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The HWR Khozem Merchant Non-fiction Fellowship gives writers of long-form non-fiction support and mentoring. Penguin Random House India & the Himalayan Writing Retreat (HWR) team will make the selection. The selected Fellows will attend a course, a residency and get financial support, and will possibly get a book deal from Penguin.
Himanjali Sankar, a dedicated, experienced editor will work with the fellows for the entire year.
Thanks to Rishi Khanna, Lata Gullapalli and Saumya Roy joining and supporting Aparna Piramal Raje as patrons of this fellowship, we will now select five fellows instead of three.
Five selected Fellows will:
With this Fellowship we would like to ‘institutionalise courage’ and encourage writers to tell stories that move our society forward. We encourage first-person accounts and lived experience narratives, and those that offer solutions to our many challenges as a nation.
We will select all writers based purely on the merit of their application. Religion, caste, gender or financial need will not be a criteria.
| Activity | Start date / end date, as applicable |
| Applications open | Till 10 Feb, 2026 |
| Shortlisted Candidates will be contacted | By 20 March, 2026 |
| Final selection | 21 March – 15 April, 2026 |
| Announce selected Fellows & get undertaking from Fellows committing the required time | By 16 April, 2026 |
| Fellowship duration 1 year | 1 May 2026 – 30 April, 2027 |
| Submission of MS to Penguin Random House India | By 30 April, 2027 |
“Writing is a solitary sport. Allies were essential in my journey, especially in my early days as a writer.
I was very fortunate to find the perfect mentor in Khozem Merchant, a seasoned journalist and communications professional. Khozem offered feedback with rigour, empathy and patience for over a decade of many long lunches and cups of green tea. His invaluable mentorship has helped me write two non-fiction books, one on business and design, and one on mental health (which is a national bestseller). He also helped me write one of the longest-running columns in the Mint newspaper.
Finding generous and experienced allies is not easy. There are so many of us who may not have access to such wisdom, insight, friendship and humour.
With this in mind, I’m excited to partner with the Himalayan Writing Retreat to create a new Fellowship honouring Khozem Merchant. The Fellowship will provide support and mentoring for writers who might otherwise struggle to get their voices heard. We hope that the combination of the residency in the company of other writers, ongoing mentoring and access to publishers will enable many exciting stories to come to life.
Having a trusted mentor also helped me take risks in my writing and that is the other tenet of this Fellowship. We would like to ‘institutionalise courage’ and encourage writers to tell stories that move our society forward. We especially encourage first-person accounts and lived experience narratives, and those that offer solutions to our many challenges as a nation.
Wish you all the best in your writing journey.”
– Aparna Piramal Raje. Author, Chemical Khichdi & Patron of this fellowship.
Khozem Merchant is a senior journalist and communications professional and has been Aparna Piramal Raje’s writing mentor for over a decade. Aparna is the Patron of this fellowship joined by Rishi Khanna, Lata Gullapalli and Saumya Roy.
The Fellowship is being organized by the Himalayan Writing Retreat and was conceptualised and initiated by Aparna Piramal Raje, a writer, public speaker and author of Chemical Khichdi: How I Hacked My Mental Health and Working Out of the Box: 40 Stories of Leading CEOs. Rishi Khanna, Lata Gullapalli and Saumya Roy have also joined as patrons enabling us to offer five fellowships now.
Lata Gullapalli is a chairperson, non-executive director, investment banker, consultant, mentor for senior leaders and rural entrepreneurs, public speaker, and author of fiction and nonfiction works. Saumya Roy is a journalist, activist, author of the book “Mountain Tales” and co-founder of Vandana Foundation which supports the livelihoods of Mumbai’s poorest micro-entrepreneurs.
Five.
It will be a waste because we need all fellows to provide an undertaking that they will commit to the time requirements. Without such an undertaking they will not be accepted. If an accepted fellow reneges on the time commitment, they will be blacklisted and will also not receive the financial support.
Selected Fellows will receive INR 20k in the first week of May 2026.
All Fellows will receive the same travel fund. You have to manage within that by planning well in advance / choosing cheaper modes of transportation. You are free to spend your own money if you choose more expensive means of transportation, of course.
We will form groups of participants for the course and also the residency to help you share cabs and reduce costs.
On successful completion of the residency component (July-end).
All selected Fellows will be required to provide an undertaking that they will be able to make time commitments for the course and the residency. If after providing such an undertaking the resident does not participate in full, they will be dropped from the program and will be blacklisted for all future THWR programs and events. They will also not receive financial support.
The Himalayan Writing Retreat is at an altitude of 6500 feet above sea level. The retreat is 150 metres downhill from the nearest roadhead and quite spread out. Sessions, meals and gatherings will require that you walk up and down slopes and stairs. If you don’t think you will be able to handle this, please do not apply.
No. This Fellowship is only open to writers currently working on long-form non-fiction.
No. This Fellowship is only open to writers currently working on long-form non-fiction.
We do not accept translators into the Fellowship, only people writing original content.
The Emerging Writers Residency is a part of this Fellowship. Of the ten writers in the Emerging Writers Residency, five will be from the HWR Khozem Non-Fiction Merchant Fellowship. The other five will be selected directly. You can learn more about the Emerging Writers Residency here.
If you are not eligible for the Fellowship, you may still be for the residency. In that case, you can apply for the residency. The residency is open to writers above 18 from South Asia, writing fiction as well as non-fiction. The Fellowship is only open to writers above 25 who are citizens/residents of India and who are writing non-fiction only.
Yes you may.
The HWR Khozem Merchant Non-Fiction Fellowship runs from 1st May 2026 to 30th April 2027. You may do other work concurrently for most of that duration. However. you are required to take time off work and be fully focused on your writing during the Jerry Pinto course (6-10 May 2026) and the residency (9-30 July 2026). Please see the residency rules at https://himalayanwritingretreat.com/emerging-writers-residency/ .
Yes, you may apply. However, a strong author bio will improve the chances of selection.
At this time HWR Khozem Merchant Non-Fiction Fellowship is open to English writers only.
It is possible but not guaranteed. It depends on how your manuscript shapes up. A publishing contract is not committed by PRHI.
The course will mostly be Indians. During the residency, the group may include some writers from South Asian countries. A French author will also be in residence at the time of the residency.
Yes, we have had hundreds of single women travellers stay with us, and safety has never been a concern in the mountains. However, we suggest all travellers be careful, especially when transiting through urban India.
No. The quiet times are the windows when you have to maintain silence, and not indulge in conversation or distract others. If you don’t write then, that’s fine. However, please do not prevent other residents from doing so at those times.
Not anywhere inside. Smokers are requested to smoke outside only.
We do not have a liquor license, and we do not serve alcohol. Drunken and unruly behaviour will not be tolerated and may result in your being asked to leave the retreat. However, you may bring your own liquor as long as you drink responsibly and are respectful of others.
The fare is simple, home-like food. Meals are served at a fixed time, buffet style. Breakfast is 8 – 9 AM, Lunch is 1-2 PM and dinner is 8-9 PM.
No, but each room has a kettle and teabags, etc. Packaged goods and fruits are also available at the nearby store.
Please inform us of your requirements in your application form. If possible, we will try to accommodate your dietary needs.
No. Everyone selected is expected to attend both the course and the residency in their entirety. If you are unable to commit time for the entire duration, please don’t apply.
Yes, but this will be on a paid basis and subject to availability. Room details and tariffs are shared here.
There is no private parking. Parking is only on the main road, a public place. A few local hotels offer parking on a paid basis.
No.
You are welcome to apply to both. The fellowship includes the residency, but not vice-versa. The fellowship has five seats. The residency has five additional seats. Each has different acceptance criteria, terms & conditions and juries.
Anam Fatima, an HWR Khozem Merchant Non-Fiction Fellow for 2026, is a writer and creative entrepreneur. In 2018, she was awarded the Jury’s Choice Award at the Tata LitLive MyStory Contest for “Chhoti”, a personal portrait of a little girl dealing with a differently-abled younger sibling.
She is currently working on her first long-form narrative non-fiction book—an intimate exploration of her memories and experiences of childhood, adolescence and womanhood while growing up in one Kanpur’s most infamous, ghettoised neighbourhoods.
She holds a Master’s in English literature and is pursuing one in Sociology, both of which inform her writing and her work across teaching, mentoring, publishing, storytelling and research.
Arti Jain is a poet, an award-winning spoken word artist, and author of And all the Seasons in between and Don’t Climb on the Bullock Cart. Her work has been widely published and anthologised, including in The Indian Yearbook of Poetry 2024-2025, National Flash Flood Journal, Spellbinder Quarterly, The Hopper, Usawa Literary Review, Gulmohur Quarterly, The Hooghly Review, The Amphibian and is forthcoming in The Bare Bones Book of Speculative Fiction and 1455 Books – Women Writers Anthology.
She lives in Doha and is at work on a memoir, for which she was named a 2026 HWR Khozem Merchant Non-fiction Fellow.
Website: https://arti-jain.com Instagram: @arti.a.jain
Dipti Nair is an award-winning former journalist who has worked across different media, including Print, Television, Internet Radio, and Digital Media.
Her day job involves strategising and creating content for organisations as an independent consultant. Her portfolio can be found on her website: www.diptinair.com.
She is also the Founder of ‘All Things Catz,’ a cat-themed happiness store that sells quirky handmade art and lifestyle products. (Instagram: all_thingscatz)
Paromita Goswami is a lawyer and grassroots community organiser. Her anthology of short stories ‘A Death in the Forest’ was published by Red River (2025). She won the Rama Mehta Writing Grant (2023). Her writings have appeared in several literary magazines, including Himal Southasian, Out of Print, Samyukta Fiction, Mean Peppervine, Muse India etc. Her nonfiction writings have appeared in Economic and Political Weekly, NUJS Law Review, Indian Journal of Social Work and Oxford Journal of Community Development. She occasionally tries her hand at writing or translating poetry.
She is a Yale World Fellow (2005), an Eisenhower Fellow (2004) and an Ashoka Fellow (2001). She was awarded the Khozem Merchant Fellowship (2026) to pursue writing her book on East Pakistan diaspora in Vidarbha.
She lives in Chandrapur with her husband and daughter.
Tanvi Shah began her career behind the camera, in radio and television before landing on the sets of Sacred Games Season 2 as an Assistant Director. The pull toward advertising came next, a decade of writing for Dentsu, MullenLowe and Toaster, on campaigns for Google, Netflix, Swiggy and Tanishq.
She was one of two Indian creatives picked for Creative LIAisons 2024 in Las Vegas, and shortlisted for Next Creative Leaders 2025 APAC.
But somewhere along the way, she started writing for herself, and that’s the work she’s proudest of. Her essays on neurodiversity in advertising, for Campaign Asia, Campaign India and Manifest, come from her own life: Tanvi has ADHD, and writes about it instead of hiding it.
That honesty drives her current book, The Women Who Run on Chaos: Navigating ADHD in a World That Wasn’t Built for Us, written under Jerry Pinto’s mentorship after she won the 2026 HWR Khozem Merchant Non-fiction Fellowship, chosen from 231 applicants.
Off the page, she recites Hindi poetry on her podcast Mukhtasar, and loses most household votes to her two cats. She lives in Bangalore.