BlogchatterWritFest Season 6: Connecting Readers with Authors
Reading, books, author interactions, nuances of writing well, publishing advice, these words sum up the annual online literary festival, Blogchatter WritFest. In 2022, the sixth edition
of this much-anticipated event had live sessions with authors, spread over the month of March.
The focus for Season 6 has been connecting readers with authors for interactive sessions to help aspiring writers in being inspired and learning about a specific genre of writing. The sessions were functional in terms of offering a roadmap for those writing and wishing to hone their craft.
Panel Sessions
The first session on Relatability in Fiction featured authors Meghna Pant, Kiran Manral and Kanchana Banerjee. It had a vibrant discussion on covering social themes in fiction, writing across genres and how writers make their way.
The second session focussed on writing in the horror and thriller genre, featuring authors Neil D’Silva, K. Hari Kumar and Chandrima Das. The three stalwarts of the genre spoke about their own philosophy when it comes to navigating the wordly and the supernatural.
The third panel discussion was on children’s books featuring Khyrunnisa A, Vibha Batra and Vidya Mani. Writing engaging books that children enjoy and making Indian author books available for children were the mainstay of the conversation.
Exclusive Author Workshops
Participants got to attend workshops with authors that did a deep dive when it came to discussing the craft of writing. Preeti Shenoy spoke at length about Writing Engaging Stories, taking questions and motivating aspiring writers. Sampurna Chattarji spoke in great detail about Getting started with Poetry, covering the basics and giving book recommendations for those beginning to read and appreciate poetry.
Community Insights
The sessions were well received for comments and questions came in fast during the FB live as well as the exclusive author sessions. The community bloggers wrote blog posts on their experience, their insights and learnings. These posts are available to read under the featured category on the website.
Book Giveaway
A big draw of the Blogchatter WritFest is the book giveaway that runs for the curtain-raiser and every author session. Blogchatter chose to send out 22 specially curated titles from the now-closed Westland books in a bid to give these books a home. In line with its ethos of supporting independent book stores, all the books were bought and sent out through Storyteller, a woman led independent book store based in Kolkata.
Even though Blogchatter WritFest has come to an end for this year, reading and writing continue through the year via the Book Chatter Facebook lives, free books to read from the online library and through the Book Review section.
If you are someone who loves to read and explore new genres and authors, get books from the online library here. If you are a book blogger and regularly write reviews, you can be part of a large community of reviewers. Check books available for review here.
