“It has been estimated that the average person has sixty thousand separate thoughts each and every day.” – Wayne W. Dyer. Most of us have minds that race night and day and if you’re a writer a major chunk of … Continued
I am back from my Pakistan trip. It was by far the most literarily productive vacation I’ve ever taken. Reasons being: * I ran a Poetry Workshop in collaboration with Foundation for Arts, Culture and Education (FACE) which was a … Continued
I’m visiting Pakistan, Ramzan just ended and it’s Eid holidays. That alone should be enough to make me throw down my pen and surrender to the lure of long-awaited family gatherings, conversations that end at dawn, excursions with kids, constant … Continued
Cultural representation in a language not native to that culture is tricky business. As someone who writes poetry on Indo-Pak culture and its socio-political dynamics – not in Urdu or any of the many regional languages, but in English – … Continued
This blog post was written during jetlag and recovering from the FIFA World Cup 2014 Final (I was supporting Argentina…sigh). Factor in kegs of caffeine and you get a fair idea of my state-approaching-zombie. I have tried to be lucid … Continued
PART III: POST-CONFERENCE REFLECTIONS The final part of the YWC 2014 posts. Post-conference ennui exists. It is real. For days or weeks you live, breathe, eat and sleep in an environment designed to facilitate your writing; you engage with writers … Continued
PART I: PREPARATION After months of waiting… I executed several Corp de Ballet-worthy pirouettes across the room after the news sank in that I had, indeed, been accepted to the Yale Writers’ Conference (YWC) to be held June 18 – … Continued
A project journal is kept for the purpose of recording thoughts, activities, reflections, anything related to an underway project, from its inception to completion. For writers, their projects could be anything from a novel to a group of poems. As … Continued
“The spider’s doing trapeze! “I am green on the outside and blue on the inside.” “I did a waterfall in my pants.” These are just some examples of how the under-five crowd uses language. The ease with which they express … Continued
It’s fairly common advice from seasoned writers: once you’ve completed a draft, get distance from your work. For me, this has been the most valuable piece of advice. Once you’ve sweated through a draft, it’s time to let it steep. … Continued