An initiative of Sonia Faleiro. Please forward and hopefully some aspiring writers will benefit.
Begin forwarded message:
From: SouthAsiaSpeaks from SouthAsiaSpeaks’s Newsletter < [email protected]> Date: August 16, 2023 at 20:05:18 EDT To: [email protected]Subject: “Beyond Ability: The mentorship for South Asian writers with disabilities”Reply-To: SouthAsiaSpeaks from SouthAsiaSpeaks’s Newsletter <reply+291ph5&8snup&&1f39c9c852c25dde5519f817987d4f1fc0aae5c8b1aff51070cbfcdaf9f14...@mg1.substack.com>
![]() Hello everyone, we have some big news. We are delighted to say that starting in September 2023, we open applications for Beyond Ability, a dedicated mentorship for writers with disabilities. Our mentor is author and poet Abhishek Anicca. Thanks for reading SouthAsiaSpeaks’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. | | | | Hello everyone, we have some big news. We are delighted to say that starting in September 2023, we open applications for Beyond Ability, a dedicated mentorship for writers with disabilities. Our mentor is author and poet Abhishek Anicca. Abhishek says: “For a disabled person, writing can be tough. From betrayals of the body to betrayals of the mind, putting things on paper is never easy. It’s even harder when you are expected to be vulnerable and open while sharing a piece of life writing. The able bodied gaze, the judgements, the constant pressure to prove your ‘worth’. “Beyond Ability” can make the process of navigating all these things a little less lonely. You will have someone to talk to about writing, receive feedback, and have open conversations about writing and life around it.”
“Beyond Ability” is open to writers in South Asia living with a disability. The disability can be locomotor, visual, hearing, psychosocial or neurological in nature. Writers with learning disabilities are welcome, as are writers with chronic illnesses and rare diseases that might not fall under the purview of “disability” in their respective countries. Disabled writers who come from the intersections of marginalized caste, class and gender identities are encouraged to apply. The mentorship will be conducted online and applicants are requested to mention any specific accommodations that they might require. The application will be available online on our website on September 1, 2023 until September 30, 2023. If you think this mentorship is for you, please apply. And if you know someone who will benefit from applying, do pass on the news. And now an update on our excellent fellows. We’d like to congratulate Disha Mullick (SAS, 2021) on winning a New India Foundation NIF Book Fellowship. As a NIF fellow, Disha will receive a grant of Rs. 18 lakh to work on her nonfiction project Love, Death and Compromise: Stories of a New Rural Public. In an interview with the SAS team, Disha told us that being a part of the South Asia Speaks Fellowship “made possible something that was abstract and self indulgent in terms of my desire to write; SAS gave it both affirmation and structure. I shaped a lot of the book and felt confident sharing it, in the light of my experience through the SAS year.”
And please also join us in congratulating Roshini Joanna Ross (SAS, 2023) whose heartfelt essay, “Submarines, Vinyl records, Plagiarism and other stories from Mrs. Menon’s class” was published in Yaari, An Anthology on Friendship by Women and Queer Folx in South Asia, edited by Shilpa Phadke and Nithila Kanagasabai. The book is available on Amazon and at independent bookstores. Roshini’s mentor is Fatima Bhutto.
And a round of applause for Kinshuk Gupta (SAS, 2023) whose poem, “Hog's Heart” was published in Count Every Breath: A Climate Anthology edited by Vinita Agrawal. Kinshuk also wrote an essay on how Grindr fosters negative body image among queer males for The Caravan. Kinshuk’s mentor is Tishani Doshi.
We’re also thrilled for Shah Tazrian Ashrafi (SAS, 2023), who was among the five featured writers in Himal Southasian’s first ever Fiction Festival in June 2023. Read his short story surrounding the shenanigans of a group of unruly children and the death of a strict Math teacher in an Indian high school on Himal Southasian. Shah’s mentor is Karan Mahajan.
‘“There are neither children here, nor flowers,” my friend Mohan Karki said when he greeted me.”’ Read Rishu Nigam’s (SAS, 2023) beautiful essay on the disappearing rituals of a spring festival in Uttarakhand in Guernica Magazine. The essay is featured in a series of postcards on the climate apocalypse. Rishu’s mentor is Mira Kamdar.
Fatima Khan (SAS, 2023) has written several excellent reports for The Quint. Read her story on how Karnataka civil society used literature and arts to counter communalism. And her report on Hindutva Leader Radha Semwal Dhoni, who is on a mission to demolish mazars in Uttarakhand. “A Dehradun resident, Radha spends a good portion of her day traveling through the dense forests of the state capital, as well as those of several other districts, to spot mazars and then destroy them. She makes it a point to capture almost all her outings of this nature on her Facebook live.” Fatima also contributed to The Quint’s investigation on how many anti-conversion arrests in Uttar Pradesh defy the law they are based on. Fatima’s mentor is Samar Halarnkar.
For Dawn, Zehra Khan (SAS, 2023) wrote about art, girlhood, mangoes and climate change. Read her review of an art show in Karachi spotlighting the plight of the displaced people of the Gujjar Nullah; her report on how climate change is threatening Pakistan’s favorite fruit; and her exploration of why people make fun of teenage girls. Zehra writes: “I believe the oppression of women exists to shrink the limitlessness of young girls. In a world where societies are created based on black and white boundaries, girls dream big and in technicolor, threatening to live simply celebrating the very fact of their lives as women. And fulfillment is a powerful tool.” Zehra’s mentor is Aanchal Malhotra.
And finally, here’s Riddhi Dastidar (SAS, 2022) at the Mumbai Art Festival for Vogue India. “A common thread running through the murals, paintings and installations at Sassoon Dock is the hybridity resulting from the interaction of man meets sea. There are so many outcomes here: capitalism, plastic, choropleth maps, commerce, mutant undersea creatures glowing in darkness, pigeons tangled in tyres and metal beginning to breathe and spread in their stead.” Riddhi’s mentor was Deepa Anappara.
That’s all for now. Remember, we open applications for the next round of our program on September 1, 2023. If you’re an unpublished writer working on a major project you may be eligible to join our latest cohort. Visit our website in September for guidance rules and exceptions. And if you haven’t already, come chat with us on Twitter and Instagram.
Till next time, Team SAS SouthAsiaSpeaks’s Newsletter is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell SouthAsiaSpeaks’s Newsletter that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments. Pledge your support | |
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