Applications are now open to join the forthcoming session of Write Beyond Borders, a digital mentorship and literature development project. The six-month project brings together established and emerging authors of South-Asian origin from the UK and South Asia, offering an opportunity for literature-based knowledge exchange, skills development and creative collaboration. 

The lineup of mentors includes a range of writers from South Asia, currently based in and publishing from all over the globe. Amongst them, writer, columnist, translator and development worker, Farah Ghuznavi and author Saad Z Hossain will be serving in the mentorship position from Bangladesh. 

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Discussion on power inequalities

The 2023-24 session will run from October 2023 to March 2024 and upon acceptance, will provide two online one-to-one sessions with an assigned mentor, feedback on two pieces of the candidate's writing (of up to 3000 words) and a set of 10 masterclasses, also online, on Saturdays at 2 PM UK time (7 PM Bangladesh time). The closing date for applications is 11.59 PM (UK) on September 11, 2023 (4.59 PM, 12 September 2023 Bangladesh time). 

To be eligible, the applicant must be 18 years of age or older, of South-Asian origin and reside in the UK or South Asia. Agented writers and writers who have already published a full-length work of fiction or nonfiction are not eligible. However, previously self-published writers may apply.

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An odyssey of love and loss

With the goal to combat the under-representation of writers of South Asian origin in mainstream literary culture, the project is funded by the AHRC-funded Diverse Capacities project based at the University of Southampton and an Arts Council England Project Grant called Bridges not Borders that will celebrate South Asian art and culture in the Solent region of the UK. 

More information on the project, mentor lineup, and how to apply are available on their website at https://writebeyondborders.co.uk/.