Pals’ Brigade
Author and journalist Hartosh Singh Bal’s recent indictment of the literary set—“a small circle of people acquainted with each other make up the circuit of writers, reviewers and editors”—seems to have hit literary types where it hurts. At the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize ceremony, some of them were defensive about how incestuous the litworld can get. One of the judges, Rana Dasgupta, decided on a full disclosure: “I know the authors of all but one of the seven books on the shortlist.” But don’t get the wrong idea: Rana claims knowing the author makes him a harsher critic. This year’s winner, Mridula Koshy, is a good friend of his, so go figure!
The Write Home-in
For a country that seems to produce a new writer in English everyday, it’s odd we haven’t got a writer’s residency programme. But the brand new M Literary Residency Programme is offering two residencies in 2010 for both published and unpublished writers in India and China. The three-month residencies—in Shanghai and Pondicherry—offer accomodation plus a stipend of US $1,000 each. Last date to apply (www.m-literaryfestival.com) is January 15, 2010.
Gladly Glabrous
Writers are full of folk tales about how to get down to writing. Don’t know if this is true but the story goes that when Amitav Ghosh was writing his first novel, he shaved off half his hair so that he wouldn’t be tempted to go out until he’d finished his book. It worked, and once the book was ready, he was asked what he’d do next. He fingered his bristly, half-naked scalp and said wryly: “Grow back my hair.”
