[Reader-list] [Announcements] Call for Applications: A Masterclass on Imaginative Prose

[aarti at sarai.net]

Call for Applications: Imaginative Prose
A masterclass facilitated by Sharmistha Mohanty
4 November 2006 to 12 December 2006
Sarai-CSDS
29 Rajpur Road
Civil Lines
Delhi 110054


This workshop is open to those who wish to have a serious engagement with
prose writing, fiction or non-fiction, that is, imaginative prose.

Because we are born into language, writing cannot be taught as a craft,
like the other arts. We already know the codes, the grammar, how to make
sentences, paragraphs, pages. In writing we work at the opposite end from
a musician or a dancer who must first learn the basics, we need to refuse
the ease with which words come. A first task then is to make a
relationship with language, different from the everyday one.

For myself, as a prose writer, I see speech as close to thought, writing
as close to consciousness. That is why it is often possible in writing to
express something unknown even to oneself. More than finding a way to make
this relationship with language, we can look at how it can be allowed.
This may mean expanding the space of language, not shrinking it by taking
on given structures, or having too defined a purpose, or using a kind of
language that has been worn out with use.

A second task is to ask the question, what is form? In writing, form
arises not from an external, not from mere wishes or ideals. Form arises
from a real need. This is what must be identified, by everyone,
individually, for themselves. Arising from a need and arriving at its
shape through a struggle, each found form will have its own rigour and can
never be whimsical or random.

This also means that we can explore the very borders of prose, where it
stands at the edge, perhaps, of poetry.

By letting oneself be with these explorations, one can move towards a
writing which is able to evoke what is not already known.

The basic principle I will work with in conducting the workshop is that
writing, because it cannot be “taught,” can only be guided, by a
practitioner, and the best form of guidance is to work on the actual
writing and take it forward through criticism and dialogue.

Each participant will present at least two prose pieces of reasonable
length during the course of the workshop. The work will be discussed at
the workshop by myself and all the other participants. I will also hold
one-on-one sessions with everyone at least once during the course.

We will also be doing some reading, in a parallel track, reading which
spans a vast array of prose forms. The reading however, will only be
ancillary, it is the writing on which we will concentrate.

[Sharmistha Mohanty studied at the Iowa Writers Workshop in the USA. She
is the author of two novels, Book One, and the recently published New Life
(India Ink/Roli Books.) Her translations of Tagore’s fiction, Broken Nest
and Other Stories, is due out in early 2007.
Mohanty’s work has appeared in journals in the USA, UK, France, and India,
as well as the online journal www.inertiamagazine.com. She was a fellow at
the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Germany and has been awarded a Senior
Fellowship by the Minsitry of Culture. She has also worked as a
scriptwriter, among others with Mani Kaul, for the film Nazar.]


The workshop will have limited participants. Applicants should send in a
writing sample of imaginative prose, not more than five pages, and a page
on why they would like to attend this workshop.

The workshop will run from November 4th to December 12th. There will be
two sessions a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The sessions will begin at
4:00 p.m. and will run for three hours each time.

Applications must be in by October 10th, 2006. Applicants will be informed
by October 20th.

There is a participant charge of Rs. 1500, payable on confirmation of
selection.
Applications and queries can be sent to dak at sarai.net, with the subject
line "Creative Writing Workshop". Paper applications should be posted to:

"Application for Creative Writing Workshop"
Sarai / CSDS
29 Rajpur Road
Delhi - 110054




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