Kopal Agarwal
She/Her
Kopal Agarwal is a writer from Lucknow, India. She studied English literature at the University of Delhi and liberal arts at Ashoka University where her thesis focussed on post-liberalisation Hindi cinema. Interested in community spaces, she helped build a bookstore in her neighbourhood. Kopal is working with mentor Mira Kamdar on a series of creative nonfiction essays set in an old mohalla of Lucknow.
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Bharath
He/him
Bharath is a writer, translator, and dancer from Tamil Nadu, India. He has worked with the Oxford University Press on their bilingual dictionary project and written for the Usawa Literary Review and Out of Print magazine. He is working with mentor Mahesh Rao on a collection of short stories.
Shradha Chettri
She/her
Shradha Chettri is from a village in Kalimpong district, West Bengal, India. An assistant editor at Careers360, she covers education and employment policies. She has written for The Times of India, The Indian Express, and The Hindustan Times. She is working with mentor Roman Gautam on a book about the Gorkha identity movement.
Somaiyah Hafeez
She/her
Somaiyah Hafeez is a freelance journalist and writer from Balochistan, Pakistan. Her work has been published in The Diplomat, The Guardian, New Lines Magazine, and The New Humanitarian. As the media fellow for the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, Somaiyah has focussed on the subject of enforced disappearances in Balochistan. She is working with mentor Sanam Maher on a collection of profiles of Baloch women who are campaigning for the release of their loved ones.
Iswarya V.
She/her
Iswarya V. is a translator and critic in Bengaluru, India. She has a PhD in English and teaches at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education. Her debut translation of a Tamil short story was shortlisted for the Mozhi Prize 2022. Iswarya is working with mentor Arunava Sinha on translating a short story collection by B. Jeyamohan from Tamil to English.
Aotemsü Jamir
He/him
Aotemsü Jamir is a writer from Nagaland, India. He lives in Delhi where he works as an ELT content developer. His stories have been featured in The Criterion Journal and MeanPepperVine. He is working with mentor Madhuri Vijay on a satirical novella set in Nagaland.
Dinesh Kafle
He/him
Dinesh Kafle is a journalist and academic from Nepal. He leads the opinion department at the Kathmandu Post and teaches media studies at Kathmandu University. His writing has appeared in Wasafiri, Indian Literature, and South Asia Research. He studied English literature at Jawaharlal Nehru University and was a fellow at the Sangam House writing residency in Bengaluru. Dinesh is working with mentor Srinath Perur on a translation of Nayan Raj Pandey’s fiction from Nepali to English.
BEYOND
ABILITY
Samiya Javed Akhtar
She/her
Samiya Javed Akhtar is a development communications practitioner and writer in New Delhi, India. Her work appears in Northern Lights, Himal Southasian, Black Heart Magazine and The Feminist Wire. In 2015, Samiya was awarded a Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship for poetry. She holds degrees in English Literature from Aligarh Muslim University. Samiya will work with mentor Abhishek Anicca on a book on disability, identity and society.
Khansa Kubra
She/her
Khansa Kubra is an experimental poet. Born in the South of Kashmir, in district Pulwama, her work explores living and growing up amidst conflict. Her work has appeared in The Bombay Literary Magazine. She is working with mentor Tishani Doshi on a poetry collection.
Sirus J Libeiro
He/him
Sirus J Libeiro is a researcher and translator in Mumbai, India. He has a master’s degree in Economics, and is studying for a PhD. He is interested in articulations of urban experiences, science fiction, and the uncanny in non-English languages. His first set of translations was published in The Satyashodhak. Sirus is working with mentor Arunava Sinha on a collection of short stories by Bandhu Madhav – one of the earliest contributors to Dalit literature in Marathi.
Parth MN
He/him
Parth MN is an independent journalist from Maharashtra, India. He reports from rural India, covering social inequalities, health, education, and the economy. His stories have appeared in the People’s Archive of Rural India, The LA Times, Al Jazeera, and Wired. He is working with mentor Mansi Choksi on a book about Maharashtra’s sugarcane industry.
BEYOND
ABILITY
Aishwarya O
She/her
Aishwarya O is a disabled writer, activist and tactile artist from Bengaluru, India. She is studying for a PhD from the International Institute of Information Technology in Bengaluru. She writes about her experiences of being a woman with a disability in India, and aims to portray disability as it really is, rather than what it looks like when seen through nondisabled eyes. Aishwarya is working with mentor Abhishek Anicca on a poetry collection.
Radhika Raj
She/her
Radhika Raj is a senior writer and editor at Roundglass Sustain, where she writes about India’s biodiversity and environment. She has been a journalist for 15 years, and her work has appeared in some of India’s leading publications including The Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, and National Geographic Traveller. She is working with mentor Aanchal Malhotra on a book about the lost wildernesses of Punjab.
Adil Rashid
He/him
Adil Rashid is an independent journalist who was born and raised in Srinagar, Kashmir. He went to college in Delhi where he also got his first job as a journalist with Outlook magazine. His work appears in FiftyTwo, The Guardian, and The Caravan. He is working with mentor Rahul Bhatia on a collection of profiles of everyday Kashmiris.
Shripad Sinnakaar
He/they
Shripad Sinnakaar is a poet and researcher from Mumbai, India. His poems have appeared in The White Review, Dalit Art Archive, Conflictorium, and Mumbai Urban Art Festival. Shripad is working with mentor Tishani Doshi on a poetry collection.
Prachi Sibal
She/her
Prachi Sibal is a journalist in Mumbai, India, where she writes on culture and the performing arts. Her writing has appeared in Mint Lounge, VICE, Scroll, and The Morning Context. She is working with mentor Taran Khan on a nonfiction book about type design in Indian languages and type collectives in the country.
Eshna Sharma
She/her
Eshna Sharma has an undergraduate degree in English and Creative Writing and is currently working as a creative producer in Mumbai, India. Her fiction and non-fiction have been published in The Bombay Lit Mag, Hammock Mag, Himal, and The Alipore Post. She was long-listed for the Toto Funds the Arts Award for Creative Writing in 2022. She is working with mentor Prayaag Akbar on a short story collection that explores girlhood, memory, delusion, and culture.
Srividhya Venkatesan
She/her
Srividhya Venkatesan is a content writer and translator from Chennai, India. She began her translation career by translating short stories for children. She holds a PG Diploma in Literary Translation from Ahmedabad University. Srividhya is working with mentor Arunava Sinha on translating a collection of short stories by La. Sa. Ramamirtham.
Jigme Wangchuk
He/him
Jigme Wangchuk is a Tibetan writer living in New Delhi, India. He has a master’s degree in English and works in the development sector. Jigme is working on a collection of short stories about the Tibetan diaspora with mentor Deepa Anappara.