Muse Of The Month March 2016: Inspiration From Jhumpa Lahiri

Each month this year, we will host a writing theme for the Muse Of The Month, with a ‘writing cue’ from a contemporary female author of Indian origin. The 5 best entries get published here!

What you need to do for March 2016

Step 1. Read the writing cue (which is either a direct quote from the featured author, or a quote from one of their works, mentioned down below) and get inspired.

Step 2. Write your own story/poem/narrative/essay/piece based on the cue. You could use it as the opening line, the closing sentence, or somewhere in between! You could even choose not to use it anywhere in your story – just write a story using the cue as a prompt. (And ‘story’ can be fictional – or not – as you wish).

Step 3. Send your work to us. Please email it to [email protected] with ‘Muse of the month – March 2016’ in the subject line, and your story as a word/txt attachment. Do include the name we should use if we publish it, and a brief introduction to yourself (2-3 lines) in the mail.

Please note: Given the number of entries received, we won’t be able to respond to each, but every single entry is being read through very carefully and is much appreciated.

Deadlines

Please send in your stories by March 15th 2016, Tuesday, 3 p.m. IST. The 5 best stories will be published on Women’s Web between the 21st to 25th March, one on each day.

Rules

The material should be previously unpublished elsewhere. (Copyright stays with you and you’re free to subsequently publish it elsewhere).

Keep it between 250 and 2000 words. (Please keep this in mind; in past editions, we have had to disqualify some good entries purely due to word count issues).

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Please avoid typing the story as inline text. Send it as an attachment only.

Prizes

The 5 best entries will each win a Flipkart voucher worth Rs 250. Plus, there will be 10 overall winners at the end of 2016 from among these winners!

Muse of the month (March 2016)

Jhumpa Lahiri is an award winning author. One of her books, The Namesake, has been made into an award winning movie by the same name.

She was born Nilanjana Sudheshna Lahiri in London and brought up in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. Brought up in America by a mother who wanted to raise her children to be Indian, she learned about her Bengali heritage from an early age. She was known to her peers and teachers by the name Jhumpa, which was her name at home, and continued to be known by that name later.

She is the winner of the 1999 – PEN/Hemingway Award (Best Fiction Debut of the Year) for Interpreter of Maladies. The same book won her the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

She has taught creative writing at Boston University and the Rhode Island School of Design. Much of her short fiction concerns the lives of Indian-Americans, particularly Bengalis. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband, journalist Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, and her two children.

Some of her well-known books are The NamesakeInterpreter of MaladiesThe Lowland, and Unaccustomed Earth.

Cue for March 2016

“Most people trusted in the future, assuming that their preferred version of it would unfold.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland

Do not forget to send in your entries by March 15th 2016, Tuesday, 3 p.m. IST.

And the winners are

A Tree Tale. Winning Entry By Deepa Arun

The Bones Of A Misfit. Winning Entry By Veena Kaippangala

Dear Artistic Souls: Your Dreams Are Valid. Winning Entry By Kasturi Patra

I Am Beautiful Because I Choose To Believe I Am. Winning Entry By Jasmine Kaur

When Forward Is The Only Direction. Winning Entry By Meha Sharma

Congratulations to all the winners from the Women’s Web team!

Image source: here.

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