An editing workshop isn’t the first thing one thinks of when trying to imagine a fun activity for a crisp November weekend – unless the workshop happens to be conducted by Richard Beard. The English novelist and non-fiction writer first graced the Dhaka Lit Fest in 2016, and is returning to the grounds of the Bangla Academy for the second time this year.
Beard is author of seven novels, including “Acts of the Assassins,” which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, and the memoir “The Day that went Missing,” which was published last year and won the PEN Ackerley Prize in 2018.
In an identical workshop held during the DLF in 2016, he took two stories from participants and edited them to show that even the most hopeless of texts can be turned into something magical with the right amount of tweaking. This year, too, the principle behind the session is that writers face similar challenges, so an edit for one is an edit for all.
The workshops are usually pitched to suit writers at different levels of proficiency, so if you’re looking for a chance to see his literary alchemy applied to your work, check your DLF schedule for the session and be sure not to miss it!