Student spotlights - Creative writing

Creative writing spotlight: Prajwal Parajuly Sharma

When MSt in Creative Writing student Prajwal Parajuly Sharma applied to Oxford, he had just finished a very rough draft of a collection of short stories.

He flew into London from the US for the Oxford interview, and on the way he attended the London Book Fair.

'I thought it would be a nice, pretentious thing to talk about in my Oxford interview,' Prajwal says. '"Oh, he must take his writing seriously if he attends book fairs," the interviewers would think.'

At the London Book Fair he sat next to a London-based literary agent who wasn't very happy that many of her important meetings had been cancelled because of the volcanic ashes.

'Had it not been for the numerous cancellations on account of the ashes, an agent would never have spoken to me', Prajwal says. Prajwal happened to have with him the first version of a story he was working on. 'I needed something to read. I absolutely hate book fairs. I figured sneaking in a quip about having attended a Hilary Mantell reading would work wonders at the interview, but I wasn't going to attend 20 sessions -- not even for Oxford.'

Before the end of the day, he handed over his e-mail address and his short story to the agent, Susan Yearwood of the Susan Yearwood Literary Agency, who had started her literary agency just two years ago.

'I had no hope anything would come of my giving a very rough draft to Susan. It was an impulsive thing to do. Susan now tells me that at that point she thought, "great, first all my meetings are cancelled, and I now have one more thing to carry."'

Acceptance on the programme

The Oxford interview happened, Prajwal mentioned the London Book Fair, among other things, and was accepted to be a part of the MSt. in Creative Writing class of 10-12.

'It was the most intimidating interview of my life,' Prajwal remembers. 'The acceptance was a total surprise.'

What was even more surprising was an e-mail from Susan asking for the rest of the short stories in his collection. Prajwal soon signed with Susan Yearwood, three days before he was due to start at Oxford. 'It was a very brave thing for Susan to do -- the collection was just a rough draft. And my rough drafts could very well just be notes.'

Prajwal chose to live in Oxford for the academic year. 'The beauty of the MSt programme at Oxford is that you don't need to attend classes on a daily or a weekly basis. It’s structured as a series of residences and retreats  — so you could be based in Oxford or not', Prajwal says. 'I like that the course is structured this way. Our sessions are intense and go on for very long hours, but I wouldn't have them any other way.'

Completing his first book

He immersed himself into the art of revising the book. 'I have never been so productive in all my life as in my first month at Oxford. The minute I stepped into the Radcliffe Camera, I was in a totally different zone. When the RadCam closed, off I'd go to the Kellogg computer lab.'

After the first residence, he decided to work on an eighth story. Bestselling author Marti Leimbach, a tutor on the MSt. course, loved a short paragraph he had written in an in-class exercise. Using the paragraph as the beginning of the eighth story seemed like a sensible thing to do. 'That's what happens on these courses -- you never know what you may end up using.' It's now his favourite story in the book. 

Susan soon began circulating the manuscript among her contacts in the publishing world. It wasn't long before offers started trickling in. After a particularly interesting meeting with Jon Riley at Quercus, Prajwal knew he'd work with him.

'He had all the experience. The comfort level was perfect. We talked about his editing style and my writing style. It would work perfectly,' Prajwal said.

At 26, Prajwal is the youngest Indian national ever to secure an international book deal, by signing a two-book deal with Quercus in September.

Onward and upward

He has now decided to live in India for his second year of the programme. 'The first year was wonderful, but I needed to be around the mountains of India, which is where most of my second book will be based.'

He has decided to specialize in screenwriting for the second year, which, he declares 'is a world so new to me that I might as well be in kindergarten. This cross-genre focus of the course teaches you so many new things.' 

Meanwhile, Susan Yearwood and Prajwal celebrated their success over dinner. 'We laughed at the coincidence of it all. Had I not wanted to drop in on the London Book Fair for the Oxford interview, we'd have probably never met,' Prajwal says. 'I don't even know if I'd have even actively looked for an agent.' 

The Gurkha's Daughter: Stories will be published in hardback in December 2012. The collection chronicles the lives of Nepali-speaking people around the world. Land Where I Flee, a novel, will be released in December 2013.