Tuesday 9 June 2015

[Contest]: LUMS Young Writers' Workshop & Short Story Contest 2015


The LUMS Young Writers' Workshop and Short Story Contest 2015  (LYWW) is now open. It is an annual contest that seeks out  the finest young writers in Pakistan and then aims to hone their skills with an intensive session with some of Pakistan's most acclaimed writers. 

The LYWW is sponsored by Ferozsons Laboratories Limited  and  the Mushtaq Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences at LUMS.



Please find the complete details of the contest below:

LUMS Young Writers Workshop & Short Story Contest 2015
A 5-day residential creative writing workshop at LUMS
August 17-21, 2015

The LUMS Young Writers Workshop was introduced in 2012 to address the lacuna of quality creative writing instruction in Pakistan. During the last three years, many young writers have received mentorship to nurture their writing talent. We are very pleased to announce the dates for this year’s contest and workshop.

Call for Entries for LUMS Young Writers Workshop 2015
Through an open short-story contest, we identify eight young writers from across Pakistan who are then invited to participate in a five day residential creative writing workshop at LUMS. All expenses other than travel are covered by the Workshop.

Mentor and Guest Speaker for the Workshop 2015
LUMS Young Writers Workshop 2015 will be mentored by Bilal Tanweer, who teaches fiction writing at LUMS. His novel, The Scatter Here Is Too Great, was published in India (Random House, 2013), the UK (Jonathan Cape, 2014), the US (Harper Collins, 2014), France (title: Le monde n'a pas de fin, Editions Stock, 2014) and is forthcoming in Germany by Hanser in 2016. It won the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2014, and was the finalist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and The Chautauqua Prize. His translation of two novels by Ibn-e Safi, The House of Fear, was published by Random House India in 2010.
The guest speaker for this year’s workshop is Saba Imtiaz who is a freelance journalist based in Karachi. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian and the Christian Science Monitor. She reports on religious movements, culture and politics in Pakistan. She is the author of Karachi, You're Killing Me! (Random House India, 2014) and No Team of Angels (First Draft Publishing, forthcoming).

The Workshop
Reading
This workshop is built on the premise that writers—or those who wish to write—are, first and foremost, tireless and passionate readers of literature. The workshop will serve as an intensive reading boot camp for young writers where they’ll have the opportunity to deeply and closely engage with great writing and respond with their own creative work. The readings and discussions are designed to help young writers appreciate a broad range of works and writing styles.

Writing
The second aspect of the workshop is writing. Each day, after a rigorous discussion of the pre-assigned texts, writers will have a chance to respond with their own writing. On the fourth day, writers will meet and discuss Karachi, You’re Killing Me with Saba Imtiaz. They will then work on a story, which will be collectively critiqued on the fifth day.

Submissions for the contest
Writers aged 18-26* years are invited to submit one work of fiction of no more than 4,000 words. There is no entry fee and submissions are via email only.  Other rules:

·         Please do not submit previously published material. 
·         Submissions and the medium of instruction of the workshop will be English.
·         The deadline for submissions is June 30, 2015.
·         Students currently enrolled in LUMS are not eligible.

*You are welcome to submit your entry even if you do not fall in this age bracket. However, all other things being equal, writers between 18-26 will be given preference.

Please send your entries at: writersworkshop@lums.edu.pk along with your CV mentioning clearly: (i) your date of birth, (ii) details of your education, (iii) your contact details including email, mailing address and phone numbers.

Terms and conditions
By sending in an entry you express your consent to be available and willing to attend the workshop on August 17-21, 2015 and complete the reading assignment of four books prior to the workshop. (You will receive the books free of charge.) Boarding, lodging, meals, and tuition will be covered. Participants will be required to arrange for their own transportation to and from LUMS.

Please note: if you believe that you will be unable to fulfill either of the two requirements listed above, that is, the reading assignment and attending all five days of the workshop, please apply next year.

The results for the contest will be announced on July 14, 2015.


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