Bookshelves are throbbing with new authors and contemporary writings, and the horizon for creative writing is expanding by leaps and bounds. While the classical style of writing stands tall, we now have stalwarts in the fields of contemporary poetry, futurism, prose poetry, novels, screenwriting, playwriting and many more. IIT Gandhinagar, is not falling back!
The Palantir, an incubation centre for the potentially expressive members of IITGn community has regularly been publishing myriad shows of self-expression on its official webpage (The Palantir: Manas). The festival of using ingeniousness to convey ourselves is celebrated at IITGn in many ways. In a joint initiative by the Literary club of IIT Gandhinagar and The British Council, Dr. Luke Kennard was invited to ignite the young creative minds of IIT Gandhinagar. Dr. Kennard is an award winning contemporary poet, fiction writer and critic. He is a senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Birmingham, UK. He has conducted many workshops for literature and contemporary writing. His research focuses mainly on the surrealist and absurdist approach in modern poetry. His poetry and criticism have been globally accoladed and published in many journals and periodicals. His publications include collections of poetry, criticism and short fiction.
Robert Frost once said, “A poet never takes notes. You never take notes in a love affair.”
And here I was sitting with just a bottle of water in a big classroom at IIT Gandhinagar eagerly waiting for Dr. Kennard to commence his lecture on creative writing. He started off by pointing out how the mild sub 20 degrees temperature at Gandhinagar was a pleasure to him as it would have been the most pleasant weather in his hometown. He then read out a few of his own works and lightened the mood with his witty sarcasm. Confidence and encouragement echoed across the hall when he asked us to come out and convey our thoughts without any inhibitions.
The lecture was touched with couple of his short exercises to bring out the best in his students. At the end of an hour long lecture, I was bubbling with energy to write more. We took the opportunity to ask a few questions and suggestions to improve our writing skills. He asked us to write for our own happiness and not for others. He inspired us to stand by our creativity and to continuously improve upon ourselves so that we could have a collection of our ingeniousness that we would be proud of. He illustrated a few noted styles of modern writing practiced across the globe. He advised on a couple of books and encouraged us to be voracious readers because reading more will provide us insight into the current developments in creative writing. The class culminated and left me with a new exposure, new perspective, and yes, a new piece of poetry.
This article is part of PaGaLGuY’s innovative internship certification programme for engineering students. Currently, two such programmes are on – one is an Internship in Creative Writing, and the other is a Certification in Digital Media. If you are interested in partaking and bagging a certificate, besides learning the nuances of effective writing, write to us at [email protected]