Masterclass with Farah Ghuznavi on Inspiration By Aisha Hamid Farah Ghuznavi, author of the short story collection Fragments of Riversong, is a development practitioner and a short story maestro. Brimming with wisdom, Farah appeared as a friend, gently nudging us through our many doubts and fears by sharing her lived experience as a self-taught writer.Continue reading “Inspiration for Fiction: Seeing, Capturing and Releasing”
Author Archives: writebeyondborders
Balance is a Journey
Tackling message with Deepanjana Pal by Ishrat Jahan When thinking of ‘finding balance’, in the past I would have said I picture it as simply walking on a tightrope. But after an hour-long session with Deepanjana Pal, instead I see it as overlooking a landscape (of the stories we write) with a pair of binocularsContinue reading “Balance is a Journey”
Building Fictional Worlds
World-building with Saad Z Hossain by Tanvi Srivastava A monsoon evening in Dhaka, a bookshelf stretching to the ceiling. Saad joins the WBB mentees via Zoom to describe his writing journey and to share some tips of the trade. Journey as a writer Saad laughs when asked to describe his journey as a ‘serious writer’.Continue reading “Building Fictional Worlds”
Where should we begin?
Sabyn Javeri on writing strong openings by Eshna Sharma What makes a good opening for a novel or a short story? Moreover, why must we write a good opening? These are questions that Sabyn Javeri, Senior Lecturer of Writing at New York University, Abu Dhabi, answered eloquently in an hour-long masterclass with us, the menteesContinue reading “Where should we begin?”
Writing Rooted in Community
Masterclass with Jane Borges By Maham Khalid The second WBB masterclass was presented by Jane Borges, a keen journalist who applies her skillset to writing books deeply rooted in rich, textured real-life communities, individuals, and experiences. An engaging speaker, it was fascinating to listen to Borges explain the various threads she pulled together in orderContinue reading “Writing Rooted in Community”
Researching your Novel
Masterclass with Catherine Menon By Megha Nayar On 22nd May, ten emerging writers of South Asian descent – complete strangers to one another until the week before – came together to share a Zoom frame. We may have logged in from places as distinct as Kohima and Karachi and Lucknow and Lahore, but we hadContinue reading “Researching your Novel”
Masterclasses
The WBB mentors have a fabulous range of masterclasses lined up for our mentees. If you applied for the project, you will also have access to each class for a limited time, so remember to sign up via eventbrite, if you haven’t done so already. The masterclasses are a great opportunity to improve your writingContinue reading “Masterclasses”
Meet our Mentees
What a response we had to our call for entries! You sent us a fantastic range of short stories, personal essays and novel openings. There was some memorable poetry in there, too. It was very difficult to choose just ten emerging writers from the close-to-200 submissions, but here are our mentees for 2021. If youContinue reading “Meet our Mentees”
Write Beyond Borders 