Muse Of The Month December 2016: Inspiration From Namita Gokhale

Posted: November 29, 2016

Tags:fiction patriarchy women at work writing

We end the 2016 Muse of the Month series with inspiration from Namita Gokhale, an iconic Indian writer. The 5 best entries get published on Women’s Web.

What you need to do for December 2016

Step 1. Read the writing cue (which is either a direct quote from the featured author, or a quote from one of their works, mentioned down below) and get inspired.

Step 2. Write your own story/poem/narrative/essay/piece based on the cue. You could use it as the opening line, the closing sentence, or somewhere in between! You could even choose not to use it anywhere in your story – just write a story using the cue as a prompt. (And the ‘story’ can be fictional – or not – as you wish).

Step 3. Send your work to us. Please email it to [email protected] with ‘Muse of the month – December 2016’ in the subject line, and your story as a word/txt attachment. Do include the name we should use if we publish it, and a brief introduction of yourself (2-3 lines) in the mail.

Please note: Given the number of entries received, we won’t be able to respond to each one, but every single entry is being read through very carefully and is much appreciated.

Deadlines

Please send in your stories by Tuesday, 13th December, 3 p.m. IST. The 5 best stories will be published on Women’s Web between the 19th and 23rd of December, one on each day.

Rules

The material should be previously unpublished elsewhere. (Copyright stays with you and you’re free to subsequently publish it elsewhere).

Keep it between 250 and 2000 words. (Please keep this in mind; in past editions, we have had to disqualify some good entries purely due to word count issues).

Please avoid typing the story as inline text. Send it as an attachment only.

Prizes

The 5 best entries will each win a Flipkart voucher worth Rs 250. Plus, there will be 10 overall winners at the end of 2016 from among these winners!

Muse of the month December 2016

Founder director of Jaipur Literature Festival, Namita Gokhale is an author known for her adaptations of classical myths and literature.

She was born in Lucknow to Kumaoni parents. Married at 18, she debuted with her first novel Paro: Dreams of Passion in 1984, much criticised for its candid sexual humor.

Most of her female protagonists have been from the upper middle class and have had to face dishonour. Her female characters are prone to subtly challenge male supremacy in society. Her characters hail from a cross section of society and are inspired by social reality.

Namita Gokhale is a versatile author with easy command over fiction and non-fiction writing. Besides writing she also loves publishing, and her Namita Gokhale editions has conducted writers’ retreats with Roli Books. She is also the person behind the concept of International Festival Of Indian Literature and member-secretary of Indian Literature Abroad.

A prolific writer with a feminist point of view, some of her works are Gods, Graves, and Grandmother (1994), Mountain Echoes: Reminiscences of Kumaoni Women (1994), Himalayan Love Story (1996), The Book of Shiva (2000), The Book of Shadows (2001), Present Tense: Living on the Edge (2004), Shakuntala: The Play of Memory (2005), The Habit of Love (2012), and the newest on the block, Things to Leave Behind (Oct 2016). She had also compiled and edited a few essay and story anthologies, notably In Search of Sita: Revisiting Mythology (2009) and Travelling In, Travelling Out (2015).