Indian Writing in English – a new direction for new writers
After five years the online Waiariki Diploma in Creative Writing is a well-established programme for would-be writers.
This year it adds something completely different for students newly enrolling on the course.
Contemporary Ethnic Writers and Writing already features a Maori component. Now, in recognition of the importance of
this important genre, Indian Writers in English will be taught from June 2008. The course was written and developed by
experienced creative writing tutor Jenny Argante, herself born in Jhabalpur, India, with input from Lead Tutor Sue Emms,
a prizewinning writer of short stories and novels.
Indian Writers in English is a Level 4, 15-credit course that invites students to explore Indian culture through their
own ethnic writing over seven weeks. The course is taught fully online through Waiariki's eCampus, and includes
tutorials, discussions, research opportunities, exercises, and writing original work. Participants receive useful and
direct feedback on work from tutors and from fellow-students.
The main purpose of the Diploma in Creative Writing is to get people started in writing and help them get published.
Indian Writers in English will encourage the exploration of the Indian literary tradition and on writing authentically
in an 'ethnic voice'. In other words, how to write a story, fictional or fact, that is based on the Indian culture, and
to do it with confidence. To find out what it means to be Indian.
An important contribution to such understanding is studying the work of nine famous Indian writers: Rabindranath Tagore,
R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand, Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy, V.S. Naipaul and
Rohinton Mistry
Writers write what is known to them; and also what fascinates them as unknown and worth exploring. Good fiction and
great literature from all the countries of the world is one of the best means there is to explore other cultures, and
other ways of living.
Indian Writing in English can play an important part in this.
Diploma in Creative Writing
CWRT.4003 Contemporary Ethnic Writing & Writers:
Indian Writing in English
Course Dates: 23 June - 3 August 2008 (& from 2009 on)
Enquiries to: Sue Emms (semms7[at]gmail.com or ph 07 552 4285)
ENDS