The show opens with Lavanya and Mahima talking about what writing and creativity means to them. They share their earliest memories of writing and how each of them decided to pursue it seriously. We chat about their respective manuscripts – both in the space of contemporaray fiction dealing with romance and coming of age, accompanied by some fantastic book recommendations! We talk about research and the process of writing stories about urban Indian relationships. We also delve into what each of them is exploring with their respective manuscripts and chat about the misconceptions people have about romance in literature. Later, we chat about the Emerging Writers Residency, their writing routines and more book recommendations! The episode ends with excerpts from Lavanya and Mahima’s manuscripts narrated by each of them respectively.

Mentions: Pomodoro Method, Cobalt Blue, Deviants, Shantanu Bhattacharya, The Education Of Yuri, Jerry Pinto, Janice Pariat, The Nine Chambered Heart, Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year Of Rest And Relaxation, Eileen, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Vikram Seth, Pride And Prejudice, Jane Austen, Hot Water, Bhavika Govil, Em And The Big Hoom, The Kiss Quotient, Helen Hoang, Crush, Richard Siken, Balaji Telefilms, Dhinchak Pooja, Lydia Davis, Kim Addonizio, Li-Young Lee, Kazim Ali, Olivia Laing, Franz Kafka, Letters To Milena, Marcel Proust, Sooryavansham, Welcome, Indra The Tiger, Lost In Translation, Shawshank Redemption, Catch Me If You Can, The Godfather, Harry Potter, Magic Pot, Tinkle, Jaani Dushman, Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Game Of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Airplane Mode, Shahnaz Habib, Chronicle Of An Hour And A Half, Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari, The Good Wife, No New Notifications, Kannan Gill, Quizzing With Comedians, Gangs Of Wasseypur

Lavanya Arora (they/he) is an independent researcher and writer exploring biology, culture, and food through stories, poetry, and narrative-driven articles. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Condé Nast Traveller India, Frontier Poetry, Soft Union, and elsewhere. In a past life, they tried understanding plant and bacterial DNA. You can find them on Instagram @lavaurora

Mahima Kohli is a writer and editor based in Mumbai. She has edited several books, and her short fiction has appeared in Gulmohar Quarterly and been adapted into sleep stories in three languages. She is currently working on a novel that looks at marriage, identity and family dynamics from an urban Punjabi lens. Mahima loves specialty coffee, books and nature, and works in taxation to pay for all that. You can find her on Instagram @kohliaroundtheworld

The Himalayan Writing Retreat (THWR) is a physical retreat tucked away in the Uttarakhand Himalayas. THWR was co-founded in 2016 by Chetan Mahajan & Dr Vandita Dubey. The retreat offers a variety of events, both online and in person. The HWR Emerging Writers Residency offers emerging writers an opportunity to live, learn and write among the stunning Himalayas. The aim is to help writers finish their writing projects and make their debut. To know more, you can check their website: https://www.himalayanwritingretreat.com/

Sangeetha Menon a.k.a. The Moody Marshmallow is a writer, editor and podcaster. She currently handles the rights portfolio at Tulika Publishers, where she finds new avenues for stories to travel. She has worked with organisations like Bound, Karadi Tales, and Carve Magazine to name a few. You can find her on Instagram: @marshmallow.musings and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/menonsangeetha/

Social Media:

Instagram - @theclosetwriterchronicles

Twitter - @TheMoodyMarsh

Email - theclosetwriterchronicles@gmail.com

Music:

Beat Provided By https://freebeats.io

Produced By White Hot

The show opens with Antara and Farah talking about what writing and creativity means to them. They share their earliest memories of writing and how each of them decided to pursue it seriously. We chat about their respective manuscripts – one in the space of fiction and the other in non-fiction, and the importance of amplifying female narratives, accompanied by some fantastic book recommendations! We talk about research and the process of writing for fiction and non-fiction. We also delve into what each of them is exploring with their respective manuscripts. Later, we chat about the Emerging Writers Residency, their writing routines and more book recommendations! The episode ends with excerpts from Antara and Farh’s manuscripts narrated by each of them respectively.

Mentions: Fyodor Dostovesky, Reader’s Digest, Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq, Deepa Bhasthi, International Booker Prize, Max Porter, Little Wome, Louisa May Alcott, Brotherless Night, V V Ganeshananthan, Rumors Of Spring, Farah Bashir, Arundathi Roy, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, On Balance, Leela Seth, Andaleeb Wajeed, Learning To Make One Cup Of Tea, Natasha Badhwar, Zehra Naqvi, Reema Ahmad, Unparenting, Charles Dickens, Anna Karenina, Jhumpa Lahiri, Mahasweta Devi, Rabindranath Tagore, Anita Desai, Clear Light Of Day, Morning Pages, Julia Cameron, Shadow City, Taran Khan, Aashiqui, Fifty Year Road, Bhaskar Roy, Superboys Of Malegaon, Anatomy Of A Fall, Seen And Unseen, Amit Verma, Let’s Talk Memoir, Ronit Plank, Film Courage, Louisiana Channel, Andrew Huberman, Ted Talks, The Blue Book, Amitava Kumar

Antara Mukherjee is a writer from Kolkata, based in Mumbai, and she likes to write about the immediate realities of our society. Her stories and poems have appeared in over 25 literary magazines, and a play co-written by her has had 12 performances at the Bangalore International Centre since 2022. She's an alumna of the Kolam Writers’ Workshop, and her manuscript was selected for a mentorship program by Asian Women Writers (AWW), a platform by US & UK agents and editors, recognising upcoming women writers from Asia. She is represented by Jayapriya Vasudevan of Jacaranda Literary Agency, and her debut fiction will be published by Bloomsbury in April 2026. You can find her on Instagram @antara.mukherjee.bhattacharya

Farah is a writer based in Gurgaon. Her observation of people and her work as an advocate both enrich her writings. Her work has been published in Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Reader's Digest, Livewire, Outlook and Kitaab, to name a few. She loves to write haiku, short stories and personal essay. She is the recipient of the Natalie Goldberg fellowship. She was shortlisted for 100 inspiring Muslim Women of West Bengal by Rising beyond the ceiling foundation. You can find on Instagram @farahnaaz3

The Himalayan Writing Retreat (THWR) is a physical retreat tucked away in the Uttarakhand Himalayas. THWR was co-founded in 2016 by Chetan Mahajan & Dr Vandita Dubey. The retreat offers a variety of events, both online and in person. The HWR Emerging Writers Residency offers emerging writers an opportunity to live, learn and write among the stunning Himalayas. The aim is to help writers finish their writing projects and make their debut. To know more, you can check their website: https://www.himalayanwritingretreat.com/

Sangeetha Menon a.k.a. The Moody Marshmallow is a writer, editor and podcaster. She currently handles the rights portfolio at Tulika Publishers, where she finds new avenues for stories to travel. She has worked with organisations like Bound, Karadi Tales, and Carve Magazine to name a few. You can find her on Instagram: @marshmallow.musings and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/menonsangeetha/

Social Media:

Instagram - @theclosetwriterchronicles

Twitter - @TheMoodyMarsh

Email - theclosetwriterchronicles@gmail.com

Music:

Beat Provided By https://freebeats.io

Produced By White Hot

The show opens with Akash and Ramanjaneya talking about what writing and creativity means to them. They share their earliest memories of writing and how each of them decided to pursue it seriously. We chat about their respective manuscripts – one in the space of horror and the other in mythology, accompanied by some fascinating book recommendations! We talk about playwriting and it’s influence on each of their writing practices. We also delve into what each of them is exploring with their respective manuscripts. Later, we chat about the Emerging Writers Residency, their writing routines and more book recommendations! The episode ends with excerpts from Akash and Ramanjaneya’s manuscripts narrated by each of them respectively.

Mentions: Tintin, Asterix, Enid Blyton, Panchatantra, Amuktamalyada, Panchakanya, Dr Pradip Bhattacharya, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Indiana Jones, Writers Block, British Council, Otis Haschemeyer, Pushcart Prize, Lord Of The Rings, Sholay, Stephen King, IT, Pet Cemetery, Stranger Things, The Plague, Albert Camus, Charlie Says, Kochi Biennale, Bhakti Poetry, Tukaram, Rahim, Kabir, Neil Gaiman, American Gods, The Good Omens, Terry Pratchett, Golden Compass, Sandman, Harry Potter, Satyajit Ray, Valmiki’s Women, Anand Neelakantan, Piranesi, Susanna Clarke, Annie Zaidi, Sundance Screenwriters Lab, Mahasweta Devi, Arundati Subramanian, Self Editing For Fiction Writers, Rene Brown, Dave King, Murakami, Baahubali, Golmaal, Girish Karnad, Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq, Tomb Of Sand, Perumal Murugan, Charulata, Aranyak Din Ratri, All We Imagine As Light, The Road, Cormac McCarthy, Amitava Ghosh, The Hungry Tide, Premchand

Akash Mohimen is a storyteller working in the theatre and film industry since 2006. He has written 7 plays, including Mahua and Under The Chestnut Tree, the latter being shortlisted for the Hindu Metroplus Playwright Award 2013. In 2015, he was selected for Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab where he co-wrote his first feature film, Rukh. In 2020, he co-wrote two seasons of the web series Bhaukaal. Akash has also worked as an editor for documentaries, advertisements and music videos. You can find him on Instagram @akashmohimen and X (Twitter) @AkashMohimen

Ramanjaneya Sharaph is a business and strategy consultant by design, since his unique name – with only one google hit – precludes any career hinging on anonymity and untrace-ability. His literary urges got an early boost when in the infancy of his accounting career, a boss reprimanded him to write short stories and not bestsellers in his audit reports. He lives in Mumbai with his wife who points to his large collection of books and reminds him that just because he is an accountant, he does not have to cook books. You can find him on Instagram @ramsharaph

The Himalayan Writing Retreat (THWR) is a physical retreat tucked away in the Uttarakhand Himalayas. THWR was co-founded in 2016 by Chetan Mahajan & Dr Vandita Dubey. The retreat offers a variety of events, both online and in person. The HWR Emerging Writers Residency offers emerging writers an opportunity to live, learn and write among the stunning Himalayas. The aim is to help writers finish their writing projects and make their debut. To know more, you can check their website: https://www.himalayanwritingretreat.com/

Sangeetha Menon a.k.a. The Moody Marshmallow is a writer, editor and podcaster. She currently handles the rights portfolio at Tulika Publishers, where she finds new avenues for stories to travel. She has worked with organisations like Bound, Karadi Tales, and Carve Magazine to name a few. You can find her on Instagram: @marshmallow.musings and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/menonsangeetha/

Social Media:

Instagram - @theclosetwriterchronicles

Twitter - @TheMoodyMarsh

Email - theclosetwriterchronicles@gmail.com

Music:

Beat Provided By https://freebeats.io

Produced By White Hot