The Himalayan Emerging Writers Residency

Please note: 2026 Applications are closed

This residency offers emerging writers an opportunity to live, learn and write with the Himalayas as their muse. The residency aims to help writers finish their writing projects and make their debut. It’s going to be hard work, and fun.

If you are a writer from South Asia looking to escape your everyday monotony and take time to focus on your craft and your important project, please apply.

Eligibility

• You must be above 18 years of age and be a citizen of any South Asian country.
• You could be working on a fiction, non-fiction or children’s book. Academic/Technical writers are not eligible for this residency.
• While we deeply appreciate poetry and translation and hold courses for both, these are not included in the ambit of this residency.
• The project you are working on should be your own original work. Ghost writers are not eligible.
• This residency is for emerging writers not traditionally published yet. If you are a published writer of repute, please consider any of the other residencies listed here.
• If you are a self-published author never traditionally published, you may apply.
• Each application needs to be accompanied by a payment of INR 250.
• We’ll accept a maximum of ten writers.

Structure​

• The first three days of this residency will be spent on craft. We will go over the basics of writing. Chetan Mahajan, the co-founder of the Himalayan Writing Retreat will lead these sessions.
• Over the remaining 18 days the residents will have free writing time punctuated by sessions with experts, literary agents and editors from publishing companies.
• For these 18 days, we will maintain “Quiet time” twice a day: 10AM-12.30 PM and 2.30 PM -5 PM.
  During these times you are expected to allow others to write without distraction, and possibly do so yourself. This routine will not apply on  Sundays.
• On certain evenings we will have open mics where you may share small excerpts of your writing with other writers.
• After the residency we will have six virtual meetups – one every month for six months.

Cost​

• The residency is free. The stay, food and learning for all three weeks is at zero cost for selected writers.
• Travel costs are borne by the applicant.
•  If traveling from abroad, visas are to be arranged and paid for by the participating writer.

Venue & Stay​

• The Residency will be held at the Himalayan Writing Retreat. For map and directions, click here.
• The resident writers will share rooms on a same gender basis. Four of the five are suites: two rooms separated by a door, and a shared bathroom.  The retreat also has many open spaces and common areas where writers can write.
• The retreat is a non-smoking facility. Smoking is only allowed in specific open areas, where it leaves no smell and does not bother anyone. Please respect that.
• The venue is a 150 metre downhill walk from the nearest roadhead. You will need to walk up and down slopes and stairs to get around at the retreat as well.

Don’ts

• You cannot be working remotely on your day-job during the residency. All three weeks have to be dedicated to writing only.
• Other humans or pets are not allowed. Only your imaginary characters can accompany you.
• Please do not be intrusive. Loud noise or recorded music don’t work, headphones do. Please remember that you will be sharing your room and the entire space with other writers.
• If you snore and that prevents you from sharing a room, please let us know in advance.

Date​

July 9th – 30th, 2026
Get in anytime on the 9th and leave post breakfast on the 30th.

Selection Criteria​

• Project theme & outline
• Writing Sample
• Seriousness and intent to publish
• Previous writing credentials (short stories, articles, other writing evidence)
• Reading interests

Completion Required​

All participating writers are required to finish and send out their manuscript to agents and publishing companies within eight months of the end of the residency i.e. by 30th April, 2027.

Age, gender, caste, religion or sexual orientation play no role in the selection process.​

Timelines​

• Applications open:
  February 11th  – April 10th, 2026
• Shortlisting, interviews and final selection:
  April 11th  – May 10th
• Selected writers and wait-list to be informed:
  May 11th – May 15th.
• Selected writers to share travel bookings to confirm spot:
  May 20th.
• Residency dates:
  Sunday, July 9 – Sunday, July 30, 2026
• Monthly zoom sessions:
   September 2026- April 2027
• Submission for publishing:
  April, 2027

FAQs​

Residents of 2025

---

Deepthi Krishnamurthy
Deepthi Krishnamurthy lives in Bangalore. She writes poems and short stories. Her stories have appeared in Spark magazine and Women’s Web. Her writing was featured in a collection of short stories called When Women Speak Up. Professionally, she has over a decade’s experience as an editor and writer in the corporate world. As a freelancer, she has edited and beta-read fiction titles.

Hargun Kaur Sachdev
Hargun Kaur Sachdev is a Mumbai-based writer who turns feeling into form. Her writing moves  through grief, intimacy, and memory with an unflinching emotional gaze. She has spent the past decade building a body of work that is as consistent as it is tender—from anonymous poetry blogs to a Substack filled with raw, reflective essays that make readers feel less alone. She’s known to stop people mid-sentence just to say, “I need to write that down.” For her, art isn’t a separate pursuit—it’s how she listens, how she lives. She finds poetry in seasonal fruits, listens to the secrets of the moon, and holds human ache like a kintsugi artist. Hargun is currently working on her first literary fiction novel. Alongside her creative work, she crafts content strategy for financial brands—creating narratives around stock markets and mutual funds by day, and saving her best metaphors for after the markets close.

Nilanjana Dey

Nilanjana is a marketing strategist specialising in brand storytelling and revenue operations for B2B firms. She caught the reading bug early, immersing herself in the stories of people and places worlds apart from her. In 2021, she self-published “The Chamomile Notes”, and her work has recently appeared in the Mean Pepper Vine. Hailing from Assam, she currently lives in Goa, spends her time working freelance, writing short stories, and feeding the wildlife.

Sarika Siraj
Sarika Siraj is a Bangladeshi multidisciplinary writer working at the intersection of storytelling, architecture, and visual art. Writing since a young age, she has published children’s books, science fiction, and adventure stories, often exploring themes of human existence, social structures, and the ongoing search for meaning across shifting worlds. Her background in architecture shapes her world-building, adding structure and atmosphere to her imagined realms. She is currently working on a new sci-fi thriller centered on women’s resistance and quiet defiance in a fractured future.

Varsha Tiwary
Varsha Tiwary is a writer and translator currently based in Delhi. 1990, Aramganj her translation of the Hindi novel Rambhakt Rangbaz was published by Eka Westland in 2024. Her literary essays, critiques and reviews feature in Frontline and The Wire. Her short stories have found home in most leading literary magazines. However, as for her own novel, short circuited by day to day demands, it lives in a despair filled enclave in her head, haunting and taunting her. She has often dreamt of undivided time, a mental zone to mould the novel from the fragmented, frantic recalcitrant pieces she has been writing for over eight years now. She hopes that her inner novel writing spirits will be invoked in the compassionate, spiritual space of this retreat.

Residents of 2024

Event Summary