Following the great impact of the first nine University of East Anglia creative writing workshops led by Amit Chaudhuri since 2013 in India, and the five subsequent workshops hosted by Ashoka University, the 15th international eight-day workshop will start from 4th July 2026.

As before, it will be led by its creator, the writer and musician Amit Chaudhuri, Professor of Creative Writing, Ashoka University. Chaudhuri (‘like Proust, he has mastered the art of the moment’, Hilary Mantel; ‘the best living writer of the English sentence’, Aditya Chakrabortty, BBC Radio 4; ‘one of the most consistently interesting writers working today’, Jon Day, Financial Times) is the author of eight novels, a book of stories, four collections of poetry, four books of essays, two works of non-fiction, and a critical study. His first five novels have been reissued in the New York Review Books Classics imprint with introductions by Colm Toibin, James Wood, Wendy Doniger, Edwin Frank, and Pankaj Mishra. His ninth novel, Château Rouge, will be published this year in the UK, the US, and India by Faber, New York Review Books, and Westland. Among the prizes he has won are the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, the James Tait Black Prize, the Sahitya Akademi Award, and the Infosys Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Published writers, often picked up by leading publishers, have emerged from the workshop. Many have won or been shortlisted for national awards in India. Others have gone on to successfully complete MAs and MFAs in prose fiction from reputed universities around the world. The workshop has, from the start, drawn excellent participants from the world over.

The eight-day international workshop begins on 4th July and ends on 12th July 2026. There will be a break on 8th July. This workshop group will comprise a maximum of 12 participants. Four participants will be chosen from applicants from Ashoka University. The other eight places are open to applicants worldwide.

It will take place online, and the daily timings for the workshop are 3 to 6 pm Indian Standard Time, or 10.30 am to 1.30 pm British Summer Time.

Participants should ideally have experience in creative writing and also be able to respond in detail to the works of other participants. Traditionally, this workshop makes room for more than craft: it allows discussions to do with the critical assumptions that underlie our reading and writing to emerge in the course of the workshopping.

To apply to the workshop, please send us:

• a CV
• a writing sample of 1,500 words – published or unpublished; the sample should be what candidates consider to be their best work.
• a reference (optional)
• a short statement (300 words max) – explaining what you hope to contribute to and achieve in this workshop.

Applications should be submitted by email to creativewriting.workshop@ashoka.edu.in by 18th June 2026. The fee for the workshop is Rs 20,000 or its equivalent in other currencies. Ashoka University students’ fees are waived by the university, but all other requirements remain the same for all applicants.