Born to Guyanese parents in Manchester, UK, Anita Sethi, an award-winning writer, journalist and broadcaster, was recently in Guyana as one of the mentors of the Guyana Commonwealth Writers Workshop and to launch We Mark Your Memory: Writings from the Descendants of Indenture, as she is one of the contributing writers.
The workshop was spearheaded by members of the writers’ team: Janet Steel and Emma D’Costa, Spoken Word Poet and Radio Presenter Mr Gee and Anita and incorporated three genres – short fiction, creative nonfiction and performance poetry. The one-day workshop was hosted at the Moray House Trust two Wednesdays ago and was also inclusive of a session on performance and stagecraft for writers. The book launch on May 7, saw an average of 80 persons attending while the writers’ workshop attracted some 30 participants.
Anita took charge of the creative nonfiction group and tackled some key points – who each individual was and their reason for being at the conference; techniques in learning how to interview people; and how to survive as a writer. Steel and D’Costa mentored the Short Fiction Group while Mr Gee, did the same for the Performance Poetry Group. These sessions led into a Public Speaking Forum and later that day all writers were given the opportunity to share their work.