Photo by Jan Radtke
Hello! I’m Divya Ghelani - a writer of novels, short stories, flash fiction, and articles.
Biography
I was born in Jamnagar, Gujarat, and grew up in Loughborough, Leicestershire. I hold a First Class BA in English Studies, an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, and an MPhil in Literary Studies from the University of Hong Kong (where I wrote a thesis on British school fiction and plays from the 1950s to the present day). In 2016, I won an Apprenticeship with the UK's leading short story salon, The Word Factory. I have published stories in the BareLit Anthology, Litro: India, Too Asian, Not Asian Enough, Radio 4, and more. I also received an Honorary Mention in the Berlin Short Story Prize. I have led creative writing workshops for The Reader Berlin, Writing East Midlands, The Word Factory, Comma Press, Commonword, among others. I co-judged the Leicester Writes Short Story Prize and the monthly Word Factory Citizen Flash Fiction competition. I live between the UK and Berlin and work as an English language freelance writer and copy-editor. My writing/editing clients have included Faber Academy, The Reader Berlin, StoryTerrace, and TLC.
Current Fiction Projects
Night School is the story of a teacher-pupil relationship that becomes abusive. It has been the recipient of a Writing East Midlands Mentorship, a Literary Consultancy Mentorship, and an Arts Council Grant. In a former incarnation and under the working title of Runaway, it was shortlisted for PRH #WriteNowLive, longlisted for the 2016 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers' Award (made the final 8 of 885 entries), longlisted for the SI Leeds Literary Prize, and an early draft received an honorary mention in the Harry Bowling Prize for New Writing. The opening of Night School can be found in Issue 1 of The Good Journal, edited by Nikesh Shukla. Night School was longlisted for 2020 The Bath Novel Award (out of 1735 manuscripts) and was awarded a 2021 Arts Council England ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ bursary. Most recently, Night School has been longlisted for the 2022 SI Leeds Literary Prize.
I’m also working on a new novel called The Legacy. It concerns the intertwined lives and destinies of two London-based sisters. I’m deep into draft three. It was longlisted for this year’s Penguin Random House’s WriteNow2020 and, most recently, for The Literary Consultancy BESEA Free Read competition.
I am agented by Abi Fellows at The Good Literary Agency.
info@thegoodliteraryagency.org
Yearly Women and Non-Binary Author BIPOC Reading Series
For the past three years, I have dedicated myself to creating and facilitating a lively in-person and online Reading Series/Book Club based on contemporary fiction by women and non-binary BIPOC authors. Each year, I carefully curate a list of 5-8 novels and you can read more about how and why I created this important reading series in my article ‘Thoughts on a Pandemic Bookclub’ in Wasafiri Magazine. The article is accompanied by sketches and interpretations from author and artist Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, who went above and beyond for the project with a lot of joy and colour.
Literature/Creative Writing Tutor/Workshop Leader
I have taught literature and creative writing to students ranging from 11-70 years of age for over fifteen years. I’ve worked in schools, and universities, with creative writing organizations, and with fellow artists in a cross-disciplinary capacity. Throughout the Spring/Summer of 2020, I ran a successful Short Story And Flash Fiction Workshop for The Reader Berlin. From 2021, I also co-hosted STRIKE Short Story Club for the UK’s leading short story salon, The Word Factory, with fellow writer and short story writer Emily Devane. Do reach out if you’d like me to host a workshop for your organization.
Researcher/Co-Curator
In 2014, The University of Leicester’s Centre For New Writing commissioned me to write a short story based on their local history project, Affective Digital Histories. I researched and wrote ‘An Imperial Typewriter’, unearthing the forgotten story of Leicester’s 1974 Imperial Typewriter Strike, wherein a group of predominantly South Asian workers faced down bosses, prejudiced employees, and the members of the fascist National Front. They also battled leaders of their own union, which refused to make their strike official. B3 Media selected this story for development, after which I converted my initial research into a larger ACE-funded oral history and archival research and development project. Working with producer and co-curator Marc Boothe of B3 Media and our assembled team, we turned the striker stories and my initial bank of archival and oral history research into a successful Heritage Lottery Funded exhibition at Leicester’s Newarke House Museum. You can view former factory workers’ stories via our project’s excellent website at www.strikeatimperial.net.
Contact me
divyaghelani@gmail.com
Twitter @DivyaGhelani
Instagram @DivyaGhelani
Contact my agent