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The Muse of the Month writing theme is back in 2016. Each month this year, we shall be hosting a writing theme, with a ‘writing cue’ from an iconic female author of Indian origin. The 5 best entries get published here!
The Muse of the Month writing theme is back in 2016. Each month this year, we will host a writing theme, with a ‘writing cue’ from a contemporary female author of Indian origin. The 5 best entries get published here!
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 ‘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 – Jan 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 to yourself (2-3 lines) in the mail.
Please note: Given the number of entries received, we won’t be able to respond to each, but every single entry is being read through very carefully and is much appreciated.
Here are the five shortlisted entries. Do keep a lookout for February’s Muse of the Month announcement soon.
The Prima Ballerina, by Sreesha Divakaran
Sands of Time, by Kasturi Patra
Kunti – Confessions of a Woman, by Deepa Arun
Evolved Pawns, by Jyothi Vinod
Tossed About By Time, by Priya Parul Singh
Please send in your stories by January 14th 2016, Thursday, 3 p.m. IST. The 5 best stories will be published on Women’s Web between the 18th to 22nd January, one on each day.
The material should be previously unpublished elsewhere.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 800 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.
The 5 best entries will each win a Flipkart voucher worth Rs 250. Plus, there will be 5 overall winners at the end of 2016 from among these winners!
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, a writer of Indian origin, residing in the USA, is an award-winning author, poet, activist and teacher. Her themes include the Indian experience, contemporary America, women, immigration, history, myth, and the joys and challenges of living in a multicultural world.
Her books have been translated into 29 languages, and her work has appeared in over a hundred magazines and anthologies. Several of her novels and stories have been made into films and plays. She has won an American Book Award and a Light of India award.
Divakaruni teaches Creative Writing at the University of Houston and writes for both adults and children. In 2015, she was chosen by the Economic Times for their list Twenty Most Influential Global Indian Women.
If you haven’t yet read her work, The Palace Of Illusions, Sister Of My Heart and The Mistress Of Spices are all good choices to begin with.
“Aren’t we all pawns in the hands of time, the greatest player of them all?” ―from Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions
Do not forget to send in your entries by January 14th 2016, Thursday, 3 p.m. IST.
Image source here.
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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