing you scale greater heights…

There is a book everyone is talking about these days.

Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbagh and translated into English by Srinath Perur. A nonsense phrase title of a slim book but with a truly remarkable literary heft that would put tomes with ponderous titles to shame.

So to speak to Season 3 writers at Anita’s Attic, we had the gracious and gentle Vivek Shanbagh who talked of his journey from village to city, Konkani to Kannada, reader to writer, real time versus literary time and thereon.

It was a proud moment for us to be able to include Indian language writers into the Attic’s list of guest speakers. And who better than Vivek Shanbagh to start with!

Thank you Vivek.

As always, I take great care to zone in on the writers I invite to introduce the world of writing to my writers at ‎Anita’s Attic‬ and the first writer pretty much sets the tone.

And so Season 3 at Anita’s Attic kick-started with the brilliant, passionate and funny Lavanya Sankaran, author of ‪The Red Carpet and The Hope Factory.

Here are some of her quips:

On responses to writing: Your mother was the person who when you pooped thought it was brilliant.
On the writing discipline: Writing demands you write. That is the nature of that god…

Thank you Lavanya….you were a rock star!

And so the second batch of Anita’s Attic graduated and what a fun day it turned out to be:

A quick rehearsal in the morning interspersed with food and giggles.
And then the walk down the boulevard where Namma Metro had standees and posters of the event.
The event itself ran on greased wheels. With Sudhakar Rao, the former Chief Secretary and Jayanth Kodkani Deputy Resident Editor TOI doing the honours so graciously.
The readings, the handing out of certificates and good byes over coffee and bondas.

There was an innate sweetness to the day that acquired a poignanacy when two writers from Season 1 Sathya Ramaganapathy and Archana Vijay arrived to show their solidarity.

Thank you writers, and thank you *conditionsapply and Vasanth Rao and Namma Metro for supporting Anita’s Attic.

You are cordially invited to the graduation ceremony and celebrations of the second batch of writers graduating from Anita’s Attic Creative Writing Mentorship Program.

Sudhakar Rao – Former Chief Secretary, Karnataka & Jayanth Kodkani Deputy Resident Editor, Times of India Bengaluru will grace the occasion. Please do join us as the Graduating Class read out from their collaborative fiction projects at the Rangoli Metro Theatre, MG Road Bengaluru, on November 14th 2015 between 5 – 7 pm.

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The Graduating Class :

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Look forward to seeing you on :

Date : November 14th 2015

Time : 5 – 7 pm

Venue : Rangoli Metro Theatre, MG Road Bengaluru

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The Official Invite

Season 2 at Anita’s Attic | Week 11

And what an amazing penultimate session we had at Anita’s Attic.

Three groups of writers working on collaborative projects. A pre-Diwali lunch of chole bhatura, pulao and raita and matka rabri. Then the beat poet in the group let loose his verse that was seriously good stuff.

As for the last speakers of the season we had a highly entertaining duo – the author couple Devapriya Roy and Saurav Jha who talked about their brilliant travel book The Heat & Dust Project .

Food, fun and great writing. What more could anyone ask for?

Season 2 at Anita’s Attic | Week 10

It’s not very often that a reviewer is also a writer and a book seller.

Which is why it was wonderful to have the brilliant and very witty Vivek Tejuja come in as the speaker at the 10th Session of Anita’s Attic Season 2. Vivek whose young adult book will be published early next year is precisely the kind of writer one needs to introduce to new writers to. For he drives home the message again and again that it is the writing that is important and not what happens thereafter.

That is the writer’s dharma; the rest is entirely the book’s karma.

Thank you Vivek.

Season 2 at Anita’s Attic | Week 8

Samhita Arni is as young as they come. But this is a writer whose understanding of her realm and her passion for the myth space would far out rank those of many mature writers. She is exactly the kind of beacon the writers at Anita’s Attic needed to draw them on.

For without passion, there is no writing. And without research, there is no foundation to build the imagination on.

Thank you Sam.

We loved having you.

Season 2 at Anita’s Attic | Week 7

It’s wonderful to have some of the finest writing talent drop in to Anita’s Attic to speak to the writers on the writing process.

It is just as important to have an editor come by to tell them what goes into the editorial process and how manuscripts actually transform into published books. What does an editor seek in a new voice? What does an editor detest? What does an editor actually mean when she says ‘it doesn’t work’- and who better than the gorgeous and keen-eyed Ajitha G. S., Commissioning Editor at HarperCollins India?

And then a bit like the masterchef classes, a favourite from the previous season Krupa Ge dropped in as well, but more on Krupa and her doings very soon in a separate post.

Ladies, you rocked!

Season 2 at Anita’s Attic | Week 6

It’s not often that one finds a writer like Dave Besseling whose writing has an edginess that makes you want to both cringe and applaud.

Last Saturday, the Deputy Editor of GQ India and the author of Liquid Refuses to Ignite, and whose writing has been featured in GQ, The Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, Wallpaper, Rolling Stone, Forbes, The Asia Literary Review, The Toronto Star, Mint-Wall Street Journal and others dropped into the Attic to chat with the writers of Season 2.

He was candid, fun and precisely the sort of writer so necessary to add a flip to the middle of the season.

Thank you Dave. We loved having you!