India has always had a rich literary culture. While writing in English is a more recent trend in India, it has already overtaken regional language literature in terms of sales, popularity and reach. However, there is still a need in India to provide better resources for authors and to enrich the literary scene through more writers’ groups, societies and workshops. Support to struggling but talented authors in the form of grants and fellowships is also a much-needed resource.
Here are some of the available resources for writers in India today:
1. Literary Festivals:
Combining India’s love for festivals and literature, ‘lit fests’ are thriving in India. Currently, India has over 60 annual literary festivals in different regions. Nearly every major city has its own literary festival. These literary festivals are a great resource or writers, as it offers them a venue to meet with other writers, showcase their work, get valuable critique from readers and fellow writers, and keep abreast of developments in the literary and publishing scenes. Some of the major literary festivals are the Jaipur Literary Festival, South Asian Literary Festival, Kolkota lit fest, and Hyderabad lit fest. For more details, check out the literary festivals in your city, as all major cities have a good literary festival organized.
2. Literary Societies, Writers’ Workshops and Training Courses:
Indian Writers is India’s formal writers’ society with an international arm as well. It holds training workshops, literary festivals and other events. It holds a good writers’ workshop called ‘Writers at Work’. It also features works by India’s leading authors or new authors marking a mark. More details can be obtained at: https://www.indianwriters.org/
The Pomegranate Workshop: Pomegranate is a venture for fostering creative arts. It offers workshops and learning programs for children and adults in the areas of art, creative writing, and film making, to name a few. The workshops are held in Mumbai and Delhi at present. The details of writing workshops and schedules can be obtained from their website.
Sangam House is targeted towards writers and offers specific training workshops. According to their website, Sangam House is described as “an international writers’ residency program located in India which brings together writers from across the world to live and work among their peers in a safe, supportive and nurturing space.”
Fablery is a small publishing house which also provides some resources for writers. Thanks to its policy of accepting un-agented submissions from authors (with specific manuscript requirements), it provides aspiring writers with an opportunity to get published and reach out to the bigger audience. Their website provides details of their workshops schedule.
Avid Learning is a teaching portal that offers extensive training opportunities in various fields. Writing workshops are also held periodically. AVID workshops are open to all and are delivered by experts from India and abroad. Details can be obtained from the website.
Sri Aurobindo Society caters to the creative arts. It holds creative writing courses from time to time, and the details are available on their website.
Writers Workshop is actually a small indie publishing house with some resources for writers. More details can be had at their website: https://www.writersworkshopindia.com
Online resources: There are several online training courses offered in literature and creative writing. This website: https://gyaanexchange.com provides details of related training courses and schedules.
Image credit: Meena Kadri on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/CS_Rajan.jpg [/author_image] [author_info]CS Rajan is a freelance writer who loves to write on various topics, and is currently working on her first novel. [/author_info] [/author]