Shreya is inducted into Britain’s leading creative writing charity, First Story, as a writer-in-residence

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First Story is Britain’s leading creative writing charity, and it works with a whole host of organisations, especially secondary schools, with a focus on those with fewer opportunities, to ignite a love for creative writing https://firststory.org.uk/

Its collaborating writers include well-known names such as Tracy Chevalier (‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’), one of their ambassadors, as well as Neil Gaiman, Elif Shafak, Michael Morpurgo, Ian Rankin, and more, contributing writers to their current campaign, a ‘Six Word Stories’ auction that will raise money to support disadvantaged young writers https://ww2.emma-live.com/FirstStory/?list_lots

Find out more about the wonderful work they do, the people they work with (including Queen Camilla, First Story Patron), and Shreya’s place within it here

Shreya’s column for newspapers in October is about cold-shouldering the ‘wellness’ gurus as we find our own methods of managing in tough times

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(Photo by Olivia Rose Barns for Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature and Nottingham Trent University)

“…chill out we must. Make the best of a bad job. Get our heads down and plough on. That I can do, and have always done, but this unwinding malarkey — how on this storm-tossed earth does one do that? Should I phone a friend? Ask the audience? Can Pink Floyd help me get comfortably numb?

My bestie said looking forward to his retirement sustained him. But the average age of retirement in most countries has been pushed to seventy, which seems too distant a prize to even contemplate! Gone are the days, even in prosperous western states, when you could retire in your fifties with a pension that kept you in clover for the rest of your life. A subject so triggering for France this year, that a million would-be-pensioners fought over it with the gendarmes, up and down the Champs Elysees!

How about a ‘mini-retirement’ Gary-Neville-style? We cackled when this millionaire footballer waxed lyrical about his ‘new’ idea; a centuries-old concept everyday folk call a holiday! He might be better acquainted with it in practice, however, as we plebs could do with a proper break. The average American, often working two jobs, gets ten paid annual holidays, whilst the rest of us, marginally better off, are too beset with health, financial, parental, and other problems to relax.”

Please click here to read the article in full

Shreya’s column for newspapers in September is about the highs and lows of recent visits to her hometown of Kolkata

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‘Banquets and Brickbats for Crumbling Kolkata’ is this month’s column for The Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle.

“…f I crane a little from our back-bedroom window, it’s still possible to spy swaying fronds of palm and coconut trees. The sun too seems to slant into this room the way it did in our childhood, illuminating its new walls of calming azure. In the quiet of the afternoon, the tap-tap-tap of a kingfisher or ledge-loping monkey can sometimes still be heard. Even the hubbub of the local bazaar is a pleasantly muted rhythm when filtering in from afar…”

Please read it in full here

Shreya in well-received Auroville Literature Festival’s media coverage

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Image: At the Auroville Literature Festival in Puducherry, India, organised by Auroville and Government of India’s Ministry of Culture, plus other well-known Indian cultural and literary organisations, standing beside the festival banner featuring Shreya (1st column, 3rd row) alongside other celebrated/award-winning authors.

Here are two of the articles in the media in the run-up to the festival, in The Hindu, India’s most trusted newspaper https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/auroville-literature-festival-to-kick-start-with-a-diverse-line-up-of-indian-and-international-authors/article67196717.ece

And in the popular New Indian Express, which praises Shreya as a ‘strong author’ but unfortunately mangles her name https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2023/aug/21/auroville-literature-festival-2023-exploring-the-worlds-within-words-2607151.html

Her works in the spotlight at this festival were the bestselling ‘Handle With Care’ (HarperCollins, 2022), longlisted in a select list of eight for Times of India’s AutHer Awards’ Best Nonfiction Book 2023, and Welsh National Opera’s epic production ‘Migrations’ which Shreya co-wrote, listed by both The Times and The Guardian in their best shows of 2022.

Shreya’s column for newspapers in August is about the marvel that is diverse representation

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(Image: Holding forth at the inaugural Auroville Literature Festival, organised by Auroville and Government of India’s Ministry of Culture)

To read her column for August in The Asian Age and the Deccan Chronicle, please click here https://www.deccanchronicle.com/opinion/columnists/190823/shreya-sen-handley-south-asian-marvels-but-can-they-last.html

Inaugural Auroville Literature Festival has “some of the best international and Indian writers” participating, including Shreya Sen-Handley

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The inaugural Auroville Literature Festival, celebrating Indian freedom-fighter and philosopher Sri Aurobindo’s 150th birth anniversary, organised with the Government of India’s Ministry of Culture, has “some of the best international and Indian writers and poets” participating, including author and librettist Shreya Sen-Handley, who features on their festival poster, alongside Booker Prize winning and other accomplished company.

Her two sessions include conversations about her latest book, bestselling ‘Handle With Care’ (HarperCollins 2022), longlisted for Times of India’s AutHer Awards’ Best Nonfiction Book 2023, and the acclaimed opera she co-wrote for Welsh National National Opera, ‘Migrations’ (2022), listed by both The Times and The Guardian amongst their best shows of 2022, and a talk with award-winning Australian novelist Jennifer Down.

The Writing of ‘Migrations’: Shreya discusses the stories in Welsh National Opera’s epic production alongside her co-writers

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Writers/Librettists Shreya Sen Handley and Miles Chambers join director Sir David Pountney in discussing how Welsh National Opera’s vast production ‘Migrations’ took shape. From writing the six interweaving tales, to bringing these tales to the stage and telling a universal story through opera. Please click here for the full five-minute film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpJQmacH0Qk&t=86s

In the run-up to its premiere, They also spoke on BBC Radio and television about it, and to various other national and international media outlets

Photo credit Olivia Rose Barns at Bromley House Library Continue reading →