Workshops: PG Wodehouse

Hello fine readers: A workshop organised by Out of Print author, Nisha Susan, and Gaurav Jain.

WHAT PG WODEHOUSE CAN TEACH YOU ABOUT READING, WRITING & LIVING

Spend a weekend with the master of laughs and learn some profound lessons along the way.

On Reading: How to resist your education, be aware of prevalent conventions, enjoy the classics and consume both pop and high culture.

On Writing: How to keep a discipline, increase your efficiency, plan meticulously, understand your market, create universal appeal, be prolific, form zinger sentences, create fantastic characters and plot intricately.

On Living: How to remain cheerful in adversity, not misinterpret events, draw strength from childhood, keep lifelong friends, and foil all the zany schemes, dumb employers, bossy employees, horrible relatives and pesky pets out there.

In general, how to read better, write better and not be an insufferable literary git. Or something like that.

Testimonials from past participants: http://goo.gl/2evF2 

Dates: Saturday, April 6 2:00-6:00 pm & Sunday, April 7 10:00 am-2:00 pm

Venue: Indian Social Institute, Benson Town, Bangalore

Cost: Rs 2,500 (Includes tea/snacks on Saturday and lunch on Sunday)

Instructors: Nisha Susan & Gaurav Jain are prominent writers and critics. Susan is a fiction writer and former Culture Editor at Tehelkamagazine whose short stories have been published by Penguin, Zubaan and Out of Print. She was a columnist for Time Out Delhi and currently writes a film column for TheBigIndianPicture.com. Her latest short story is published this month in the anthology Of Mothers & Others. Jain is a critic and former Literary Editor at Tehelka magazine who won the 2012 Press Club Award for Excellence in Journalism. He was on the jury last year for Elle India’s selection of the Best South Asian Young Writers.Susan and Jain were also the editors of Tehelka's annual issue of short stories for many years, where they commissioned and edited some of the finest south Asian writers such as Amitava Kumar, Ruskin Bond, Devdutt Pattanaik, Sarnath Banerjee, Anjum Hasan, HM Naqvi, Musharraf Ali Farooqi, etc.

Contact: crackthestory@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/CrackTheStory

The Literary Magazine Database: Earthen Lamp Journal

E

Earthen Lamp Journal
Website: www.earthenlampjournal.com
Genre: Themed journal featuring all genres of literature
Focus: Literary writing: fiction (including translations, novelettes, extracts), creative non-fiction, poetry, reviews, interviews, art
Format: Online
Contact Details:

   submissions@earthenlampjournal.com
Editors:
   Divya Dubey

   Mariam Karim Ahlawat

   Abdullah Khan

   Suneetha Balakrishnan

   KG Sreenivas

   Renu Kaul

Frequency: Three times a year

Last Issue: January 2013

The Literary Magazine Database: Muse India

M

Muse India, the literary ejournal

Website: http://www.museindia.com

Genre: All genres of literature

Focus: Indian Writing in English and translations from all regional literatures

Format: Online

Contact Details:

   chiefeditor@museindia.com

Editors:

   G S P Rao – Founding Managing Editor and Chief Editor

   Ambika Ananth – Poetry

   T Vijay Kumar – General

   Charanjeet Kaur – Literary Articles

   Atreya Sarma – Fiction & Book Reviews

Frequency: Bi-monthly

Last Issue: Mar-Apr 2013

Submission Guidelines: http://www.museindia.com/submissions.asp

The Literary Magazine Database: nether

N

nether

Website: http://nethermagazine.org

Genre: poetry/prose/short fiction/non-fiction

Focus: writing in India

Format: Print

Contact Details:

   Divya Nadkarni,

   1 Kamal Niwas,

   Mogul Lane,

   Mahim, Mumbai 400016

   Nether.submissions@gmail.com

Editors :

   Divya Nadkarni

   AB Datta

   Rohan Chhetri

Frequency: Quarterly

Last Issue: February 2012

Submission Guidelines: http://nethermagazine.org/about/

Reading Period: All year

The Literary Magazine Database: Papercuts

P

Papercuts

Website: http://www.desiwriterslounge.net/papercuts

Genre: poetry/fiction/reportage

Focus: Promotion of aspiring South Asian writers

Format: Online

Contact Details:

   editor.papercuts@desiwriterslounge.net

Editors:

   Afia Aslam – Editor

   Omer Wahaj – Managing Editor

   Farheen Zehra – Associate  Editor

   Shehla Wynne – Prose  Editor

   Waqas Naeem – Prose  Editor 

   Noorulain Noor – Lead  Poetry Editor

   Osman Khalid Butt – Poetry Editor 

   Hera Naguib – Poetry Editor

   Amita Rao – Poetry Editor

Frequency: Biannual

Last Issue: Volume 11, Prequel, winter, 2013

Submission Guidelines: http://www.desiwriterslounge.net/papercuts/submissions 

Reading Period: All year

The Literary Magazine Database: Out of Print

O

Out of Print

Website: http://outofprintmagazine.co.in

Genre: literary short fiction

Focus: Writing connected to the subcontinent

Format: Online

Contact Details

   outofprintmagazine@gmail.com

Editors:

   Indira Chandrasekhar – Founding Editor

   Samhita Arni – Editor

   Mira Brunner – Editor (on hiatus)

Frequency: Quarterly

Last Issue: Issue 10, March 2013

Submission Guidelines:

http://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/submission-guidelines.html,

http://outofprintmagazine.blogspot.in/2012/07/out-of-print-submissions.html

Reading Period: All year

Editor’s Comments:

See our Six Questions interview for a sense of what we look for

The Literary Magazine Database at Out of Print

The Literary Magazine Database at Out of Print:

A constantly evolving database of magazines that publish literary short fiction connected to the South Asian subcontinent.

A
Almost Island
almostisland.com

B
Bengal Lights
bengallights.com

Bombay Literary Magazine (The)
bombayliterarymagazine.com

C

Caravan

Criterion (The)
the-criterion.com

D

DesiLit
inactive

E

Earthen Lamp Journal

earthenlampjournal.com

F

Four Quarters Magazine (The)

tfqmagazine.org

H
Helter Skelter (/New Writing)
helterskelter.in

Himal Southasian
himalmag.com

J

Jaggery

jaggerylit.com

L

Little Magazine (The)

littlemag.com

M

Madras Mag

madrasmag.in

Muse India, the literary ejournal

museindia.com

N

nether

nethermagazine.org

North East Review

northeastreview.com

O
Open Road Review
openroadreview.in

Out of Print

outofprintmagazine.co.in

P

Papercuts

www.desiwriterslounge.net/papercuts

Pratilipi

pratilipi.in

Reading Room Co.

pratilipi.in

Out of Print Author Series: Altaf Tyrewala

Altaf Tyrewala's extraordinary Ministry of Hurt Sentiments was launched in October of 2012. Written in verse, its critical and uncompromising gaze is cast on the city of Mumbai and revealed through layers of stories.

His Mischief in Neta Nagar appeared in in the December 2011 issue of Out of Print and was picked up by a Norwegian publishing house. It will be part of an anthology that introduces young Norwegian teenagers to different cultures through the world of English literature!

Altaf Tyrewala in a Norwegian anthology

I was tremendously excited by a letter I received a few weeks ago from the Aschehoug Publishing House in Norway. Here is what it said:

Our education department is currently working on a new edition of REFLECTIONS, which is a textbook for learners of English in Norwegian upper secondary schools who are taking an in-depth course in English language studies and key issues related to culture and society in the English-speaking world. English-language literature forms part of the curriculum requirements for this course, and in addition to text written by the authors themselves, the book will also serve as an anthology of English-language literature. The authors of the book are Hellevi Haugen, Julia Kagge, Jan Erik Mustad, Nora Nordan, Ulla Rahbek, Audun Rugset, and Sigrid Brevik Wangsness.

REFLECTIONS was published in 2008 and needs to be revised and updated. We would like to include the short story Mischief In Neta Nagar by Altaf Tyrewala in the new edition, which will be called NEW REFLECTIONS. We found the short story here: 

http://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/archive/dec_2011_issue/Altaf_Tyrewala.html

I put Altaf in touch with them immediately – which was a minorly thrilling adventure in itself. The Norwegians needed a response urgently and Altaf’s internet was being gimpy so he hadn’t responded. I had to send urgent messages to lovely friends of Out of Print, Chandrahas Choudhury and Annie Zaidi for alternate ways to get the message across, and – I’d like to throw in a car chase or a shady alleyway scene, but – it was all quite straightforward after that.

Altaf tells me that everything has gone smoothly and he only awaits the delivery of New Reflections. 

Announcing the Bristol Short Story Prize

Rebecca Lloyd, writer, editor, Out of Print author, winner of the inaugural Bristol Short Story Prize and friend of Out of Print put the organisers of the highly regarded Bristol Prize in touch with us. 
The 2013 prize opened last week. Here are the details:

The 2013 Bristol Short Story Prize is open to all writers, UK and non-UK based, over 16 years of age.
Stories can be on any theme or subject and
entry can be made online via the website or by
post. Entries must be previously unpublished
with a maximum length of 4,000 words (There is no minimum). The
entry fee is £8 per story.
The closing date for entries is April 30th 2013.

Prizes: 
1st £1000 plus £150 Waterstone’s gift card
2nd £700  plus £100 Waterstone’s gift card
3rd £400   plus £100 Waterstone’s gift card
17 further prizes of £100 will be presented to the writers
whose stories appear on the shortlist. All 20 shortlisted
writers will have their stories published in the Bristol Short
Story Prize Anthology Volume 6. The winning story will, also, be published
in Bristol Review of Books magazine.

The 20 shortlisted writers will be invited to an awards ceremony 
in Bristol in October 2013 when the winners will be announced and the anthology launched.
Any shortlisted writers unable to attend the awards ceremony will be sent their prizes.
The awards ceremony will be part of the 2013 Bristol Festival of Literature.

Judging panel : Ali Reynolds (literary consultant, former Random House editor) 
Bidisha (writer, broadcaster, critic) Anna Britten (author and  journalist)
Chris Wakling (novelist, Creative Writing tutor)

Full details and rules at www.bristolprize.co.uk

Out of Print 10

In the March 2013 release of Out of Print, our tenth, we feature five stories. They range in focus from accenting societal disparities, as in Sathya Saran’s The Anklet, and Murli Melwani’s Gift for the Goddess, to looking inward as do Salma’s On the Edge and Rheea Mukherjee’s A Larger Design, where quotidian navigations are skewed by the characters’ psychologies, and Tanuj Solanki’s Sentatoms, in which the personal and the creative are examined

The acutely fine cover art is by Olivia Fraser from her series, Sacred Landscape.

The issue brings new features: the links have now been organised so contributors, and successes that pertain to the authors are more easily accessed. A list of works that we run on occasion on the blog, stories that are chosen on a case by case basis, may also be read through the links.

As always, it is an honour to present the new edition of Out of Print. 

Image of an Anklet

The exquisite ornament that inspired Sathya Saran's story, The Anklet, in the new issue of Out of Print!

Photo credit: Shiv Saran

Out of Print Author Series: Annam Manthiram

Annam Manthiram has a new collection of short stories called Dysfunction published by Aqueous Press. 

I think often about the things that factor into putting a collection together – does a collection work best if the stories are coherent in terms of style or of setting, should they have a common thread, should they be linked or follow specific characters?

Judging from the blurb, and the comments from other writers, Dysfunction, as a collection is true to its name. The stories are ‘dramatically different in style and form’, they take you to ‘disparate worlds’ and ‘map the territory of the unloved’. They range from the wicked (a divorcée recounts her failed marriages sardonically from A to Z), to heart-wrenchingly commonplace (an older Indian woman struggles to find a husband during humiliating bride-viewings), and emotionally barren (a mother cannot understand why her family doesn’t love her enough to remember her son’s first birthday). At times funny, concludes the blurb, but always incisive, this collection of stories examines the survival of those whose only certainty is dysfunction.

Annam's story, the sad and disturbing The Reincarnation of Chamunda appeared in the Mythology issue of Out of Print in June, 2011 is in the collection.

We are ordering our copy of Dysfuntion now.

Out of Print Author Series: Sampurna Chattarji

Sampurna Chattarji releases a new book, this time, we are proud to say, a short story collection! 

With the enticing title, Dirty Love, the stories in the collection are set, as detailed in the blurb, in the restless swirl of a Bombay where dream-shuttles speed through the rain and men fall prey to dirty love. Reeking of sewers, fish markets, slaughtered meat, and peopled with loners, misfits and drifters, these tales prise open the surface of everyday existence.

Sampurna’s ability to go deep into a character are evident from Just Looking, published in the March 2012 issue of Out of Print. We look forward to reading Dirty Love!

Short Fiction on the Out of Print Blog

Short Fiction on the Out of Print Blog

Suneeta Rao: Pink Doll
Indu Parvathi: A Version of She Can Sing
Monika Pant: The Pink Doll
Ila: Travails of a Dyeing Grandmother
Ayesha Aleem: Shoes
Sonali Bhatia: Clown Shoes and a Couple of Cats

Sucharita Dutta-Asane: Absolution

Joshua Salomon Gannon: Moksha: Ravana's Monologue

Sumitra Krishnan: Salamanca Story

Non-fiction on the Out of Print Blog
Ranjit Hoskote: Kekoo Gandhy

Out of Print is listed at

Out of Print is Listed at:

Duotrope's Digest
Asia Writes Directory
New Pages
Litmags
Eclectica Magazine
Poets and Writers
Bristol Short Story Prize: Magazines and Journals

Contributors

CONTRIBUTORS TO OUT  OF PRINT:

The Out of Print Archive contains links to past editions of the journal

For a list of Contributing Authors and Translators go to CONTRIBUTORS.

Stories from the Out of Print workshop at Lekhana 2013

Stories from the Out of Print workshop at Lekhana

On Saturday, January 19, 2013, Outof Print held a short fiction workshop at the Lekhana Literary gathering that took place at Jagriti Theatre in Bangalore. The workshop was aimed at writers with some experience, and the focus, in keeping with Lekhana’s theme of ‘Writing the Spoken Word’ and the theme of the Out of Print afternoon at Lekhana, ‘Dialogue in Short Fiction’, was on writing dialogue.

We were lucky to have Rebecca Lloyd visiting from the UK. Rebecca is an award winning short story writer, a novelist, a creative writing tutor and an editor. She and I worked together on putting together the anthology Pangea, Thames River Press, 2012, and are currently starting work on the next one. We asked her if she would conduct the workshop for us.

Writers had to develop a short piece to a prompt, and examine the impact of dialogue on the story. The prompt, a news story about shoes, is quite an extraordinary one. The stories that emerged were varied, imaginative, personal and individual – stories of love, loneliness, the spiritual, the commercial and the creepy. We were so taken with the quality and diversity, and the different ways in which dialogue was used, that we decided to offer the writers the possibility of having Rebecca and myself edit the story once and post it on the blog associated with Out of Print.

Two writers sent in their work. I think both stories are remarkable in the way they use dialogue. Sonali Bhatia’s Clown Shoes and a Couple of Cats is written entirely in dialogue. The piece is energetic and funny and reveals an instinct and understanding of how to carry a story forward, how to unfold it, using speech. Ayesha Aleem’s Shoes, on the other hand, uses dialogue sparsely. A story that addresses loneliness and cultural contrasts, the dialogue occurs halfway at a pivotal point in the story, drawing attention to all that the story rests on.

The workshop and the stories that emerged from it vindicate having literary gatherings that are for writers, for literary practitioners, and which allow for discussion and the generation of ideas. It seems that our workshop group found the process valuable enough that they are going to try and meet regularly to critique one another’s writing, a matter of great pleasure and pride!

When Rebecca and I first discussed the prompt, she felt it was essentially about finding out who was leaving the shoes there, and why. Whereas I thought of sacred places, places where you leave your shoes off before entering, which meant the story could well be about why the shoes were not reclaimed. 

Rebecca ended her visit to India at the caves in Ajanta and Ellora, at many of which she left her shoes off when entering. In her note to a short story group she mentors, she writes of the experience:  ‘Towards the end of my stay, we went to Aurangabad where there are really astonishing monasteries created out of caves of sometimes very black volcanic rock …

Already, since being back in England, I've revisited a good few of the monasteries in my memory, and the experience remains just as physical as it did in real life, one of the most delicious things about it being to walk bare-foot over the dark smooth cool floors of those temples, often towards an image of Buddha in the depths of the cave's or monastery's shadows.’

Stories from the Out of Print workshop at Lekhana: Ayesha Aleem

Shoes

Ayesha Aleem

In this country, people don’t take their shoes off before they enter someone’s home. Or even a place of worship, like church. They keep their shoes on all the time. Sometimes I think they keep them on even when they sleep. But every now and then, this strange lot does the unthinkable. They remove their shoes. Maybe to feel the grass beneath their feet at a park or before getting into a swimming pool. The best place for nicking them, of course, is shoe shops, where I have the option of brand new shoes as well as an older pair that an unsuspecting customer may have taken off to try on a new one. 

I have to work very hard. Be very quick. Through the day, through the night. I have to keep going if I want to meet my goal of collecting more shoes than I did the previous time. Then I empty the load at the same spot that is quickly becoming famous. People come from all over to gawk at the place that they thought shoes were being dumped. I enjoy the bewildered looks on their faces. Kind of like my own private joke. 

Two years ago, my beautiful wife died. I had always prayed that I go first so that I wouldn’t have to live without her. But she left me and suddenly I found myself splashing around in the deep end without a paddle. Pavi and I had lived together in the same village that we were originally from, for forty-three years. We had children but our world was too stifling, too limiting for them. Our son left to study in Delhi and his sister followed soon after. They are bright kids who soon got jobs and moved to the United States. 

When Pavi died, our daughter Suri, had been visiting. She had sat by her mother’s bedside and later arranged the funeral. When the last rites were finished, it was dark outside. We had sat down to dinner without appetites. Her husband and children had gone to bed several hours before that. ‘Would you like some dal dad,’ she said. I nodded, barely. She spooned some of the yellow liquid into my plate and then gave me two chapattis to go with it. She served herself as well and we sat picking at our foods for a long time, in complete silence. 

‘Dad, I want you to come live with me. In America. I can’t leave you here by yourself.’ We had had this conversation before. My English had never been very good and I hadn’t spent much time outside my rural home. I hadn’t spent much time outside a life with Pavi. The kids had always spoken to us in English hoping that we would learn some. A few years ago, Suri bought her mother and I a laptop and taught us how to use the Internet. 

‘Suri … you have your family … and…,’ I said in my native language. 

‘Yes, I do. But you are also my family and I want you to come live with me.’

A few months later, Suri visited again, this time on her own. She helped me pack and move. With her. To her. Away from Pavi. 

Every year, just before the monsoons, there used to be padh yatra, a pilgrimage on foot, which ended at a temple not far from where we lived. Devotees from all across the country would abandon their shoes along the sides of the national highway to walk barefoot toward the deity. They came from within the state and Kolkata and places as far away as Mumbai and Gujarat. They walked for miles and miles hoping that the deity that was their destination, would be pleased with them and bless them. 

Pavi and I had loved this time of year. We loved the sight of piles of shoes and the throngs of people that would pass by our home. We looked forward to the event every year. There was something familiar and comforting about it but it still felt new and exotic each time. It was Pavi’s idea to set up a stall outside our home that travellers could stop at for water and snacks. We also offered first aid for cracked heels, calluses and minor injuries. When she died, so did our annual ritual, and much of the life that we had created together. Collecting the shoes and creating the pile was my way of holding on to my Pavi. Of clinging to her memory in this foreign land where people did not remove their shoes before entering someone’s house or before they went in to a place of worship.