The show opens with Bala and Riddhi talking about what writing and creativity means to them. They share their earliest memories of writing and how each of them decided to pursue it seriously. We chat about the similarity of themes in their manuscripts and explore the space of speculative fiction, accompanied by some really cool book recommendations! We talk about poetry and it’s influence while writing fiction and what each of them is exploring with their respective manuscripts. Later, we chat about the Emerging Writers Residency, their writing routines and more book recommendations! The episode ends with excerpts from Bala and Riddhi’s manuscripts narrated by each of them respectively.

Mentions: On Being, Krista Tipett, Relax, Ellen Bass, Kaveh Akbar, Danez Smith, Pablo Neruda, Ocen Voung, Helter Skelter, Akhil Katyal, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Sumana Roy, Tishani Doshi, Han Kang, Greek Lessons, The Vegetarian, Orbital, Samantha Harvey, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Kafka, Metamorphosis, Parable Of The Soul, Octavia Butler, Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel, Jose Saramago, Death At Intervals, Blindness, Seeing, Yoko Ogawa, The Memory Police, Murakami, Aravind Jeyanth, Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors, Anjum Hasan, History’s Angel, Perumal Murugan, Poonachi, A Visit From The Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan, Deepa Annapara, Djinn Patrol On The Purple Line, Jerry Pinto, Sharanya Mannivanan, Dibakar Bannerjee, The Land Of Far-Beyond, Enid Blyton, Ruskin Bond, Courage The Cowardly Dog, A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth, Kafka, Fydor Dostovesky, Steinback, R K Narayan, Satyajit Ray, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mubi, Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar, Don’t Look Now, Lake Mungo, Perfect Days, Wim Wenders, Kaho Na Pyaar Hai

Bala (Balaji Gopalan) has been writing for over two decades and covers themes such as love, loss, silence, the journey towards the self, celebration of life, and, of late, political conditions. He has self-published two books of poetry: Oblivion (a love story in poems) and Adrift, Ashore (a man’s quest for his lost song). He has also published a novel, The Descent (an absurd take on a liberal society’s descent into authoritarianism).

Riddhi Dastidar is a writer and reporter in Delhi. In 2020 they were awarded the TFA Award for Creative Writing for their poetry. Their journalism has won first prize at the 2021 SCARF Media for Mental Health Awards and a 2022 UNFP Laadli Award. Their work has been shortlisted for the 2021 Wasafiri New Writing Prize, the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize & the 2020 Himal Short Story Prize. Riddhi was a 2022 South Asia Speaks Fellow under the mentorship of Deepa Anappara for their debut novel. Their fiction appeared in in ‘A Case of Indian Marvels’, Aleph’s anthology of India’s finest new writers. In 2021, they founded the collective Mutual Aid India with disabled and queer friends.

The Himalayan Writing Retreat (THWR) is a physical retreat tucked away in the Uttarakhand Himalayas. THWR was co-founded in 2016 by Chetan Mahajan & Dr Vandita Dubey. The retreat offers a variety of events, both online and in person. The HWR Emerging Writers Residency offers emerging writers an opportunity to live, learn and write among the stunning Himalayas. The aim is to help writers finish their writing projects and make their debut. To know more, you can check their website: https://www.himalayanwritingretreat.com/

Sangeetha Menon a.k.a. The Moody Marshmallow is a writer, editor and podcaster. She currently handles the rights portfolio at Tulika Publishers, where she finds new avenues for stories to travel. She has worked with organisations like Bound, Karadi Tales, and Carve Magazine to name a few. You can find her on Instagram: @marshmallow.musings and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/menonsangeetha/

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Balaji Gopalan & Riddhi Dastidar: Exploring Speculative Fiction