[Updated venue!] Whose Stories Can We Tell?
PresentationVarsha Varghese | Moderator: Francesca Wah
This is an interactive presentation inviting participants to reflect on writing the ‘other’. Is it a mistake to write about characters with different lived experiences?
Spoiler: Not if done with sensitivity! Learn more about the questions to think about, and tips for writing inclusive stories.
writingdiversity representation
Varsha Varghese (India)
Varsha Varghese holds a Master's degree in Development Studies, where her academic training fostered a strong interest in gender studies. Her writing portfolio includes two picture books and a children's reader, drawing on research into the impact of male migration and single-parent household structures. In 2023, she won the Scholastic Asian Book Award for her middle-grade novel, Dear Author, You Are Wrong, which is set to be published by Scholastic Asia in 2025. Her work-in-progress middle-grade historical fiction, set in 1930s Travancore, earned her a place on the shortlists for both the Neev Literature Festival (NLF) Fellowship for Book Creators 2023 and the HWR Emerging Writer's Residency 2024.
Moderator Francesca Wah (Singapore)
Francesca is an educator by profession and a social worker by conviction. She started a charity organisation, Bringing Love to Every Single Soul (BLESS), that reaches out to the less privileged children. One of BLESS' programmes, Shining Star Reads, aims to impart literacy skills to the children residing in rental flats.
Programme dates and times are subject to change.