Know More About The Upcoming Workshop On Creative Nonfiction For Young Children

 In association with Tulika Books and EdelGive , Parag Tata Trust is initiating a Workshop on Creative nonfiction for Younger Children. This four day workshop for authors and illustrators will be held in Chennai next month. Swaha Sahoo answered a few queries  about the upcoming workshop.

Swaha leads the Parag initiative at Tata Trusts. Enabling libraries and access to good books for all children is her passion. She reads books, meets readers and is continuously experimenting with ways to enable children to read for pleasure and become lifelong readers.

1.In the recent past Parag Trust has facilitated the publication of picture books, set up libraries, awarded illustrators of children’s books, held competitions and workshops for librarians and teachers. Now Parag Trust is initiating a workshop exclusively with the content creators of children books. How does this workshop fit into the future plans of Parag Trust?

Under Parag’s book development work we aim to encourage writers and illustrators to push boundaries and create excellence. A lot of authors and illustrators have shared that they do not get to interact with each other and all conversation happens through publishers. This workshop is designed as a three way collaboration between all three stakeholders. Secondly, this is also an ideation workshop that will enable all participants to discuss, share ideas and perhaps come away with common understanding of writing for children, especially non-fiction. In the West, such workshops and capacity building opportunities are common. We hope that such collaborative spaces will provide opportunities to strengthen the children’s literature sector in India, which is one of Parag’s goals.

2. Creative Nonfiction is not a favourite genre of either the publishers or the readers in India. Why has Parag chosen this genre?

Non-fiction is not popular because it has not been approached with the right lens and children don’t find enough interesting content. Internationally you find such a wide variety of non-fiction on multiple topics and themes. Parag is keen to support some excellent books in the Indian context or even if the themes are universal the approach is local. We have seen in many of our libraries that young children respond well to non-fiction. The barrier is often the facilitator or educator who is averse to non-fiction and once they are given interesting content and enabled with ways to use them, they start looking at non-fiction in a different light.  

3.Is this workshop meant for novice writers or experienced authors who have written fiction but not explored nonfiction?

First time and experienced writers can apply but they should be keen exploring non-fiction. Also selection will depend of the concept shared and its potential.

4.Can authors who write in regional languages apply for this workshop?

This workshop is primarily for writers in English. But similar workshops in selected regional languages is something that we are keen to explore. So watch the space!

5. Who will own the copyright for  all the content created in the workshop?

The workshop will be focused and ideas will be discussed with the participants before coming in for the four days. We hope to publish the books that come out of the workshop. Once published the usual copyright structure that the publisher follows will come into play.

To know more about the  Workshop on Creative nonfiction for Younger Children click here. Hurry!Last date for receiving applications is 20th February,2019.