Guest Lecture on Creative Writing

The English Department of The IIS University, Jaipur organized a guest lecture on
7 October 2017 on The Craft of Short Stories and Poetry. The guest for the
lecture was Shri Keki N. Daruwalla who is an eminent poet, short story writer and
novelist. He has been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1984 and the Padma
Shri in 2014.
The first part of his lecture dealt with the art of short story writing in which he
focused on the techniques used in it. He deliberated upon the importance of the
locale and time in the short stories. He also stressed on the importance of the
details in them. He validated his point by quoting relevant parts of famous short
stories. The second part of the lecture dealt with poetry where he described the
process of writing poetry. He also read out some of his prominent awarded poems.
He resolved the queries of the students in the last part of his lecture, guiding them
on issues like selection of title, role of imagination in fiction, feminist characters
and the contemporary scene in fiction.