DesiLit Daily

(*) = definitely will be offered

KRITI PANEL TOPICS

WRITING CRAFT:

(*) How Do I Become a Writer?
Panelists offer their own experiences and discuss the path they took to
calling themselves writers.

Getting Started
When writing a story, where do you begin? A character? An idea? A
situation? A message?

(*) Writing and Language
What languages do you choose to write in? Do you consider diction,
dialect, formality? Do you worry about what your audience will be able to
understand?

Character and Emotion
How do you approach capturing emotional truth (believable character
emotions and motivations) in fiction?

Taking Risks with Writing
What do you find risk taking in writing? Not just in content but in the
form (structure, style, tone). How would you describe the current trend in
writing aesthetics and what cultural/social trends do you think might be
influencing factors?

WRITING BUSINESS:

The Business of Writing: Children's Literature
Writers and editors review the paths to writing children's lit.,
suggesting markets and ways to improve your writing.

The Business of Writing: Short Stories
Writers and editors review the paths to writing short fiction, suggesting
markets and ways to improve your writing.

The Business of Writing: Novels
Writers, editors and agents review the paths to writing novels, discussing
the process of writing your novel, the process of finding an agent and
submitting your novel, and what happens after.

The Business of Writing: Poetry
Poets discuss how/if one can make a living as a poet.

CHILDREN'S LIT:

Recommended Children's Literature
Writers and editors discuss what writers they love to read, and what makes
a story stand out as exceptional children's literature.

(*) Picture Books
What are the specific challenges to writing a picture book? How do you
effectively convey a story in thirty sentences or less?

Writing Children's Lit.
Why do you choose to write children's literature? What was your path
towards writing in this field? Do you feel that you're marginalized as a
writer as a result, that your work is seen as less serious, less
important?

GENERAL LITERARY:

Writing Culturally-Specific Stories
When you write about a culture, do you feel a responsibility to accurately
represent the community? What are your concerns? What do you do to help
you in that process?

Writing and The Family
Panelists discuss the reactions of their families to their writing.
Writing as a career choice. Writing controversial material. Writing
about one's family. The South Asian family.

(*) Who Is Your Community? Who Are You Writing For?
"South Asians aren't your target audience." If nine out of ten people
reading your novel will be white, do you care? Editors and agents review
marketing and demographic concerns when publishing South Asian and
diaspora literature, while writers consider the questions:
What voice are you trying to portray? Who is your desired audience? Who
do you feel your community of writers is? Do you worry about questions of
identity and authenticity? Do you write about white people? Black
people? What generation are you writing for?

Gender and South Asian Literature
Why aren't there more men writing creatively? Are men's concerns
different from women's? Do South Asian men write about different sorts of
topics (large-scale political and historical stories) than South Asian
women (arranged marriage, family and individual duty, personal freedom,
cooking?) Do men and women write differently? Do you prefer to read
literature by men or women, and if so, why?

Queer Issues in South Asian Literature
Authors and readers consider the role of GLBT characters and queer issues
in South Asian literature, and discuss these stories' reception in the
South Asian community.

Caste and Class in Diasporic Literature
Authors and readers discuss the way caste and class issues are presented
in South Asian literature. Which texts engage these issues directly? How
good a job do they do of examining these concerns?

(*) Memoir Writing
To what extent are we willing to expose ourselves? Do we have the right
to expose the lives of our family and friends? Is the need to tell a true
story, to be honest, more important than the need to consider the feelings
of others? And what happens when you're not sure you're remembering the
story right to begin with? Writers discuss the challenges of memoir
writing and offer advice to those interested in writing their own memoirs.

(*) Contemporary Diaspora Literature
Discussion of the state of the field, current themes, exciting new voices,
established old ones.

South Asian Literature in America
How does S.Asian writing shape the way in which S.Asians are regarded by
American society? Does it facilitate the stereotyping of individuals?
Does it open up new concepts to readers? Does it stake out an ethnic
space in the American sensibility?

Writing Across South Asian National Boundaries
What does the Sri Lankan writer have to say to the Pakistani reader? Can
an Afghani teenager empathize with an Indian teenager's plight? What are
the challenges of writing and reading work from cultures not your own, but
perhaps more closely related to your heritage than traditional Western
canon literature?

Sex and the Word
In recent years, more and more South Asians have started writing
explicitly around sexuality. Mary Anne Mohanraj, Ginu Kamani, the authors
in _Desilicious_, the participants in _Yoni ki Baat_, and many performance
poets all explore the sexual arena. What are the challenges of working
with this material? What are the rewards? Are you willing to read an
erotic story? How about in public, on a bus or train? Do you take the
books off the shelves when your parents visit? Authors and readers
discuss the pleasures and problems of writing and reading sex.

Writing Violence / Violent Writing
Husbands who beat their wives, parents who beat their children, wives who
set themselves on fire (or are set on fire), men and women and children
who are caught up in ethnic riots, men and women and children who become
guerrilla fighters and/or terrorists (depending one who is doing the
labelling), grown children who abuse their aging parents -- how do writers
handle these difficult topics?

(*) Beyond the Arranged Marriage Novel
Can we move beyond these [tired?] themes? Should we? Where would we go?

LITERATURE, POLITICS and HISTORY:

(*) Writing Historical Fiction
What are the pitfalls of writing historical fiction? What happens when a
writer gets it wrong? What responsibilities does a writer have or not
have, when they fictionalize historical events?

(*) Politics and Fiction
Writers discuss their goals in writing political fiction. [Is any fiction
not political?] Are they attempting to create change in the world? What
changes would they like to see? What have been the visible effects of
their work, if any? Should writers be political on a large-scale? What
are the inherent dangers of that work?

Building a Better Future
Currently, science fiction (and perhaps modern fiction in general) treats
the future in dystopic terms. We don't react violently to the claim that
the past has an influence on our writing. But what about the expected
future? Are there obligations to building a better future just as there
are obligations to accurate portrayals of the past?

Dirty Laundry
There is a clear market in the West for a certain kind of expose/pathos
story from south-east asia: child prostitutes, wife beating, widows in
Brindhavan, untouchables, street kids, etc. When does exposing an evil
move over into exploitation? What responsibilities does the writer have
(if any)?

Exotic Literature
What's wrong (if anything) with exoticising our dramatic, colorful,
heritage? When you go to the bookstore, do you look for the books with
beautiful women in colorful saris on the cover? Authors and readers
discuss the politics of reading and writing 'exotic literature.'

(*) Politics and Writing: A Discussion
A facilitated discussion of the ways in which writers can engage political
issues in their work, and the ways in which readers can respond to those
issues.

POETRY:

(*) Is Poetry Accessible Today?
Poets discuss the different modes of poetry, and their audiences. Spoken
word vs. poetry on the page -- is the former less academic, less
intellectual? More exciting because of the performative aspect? Is it
all the same? Why do we turn to poetry?

Page to Stage
Is the distinction between 'spoken' and 'written' word relevant any
longer, given the growing numbers of writers on the performance circuit?
How do we take work from the page to live performance? What are the
pitfalls and richnesses of staging our work? Are there different audiences
for books vs. performance? Why perform rather than publish, or vice versa?

Poetry and Women
Why are so many S. Asian women performance poets? Is there a reason they
turn to that format? Why aren't men working within it as well?

South Asian Poetry in America
Do S.Asians have a unique contribution to make to the state of American
poetry?