Monica Mody

Ranchi, June 28: The students of Ranchi are set to get a heavy dose of creative ideas. Ranchi-born writer Monica Mody is in the city to conduct creative writing and poetry workshops for school and college students on July 7 to 10 and July 14.

Monica has conducted creative writing and poetry classes at University of Notre Dame, USA. She completed her Masters in Fine Arts in poetry from the University of Notre Dame this year, and subsequently won the prestigious Nicholas Sparks Award for 2010-11. She will be a poet-in-residence at the university for a year beginning August 2010.

A resident of Ranchi, Monica did her schooling from the Bishop Westcott Girls' School, and plus two in humanities from Jawahar Vidya Mandir, Shyamli.

She got a degree in law from the National Law School, Bangalore.

Monica tries to write for at least two hours every day, since she believes that good art requires knowledge of the craft and practise makes a man perfect.

Monica co-founded a writers’ group at the British Council Delhi with two friends in 2004, and also started “Open Baithak” in 2006 — a poetry in performance series which gathered poets and performers who were interested in innovating these forms.

She has just finished a manuscript titled Kala Pani which, she says, is her most ambitious work.

“It's interesting to come back to the city and see the vibrant mood and energy among the youngsters. However traffic and basic infrastructure needs to be improved,” Monica said.

She also the winner of the Toto Award for Creative Writing in 2007. Her work has been published by Wasafiri, The Little Magazine, Krithya,Nth Position, Cannot Exist, Midway Journal and Desilit Magazine.

They have also been published in anthologies such as “Poetry with Prakriti 2007-2008” and “Women Period.”