Important note: This workshop is part of AWARE’s Growing Up Indian initiative to foreground the voices of Indian women in Singapore. It is therefore intended primarily for Indian women participants who have lived at least five years in Singapore. If you are not an Indian woman but are still interested in writing about the intersection of race and gender in Singapore, however, you may sign up. If you have questions about this, please email projects@aware.org.sg.

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We all have a story to tell, but how do we go about writing it?

In AWARE’s 2022 anthology, What We Inherit, Indian women writers expressed their stories via the form of the personal essay. If you were inspired by those essays, or simply wish to learn how to reflect on your experience and write your own story as an Indian woman, this workshop is for you!

In this two-hour workshop, author Balli Kaur Jaswal (Sugarbread, Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows) will guide you down memory lane to craft a new personal essay. Autobiographical writers construct narratives from their recollections of personal events. Memories serve as raw material, but creating a cohesive piece requires careful attention to the purpose and form of an essay. What are the challenges of navigating our roles as narrators, protagonists and characters in our own histories? Does hindsight provide more answers or questions? How have our individual identities been shaped by what has happened to us, and how do we bring these revelations to the page? Participants will engage in writing activities and peer feedback sessions to develop memoir essays about the intersections of identity and memory.

Please note this workshop will be online only (Singapore time). Participants will be emailed the Zoom link shortly before the session date, alongside some reading materials and other preparation instructions. We encourage participants to turn on their video throughout the session.

We want our workshops to be accessible to everyone, and require your generous contributions to make programmes like this possible. While you are welcome to give any amount you wish, we suggest a minimum of $15 per person. No tax deduction will be provided. Note that Eventbrite requires a minimum contribution of $1. If you require a waiver of this minimum contribution, please email media@aware.org.sg.

We are unable to accommodate transfers and cancellations if participants are unable to attend after payment has been made.

REGISTER NOW!

About the Facilitator

Balli Kaur Jaswal is the author of five novels, including Singapore Literature Prize finalist Sugarbread, and the international bestseller Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows. Jaswal’s non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar and Salon.com, among other publications. Currently a lecturer at Yale-NUS College, she is preparing for the release of her upcoming novel, Now You See Us.