Global Voices Book Challenge - Read Your Way Around the World!

To mark UNESCO World Book Day (23rd April), Global Voices has a fun challenge up.

1) Read a book during the next month from a country whose literature you have never read anything of before.
2) Write a blog post about it during the week of April 23.

Full details here.

Caferati @ Prithvi Open Mic - March 09

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
7:00pm - 8:30pm
Prithvi Theatre Cafe
20 Janki Kutir, Juhu Church Road, Juhu
Bombay, India

Entry Free

The rules:
- Works performed can be in English, Hindi or Marathi.
- You must perform only your own writing.
- You can perform one piece for a maximum of two minutes.
- Only solo or duo performances; no groups please. Duos can only perform collaborative works authored by both performers.
- Your name will be called once. If you don’t get to the microphone in 10 seconds, you lose your slot.
- Your time starts the moment you come to the microphone
- You can recite, declaim, shout, even sing (if you can hold a tune); you can sit, stand or lie down; you can dance, turn a cartwheel, play a musical instrument, or scratch your back while standing on your head, as long as you perform your words.
- You get the use of a microphone, and two minutes. No other arrangements will be made for your performance. If you want to carry a prop, or a musical instrument, please do so. Note that any set-up time counts towards your two-minute limit.
- A gong will be struck—loud!—at the end of the two-minute period and you must leave the microphone immediately.
- Genres: No restriction. Poetry, scripts, stories, songs, it’s all good.
- Prohibited: Foul language, explicit sexual imagery, slander, anything that flouts the laws of India.
- Dress code: No nudity. Yes, you can use costumes and make-up if you like.

If you want a slot:
- There will be up to 25 slots of up to 2 minutes each.
- You must be physically present at the venue at least 30 minutes before start time to register.
- Slots will be provided immediately, on a first-come first-served basis, and cannot be carried over to the next Open Mic.
- You must show the text of what you plan to perform to the organisers present, and describe your performance. This is not about censorship; it is to guard against infringement of the rules.

Conditions:
There are no prizes, except the opportunity to perform to an audience, and earn its acclaim.
You will not be reimbursed expenses, and will not be paid any fee or honorarium.
You retain ownership of your work, but by submitting it, you give the Prithvi Theatre and Caferati the right to display your work, or photographs or recordings of your performance, at the Prithvi Theatre Cafe, and on their websites, should they so choose, with attribution to you, but with no payment. Should you wish to be excluded from being photographed or recorded, please inform the photographer / cameraperson before the performance. Any photographs or recordings will not be commercial in nature.

Please subscribe to http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Prithvi to get notifications of future Caferati @ Prithvi Open Mic evenings.

More about..
Prithvi Theatre: http://www.prithvitheatre.org/
Caferati: http://www.caferati.com/

Email:
prithvitheatre AT prithvitheatre DOT org
editors AT caferati DOT com

On Facebook:
Prithvi Theatre
Caferati

Caferati @ Prithvi Open Mic [February]

Part of Prithvi's Celebrating Poetry festival

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
7:00pm - 8:00pm
Prithvi Theatre Cafe
20 Janki Kutir, Juhu Church Road, Juhu, Bombay, India

The rules:
- Works performed can be in English, Hindi or Marathi.
- You must perform only your own writing.
- You can perform one piece for a maximum of two minutes.
- Only solo or duo performances; no groups please. Duos can only perform collaborative works authored by both performers.
- Your name will be called once. If you don’t get to the microphone in 10 seconds, you lose your slot.
- Your time starts the moment you come to the microphone
- You can recite, declaim, shout, even sing (if you can hold a tune); you can sit, stand or lie down; you can dance, turn a cartwheel, play a musical instrument, or scratch your back while standing on your head, as long as you perform your words.
- You get the use of a microphone, and two minutes. No other arrangements will be made for your performance. If you want to carry a prop, or a musical instrument, please do so. Note that any set-up time counts towards your two-minute limit.
- A gong will be struck—loud!—at the end of the two-minute period and you must leave the microphone immediately.
- Genres: No restriction. Poetry, scripts, stories, songs, it’s all good.
- Prohibited: Foul language, explicit sexual imagery, slander, anything that flouts the laws of India.
- Dress code: No nudity. Yes, you can use costumes and make-up if you like.

If you want a slot:
- There will be up to 25 slots of up to 2 minutes each.
- You must be physically present at the venue at least 30 minutes before start time to register.
- Slots will be provided immediately, on a first-come first-served basis, and cannot be carried over to the next Open Mic.
- You must show the text of what you plan to perform to the organisers present, and describe your performance. This is not about censorship; it is to guard against infringement of the rules.

Conditions:
There are no prizes, except the opportunity to perform to an audience, and earn its acclaim.
You will not be reimbursed expenses, and will not be paid any fee or honorarium.
You retain ownership of your work, but by submitting it, you give the Prithvi Theatre and Caferati the right to display your work, or photographs or recordings of your performance, at the Prithvi Theatre Cafe, and on their websites, should they so choose, with attribution to you, but with no payment. Should you wish to be excluded from being photographed or recorded, please inform the photographer / cameraperson before the performance. Any photographs or recordings will not be commercial in nature.

Please subscribe to http://groups.google.com/group/Caferati-Prithvi to get notifications of future Caferati @ Prithvi Open Mic evenings.

* More about..
Prithvi Theatre
Caferati

* On Facebook:
Prithvi Theatre
Caferati

This event on Facebook, here.

The Terror Attacks - have you written about it?

This is for a friend in the Times of India. I quote: "Basically we'd like to do a story on people who have responded to 26/11 by writing poetry. About what they felt, whether writing helped, whether they discussed their poetry with others, what is it about calamities that prompts them to write poetry in particular and so on."

Please leave your answers, and poems (or links to them if you have posted them somewhere public on the web) in the comments.

Caferati @ Prithvi Open Mic

Caferati organises a monthly open mic at the Prithvi Theatre cafe.

When
The first of the series is on the 27th January, 2009, at 7pm.
After that, we hope to continue on the fourth Tuesday of every month, same time, same place.

All are welcome. Participants are extra-welcome, but anyone can come to cheer or boo or encourage or diss the performers.

Entry is free. You will, though, have to pay for whatever you order from the Cafe. And you're encouraged to be a big spender; that's one way to keep the Open Mic going, because the Cafe is paying for it!

About the Caferati @ Prithvi Open Mic

Each Open Mic session will have 25 slots of up to 3 minutes each.
A bell will ring—or a buzzer will, well, buzz—at the end of the 3-minute period and the participant must leave the stage.
Each Open Mic will, hopefully, begin with one well-known city poet who will “bless the mike” with a short reading or performance. This special guest may choose to offer brief comments on the day’s performances at the end of the session. Occasionally, we will feature special guests in longer time slots.

The rules:
Participants must perform only their own writing.
Only solo or duo performances; no groups please.
You get the use of a microphone, and three minutes. No other arrangements will be made for your performance.
You can recite, declaim, shout, or sing; you can sit, stand or lie down; you can dance, turn cartwheels, play a musical instrument, or scratch your back while standing on your head, as long as you perform your words.
Genres: No restriction. Poetry, monologues, stories, songs, it’s all good.
Prohibited: Foul language, explicit sexual imagery, slander, anything that flouts the laws of India.
Dress code: No nudity. Yes, you can use costumes, make-up, wigs if you like.

If you want a slot:
You must be physically present at the venue 30 minutes before start time to register.
You must show the text of what you plan to perform to the organisers present, and describe your performance. This is not about censorship; it is to guard against infringement of the rules. Slots will be provided immediately, on a first-come first-served basis, and cannot be carried over to the next Open Mic.
If the time-slot bookings get out of control, we may decide to use a draw of lots to decide who goes on stage.

There are no prizes, except the opportunity to perform to an audience, and earn its acclaim.
You will not be reimbursed expenses, and will not be paid any fee or honorarium.
You retain ownership of your work, but by submitting it, you give the Prithvi Theatre and Caferati the right to display your work, or photographs or recordings of your performance, at the Prithvi Theatre Cafe, and on their websites, should they so choose, with attribution to you, but with no payment.

This is a one-way newsgroup that sends out information to potential performers, interested audience members and Spoken Word enthusiasts in general. Please feel free to invite friends to join in.

Poetry with Prakriti Poetry Contest

This just in from the Prakriti Foundation, about their contest, part of their annual Poetry with Prakriti festival. We're only helping spread the word. For more info, please email Prakriti Foundation.

As part of the festival, Prakriti Foundation invites you to participate in the Poetry Contest. Rules of the contest are:

Age Group: Contest is open to resident citizens of India aged 16 years and above

Jury: Distinguished panel of three judges

Prizes: Three cash prizes of Rs.10000/-, Rs.7500/- and Rs.5000/- each

Closing date: 15th December 2008. Results will be declared on 30th December

No. of entries: One poem for each contestant

Entries will be accepted in both typed hard copy form, or soft copy sent by e-mail. All entries have to be accompanied by a declaration of originality and automatic disqualification will occur should a fraud be detected by the committee.

E-mail your entries to prakritifoundation@gmail.com

or send your entries to
Prakriti Foundation
Block C, 9th Floor
599 Anna Salai
Cathedral Garden Road
Chennai 600 006
Phone: 044 32990005

The Open Space – Harper Collins Poetry Contest 2008

This just in from Open Space. We wrote to the organisers expressing our reservations about the depth of info that their entry form requires — gender? occupation? — and the minimum age requirements. Hopefully, they will reconsider both. If they do, we'll update this post. If you have queries, or would like to add your voice to ours, please write to the email address provided.

Update (3rd November 2008): Open Space's Rakesh Ganguli tells us that there are a few changes in the entry form, which we have updated below. "Gender" and "Occupation" are now optional fields, but the lower age limit remains 18 years.

With poetry blogs and literary forums of an assorted variety proliferating online, poetry has finally found a public space. The aim of this Online Poetry Contest is to encourage the reading and writing of poetry as a literary activity and to promote the art of poetry, especially among the young.

Prizes:
1st prize – Rs 20,000
2nd prize – Rs 10,000
3rd prize – Rs 5,000

Judges:
Keki Daruwala is a poet and a leading figure in Indian poetry in English. A recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award and Commonwealth Poetry Award, Keki N. Daruwalla has so far published about 12 books, consisting of mostly poems and a couple of fictional works. Some of his important works are Under Orion, The keeper of the dead, Landscapes, A summer of tigers and The minister for permanent unrest & other stories. He also edited Two decades of Indian poetry.
V.K.Karthika is the Chief Editor, HarperCollins Publishers India Ltd.
Priya Sarukkai Chabria is a poet and novelist, and Editor of the website Talking Poetry. Her second collection of poems Not Springtime Yet (HarperCollins) was recently released. She is at www.priyawriting.com
C.P.Surendran is a poet, journalist and columnist. He has written four volumes of poetry: Gemini II, Posthumous Poems, Canaries on the Moon and Portraits of the Space We Occupy. His debut novel is titled An Iron Harvest.

The decision of the judges will be final.

Copyright for the shortlisted and winning poems will be shared by the poets, Open Space and Harper Collins. The top ten poems will be published online on Talking Poetry and the HCP site. All winners will be notified by email. The contest ends November 30th 2008 and all winners will be announced in January 2009.

How to enter:

1. Write a poem on the theme of ‘borders’ (interpret the subject broadly, as borders between people, countries and cultures). The poem may be up to 50 lines long, written in any style.
2. The competition is open to anyone above the age of 18 residing in India and writing in English.
3. The poem must be original and unpublished in any print or online forum.
4. A contribution of Rs.100 (one hundred only) is to be paid to participate in the contest. This contribution is payable by bank demand draft only.
5. Only one entry per individual will be accepted.
6. Each poem must be printed on one side of an A4 sheet.
7. Each page must be numbered and must include the title of the poem.
8. Please send two copies of your poem.
9. The competition will be judged ‘blind’. Please make sure your name appears only on the entry form printed below.

Send your poem, entry form and contribution to:
Open Space Poetry Contest
Centre for Communication and Development Studies
301, Kanchanjunga bldg.
Kanchan Lane,
Near Krishna Dining Hall,
Off Law College Road
Pune - 411004

Bank Demand Drafts to be drawn in favour of: Centre for Communication and Development Studies

PLEASE NOTE:

* No copies of poems will be returned and no correspondence with judges can be entered into.
* Entries without the entry form and contribution will not be eligible for the contest.
* Email any queries about the contest to: rakesh@openspaceindia.org However, NO entries will be entertained online. They must be sent in hard copy.
* Prizes are nontransferable.
* Poems submitted must not have been published previously in books or magazines and must be original to the person submitting them.
* The closing date to enter the contest is November 30, 2008.
* Winners will be announced in January 2009.

***

ENTRY FORM

FOR THE OPEN SPACE – HARPER COLLINS POETRY CONTEST 2008
(On the theme of ‘Borders’)

Name:
Age Group: 18-25 (  ) 25-35 (  ) 35 & above (  )
Gender (optional):
Occupation (optional):
Postal Address:
Pin:
E-mail:
Mobile no.:
Landline no.:
Bank D.D No.:
Drawn from Bank/City:
Dated:

Title of your poem:

The Poem:

***

A chat with Zubaan

Over on Jeff Vandermeer's Ecstatic Days, Vandana Singh, author of the Younguncle series and the short story collection, The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet and Other Stories, interviews our good friends Urvashi Butalia and Anita Roy of Zubaan. They talk of Kali For Women, the borth of Zubaan, feminist publishing and its continuing relevance, with special reference to India, some milestone books, and much else.

Bookaroo Children's Literature Festival 2008

Via Mita Kapur of Siyahi.

Celebrating children's literature with Bookaroo Children's Literature Festival 2008, the first ever in India

Bookaroo, the first children's literature festival in India will take place in Delhi on Saturday 22nd November and Sunday 23rd November, 2008 from 10 am to 5 pm. The venue for the festival is Sanskriti Anand Gram on Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road.

The festival kicks off with an outreach programme on November 19 and 20th, 2008. There will be events with Hindi Books at 700 schools across Delhi in collaboration with Pratham, Delhi on these two days.

Slated to be an annual event, the festival has been organised by a consortium of publishers, booksellers, writers and book-lovers, including Manisha Chaudhry (Pratham Books), Eureka-Heek (bookstore and children's magazine), HarperCollins, Anushka Ravishankar (author), Siyahi, the literary consultancy, Subhadra Sengupta (author), Jo Williams (former organizer of the Red House Children's Book Award, UK), and. Zubaan,

The sessions will be conducted by over 40 men and women who have done extraordinary work in the field of children's literature and publishing , both in India and internationally. It will give children an opportunity to meet Indian and international authors too. Bookaroo's list of authors, poets, illustrators and speakers features Anita Roy, Anshumani Ruddra, Anushka Ravishankar, Bulbul Sharma, Bhajju Shyam, Jeff Smith, Jo Williams, Kalpana Swaminathan, Paro Anand, Ranjit Lal, Rukmini Banerji, Sampurna Chattarji, Sandhya Rao, Stephen Guy, Tabish Khair, Venita Coelho and Wendy Cooling among many others.

Publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Pratham Books, Scholastic, Tara, Tulika and Young Zubaan are participating and supporting the festival.

The aim of Bookaroo Children's Literature Festival is to expose children to the joys of reading. This is a one-of-its-kind event that focuses on the role of books in shaping children's lives. Each of the sessions will be highly-interactive with activities, workshops, plays, games, comics, storytelling and lessons in creativity.

Says Anita Roy, one of the organisers of the festival: "The Bookaroo festival is all about bringing together kids with the people who actually make the books that they love. They'll get to meet some of the best authors and illustrators, and not just hear and see stories performed but also learn about how a book is made. We're hoping that it will be a genuinely useful platform for authors, publishers, booksellers, parents and teachers to meet and exchange ideas. It's about celebrating the world of children's literature in all its marvellous variety. After all, in a country with the largest population of kids in the world, it's about time we had a literature festival just for them!"

According to M Venkatesh, publisher, Heek, a magazine for children and partner, Eureka! Bookstore, "There has been a growing interest in reading thanks to proactive parents and focused school activities. We think the time has come to give children an exclusive platform like Bookaroo for their literary needs - away from screens of any kind and size. We hope that the annual Bookaroo festivals will sharpen that interest in books and take young readers to the next level of involvement with good literature."

Bookaroo Children's Literature Festival - November 22 and 23, 2008

Time: 10 AM to 5 PM (both days)

Venue: Sanskriti Anand Gram, Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, Delhi

Outreach programme across the city - November 19th and 20, 2008

Contact Details: -

For more information log on to: www.bookaroo.in or mail to info@bookaroo.in

Parents can register their children by mailing to registrations@bookaroo.in (see age-wise programme schedule on www.bookaroo.in). Alternatively, you could call 011-26021092 (Eureka! Bookstore) or 011-26521008 (Zubaan Books).

For further information, call Anita Roy on 9810799273

For media queries and setting up interviews:

Subhadra Sengupta : 9811892060
Mita Kapur : 91 98292 92244

Quick Tales

We're delighted to be able to tell you about this contest we have just got up and running. We're presenting it in partnership with LiveJournal, one of the oldest, most respected names in the community blogging world.

It's a pretty simple challenge we have here, one that will particularly appeal to all the fiction writers among you, but not too intimidating for those of you who like other forms of writing to give it a bash.

Can you tell a quicker, snappier story than anyone else? Would you care to pit your story-telling abilities against those of your peers?

Quick Tales, the LiveJournal - Caferati Flash Fiction contest, asks you to tell us a story in 500 words or less. On offer: delicious cash prizes (top prize: Rs 19,999), global visibility and the chance to be part of a book.

You probably know what Flash Fiction is all about - we have run Flash Fic contests for the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival for the last three years, and FF tags and memes have been floating around the blogosphere for ages - but, just in case you do need a few starting tips, see this page.

The contest is open to residents of India who are members of LiveJournal's India Writing community. (If you're not an LJ member, joining is free. Click the "Create a LiveJournal Account" link at the top of any LJ page.) The theme is "Journal," and your deadline is 7th September.

Prizes? The top 5 winning entries take home cash prizes of Rs 19,999, Rs 16,000, Rs 12,000, Rs 8,000 and Rs 4,000, respectively. And the rest of the top ten get paid accounts on LJ for one year. Each of the top 100 entries will also be highlighted on LJ's India Writing community for the world to see. (Short-listed stories may also be included in a book that LiveJournal plans to publish at a later date.)

Go straight through to our Quick Tales microsite for all the details, and don't forget to join India Writing, which is the place where all the updates will be happening. Live Journal has more plans for writers in all languages in India, and that community will be HQ.

We'd also be very, very grateful if you chose to tell your friends about it, and, if you have a blog or personal site, or are a member of other writing communities, to link to the site as well.

Good luck, and we hope to see your entry soon!