Caferati’s 2009 Celebrating Shakti Bhatt Workshops

About Shakti Bhatt:
Shakti Bhatt was a writer, a publisher, and a friend to Caferati. She was a
constant support through many of our endeavours and gave generously of her
time, her presence and her advice for the little time we knew her. Sadly,
she died in March 2007.
In her memory, Caferati runs an annual workshop to help writers hone their
craft, to grow, and to test fresh literary waters.

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Here are the details.

Workshop costs: Rs 300 per participant per workshop (Rs 150 per participant
for the kids' workshop)

The workshop are over two days, 11am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Participants will be served a light lunch.

For queries,
Email: bombay.hub@unltdindia.org, editors@caferati.com
Phone number: 022 3222 0475 (The Hub)

To register, you must pay up in advance, at The Hub office.
The Hub
UnLtd India, 4th Floor, Candelar Building, 26 St John Baptist Road, Near
Mount Mary Steps, Bandra (W), Mumbai 400 050, India.

Participants must bring their own writing materials.

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Tomorrow’s Authors A writing workshop for kids (10 - 16 years - maximum 20
participants) led by Anshumani Ruddra.

Saturday, 14 November 2009 11:00 - 16:00
Sunday, 15 November 2009 11:00 - 16:00

This workshop will look into the act of writing: structuring, editing,
plotting and characterisation. Though the focus will be on short fiction the
lessons learnt will be applicable towards other forms of writing - long
fiction, poetry and narrative non-fiction.

Each individual will work on one piece during the two day period of the
workshop and the group as a whole will be responsible for critiquing each
other's work. The workshop's aim is to develop young writers who can look
objectively at their own work as well as the work of others.
Traditional and modern forms and structures of a story will be discussed and
then promptly forgotten to enable discovery of new ones. This will lead to a
set of exercises that introduces writing as an improvisational and group
activity. The group as a whole will be responsible for generating ideas,
working and reworking them and finally committing them to paper - always
evolving the story as they go along.

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About Anshumani Ruddra
Anshumani Ruddra is an author and screenwriter based in Mumbai. He
predominantly writes in the speculative fiction genre. His short stories
have appeared in various anthologies and he is currently putting finishing
touches to his first novel for adults. He also conducts workshops for
children and college students in the areas of writing, speculative fiction,
scriptwriting and comic books. Visit http://ruddra.net for more details. The
Enemy of My Enemy is the first in a series of interactive gamebooks for
children written by him. It has been published by Scholastic. Banana
Republic, its sequel, is expected to come out in January 2010. His short
stories have appeared in the following collections by Scholastic: Seven
Science Fiction Stories, The Moustache Maharishi and Other Unlikely Stories,
Superhero, Spooky Stories

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PENtathlon
Five Exercises for Fiction Writers (beginners, 17 years +, maximum 20
participants) by Annie Zaidi and Manisha LakheAn intense workshop targeted
at kick-starting the writing process for those who want to try their hand at
fiction, or those who have tried already but want to find a way around that
object of ill repute: writer’s block.

Saturday, 21 November 2009 at 11:00
Sunday, 22 November 2009 at 16:00

There will be a set of five exercises, in an ideate-and-discuss format,
which will take you through the whole process of putting together a short
story or even a novella, if you work really, really hard. One the first say,
the workshop leaders will tell you how to build characters, find appropriate
settings, how to make the narrative move from one point to another.
Participants will be well into their story by the end of the first day and
will be expected to come up with more ideas or a fleshier story when they
return the next morning.
Workshop leaders will help you find resolutions, in case you have not found
them already, and share some basic techniques for cracking the walls you
come up against.

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About Annie Zaidi and Manisha Lakhe
Annie Zaidi writes poetry, fiction, non-fiction, drama, blog posts, reports,
reviews and (in a dark, distant past) recipes she never actually tried.
If gun laws weren't so strict, Manisha Lakhe would be out there shooting at
every dangling participle and lynching incorrect users of grammar. Alas, she
is reduced to venting poetry on unsuspecting audience and writing reviews of
movies, books and other kinds of fiction.

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Scripted
A workshop for beginners on writing for stage and screen (beginners, 17
years +, maximum 20 participants) by Anuvab Pal

Saturday, 28 November 2009 11:00 - 16:00
Sunday, 29 November 2009 11:00 - 16:00

They say writing for the stage or writing drama is the oldest profession in
the world, beating even prostitution.
Have you ever wanted to write a play? Have you ever written a play and
abandoned it? If you've ever wondered what it would be like to make a live
audience react to things you've got to say, you probably want to join
politics or write for the stage. This workshop is for the latter.
Writing for the stage in Bandra is the same as writing for the stage
anywhere else, so we'll go through the basics of plot, structure,
characters, conflict, intentions and ideas.
And then together, we'll try to tell some stories that for reasons you'll
discover and tell us about, is best told on a stage.

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About Anuvab Pal:
Anuvab Pal is a playwright and screenwriter. His plays include The President
Is Coming, Chaos Theory and 1-888-Dial-India. His movies include Loins of
Punjab Presents (co-written) and The President Is Coming.

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