Six Days. Twelve Writers. One Villa in Goa.
Writing can often be solitary. This residency creates a space where writers step away from everyday demands to focus on craft, reflect on their goals, and think carefully about the journey from draft to publication.
Meet the Mentors
Arpita Das
Arpita Das is the Founder-Publisher of the indie publishing house Yoda Press and Associate Professor of Writing at Ashoka University. She writes a regular column on publishing for the trade journal Publishing Perspectives. In the past, she has been writing mentor for the Rama Mehta Writing Grant residency in 2024, 2025, and 2026 and conducted writing mentoring workshops at venues as wide-ranging as KREA University and Museum of Goa. Das founded the Word Lab in IIHS University, Bangalore in 2014 and led it for the next three years. She also initiated the Word to Screen Market for MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in 2016 and led it over three editions. For her commitment to active mentoring of young writers and publishing professionals, Das received Printweek India’s Mentor of the Year Award in 2024.
Smita Sahay
Smita Sahay served as Associate Editor for ‘Veils, Halos & Shackles: International Poetry on the Oppression and Empowerment of Women’. Her works have appeared in national and international journals, newspapers and anthologies. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Usawa Literary Review, and the Poetry Editor for SPEAK, the Magazine. A visiting faculty of Creative Writing at Whistling Woods International, Mumbai, she is an ISB alumna, class of 2015.
A survivor of C-PTSD, she is also the founder and Somatic therapist at Calm Space Healing, a trauma-informed therapy and healing practice.
Kavita Kabeer
Kavita Kabeer is a writer and content creator whose work sits at the intersection of economics, technology, and culture. With a background in economics and finance, she brings a researcher’s rigour to her writing; but it’s her wit and sharp sense of humour that make her work truly stand out. From digital economies to cultural shifts, her writing is for anyone who wants to understand the world without falling asleep doing it. Her work aims to cut through noise, challenge propaganda, and reshape how we think, read, and participate in the digital age.
She helms a weekly show #Cracknomics for the Wire, analysing political economy with a rundown of weekly fun-memes.
Read some of her non fiction writing here:
https://thewire.in/author/kavita-kabeer
Rupleena Bose
Rupleena Bose is an Associate Professor of English Literature at Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi. Her acclaimed debut novel Summer of Then (Penguin Random House 2024) is set between cities and seasons, the personal and political, moving between a woman’s interiority to the nation outside.
She has a doctorate in Urban New Wave Bangla Music of the Nineties. She has written fiction and non fiction screenplays which has shown in film festivals across the world and has won several awards including the National Film Award. She has also directed a short documentary Black Humour under the PSBT flm fellowship. She has been the recipient of the Charles Wallace Scholarship for writing. After hours she writes on cinema and music for The Hindu, The Hindu Blink, HT, Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), Open, Biblio, The Print and others. She is currently working on her non fiction book on urban music. She divides her life and livelihood between Aldona, Goa and Delhi.
Joining us online
Sumana Roy
Sumana Roy is the author of two works of nonfiction, How I Became a Tree and Provincials and Plant Thinkers of Twentieth-Century Bengal, a work of literary criticism; two works of fiction, Missing: A Novel and My Mother’s Lover and Other Stories; and of the poetry collections Out of Syllabus and VIP: Very Important Plant; she has also translated (with an introduction) Jagadish Chandra Bose’s essays in The Man Who Made Plants Write. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Ashoka University.
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Hemali Sodhi
Hemali Sodhi is the founder of A Suitable Agency, a leading literary and consulting agency that provides quality representation to writers and artists, advises on brand strategy and communications, and runs a speakers’ bureau for writers. She has over two decades of experience in publishing, communications and brand strategy.With a proven expertise in communications and brand strategy, Hemali has conceptualized and worked on a number of pioneering and award-winning campaigns and built new forums for meaningful literary and cultural exchanges. She consults with various Indian and international organizations, and is an advisor to several cultural and literature festivals.Hemali is interested in new experiences around food and travel, is a lifelong admirer of Calvin and Hobbes, and is the editor of the bestselling and acclaimed anthology The Book of Dog, with contributions from forty five leading writers and animal rescuers.
A 100-year-old
Indo-Portuguese Villa
Lovingly restored by award-winning architect and designer Sandesh Prabhu, Turiya Villa is no stranger to artistic retreats. Participants will spend six blissful days immersed in its beauty, regional meals, and conversations that nurture both craft and community.
Each day is built around
three core experiences.
Craft Workshops
Sessions with invited writers, editors, and publishing professionals exploring craft, reading practices, and the literary ecosystem.
Writing Practice
Guided writing exercises designed to encourage experimentation with voice, form, perspective, and new ways of approaching the page.
Editorial Mentorship
One-on-one feedback, peer discussions, and editorial conversations focused on strengthening your work and long-term writing practice.
We are looking for:
Everything you need to spend six days immersed in your writing.
Applications Open Now
Only 12 spots open. We look forward to reading your application.
Apply Now