Earlier this year, we announced the Vogue Writers Club, sending out a call to young writers across the country. We asked them to pitch 3 stories for a chance to be part of a new programme intended to nurture and inspire them to continue honing their craft in spite of the barrage of AI slop that fills our screens. In the span of two weeks, we had 1600+ pitches in front of us. Of these, 30 were shortlisted and developed into features, and finally, 10 writers were selected, forming the inaugural Vogue Writers Club.
Across four sessions conducted in July, participants received editorial feedback on their features, took part in discussions with leading voices in the publishing and creative industries and gained insight into Vogue India’s editorial process. For the first workshop, Avni Doshi, Booker Prize–shortlisted author of Burnt Sugar, joined senior features editor Sadaf Shaikh to talk about compelling writing in the age of AI. She spoke perceptively about the way LLMs are trained on stolen work, declaring, “It is an act of defiance to do the work and to insist on it being a human endeavour.” Following Doshi, Shaikh broke down the defining aspects of a Vogue India story.
Next, digital editor Sara Hussain spoke to Harnidh Kaur, creator, venture capitalist and author of The Girls Are Not Fine, on building a personal brand in the age of Instagram. Kaur spoke with candour: “You are a person with a skillset. You are selling your wares out in the open market. 500 other people are selling the same wares, but people will buy from you if they feel something for you and, through that, for your work.” After Kaur’s session, Hussain touched upon the importance of timely stories for a digital publication.
In our third workshop, fashion features editor Ashwini Arun Kumar chatted with Daisy Rockwell, writer and literary translator of Hindi and Urdu literature (including the 2022 International Booker Prize–winning Tomb of Sand), on inclusive writing and learning to think across languages. Rockwell spoke about the thoroughness of her translation process, with research that spills far beyond the subject of her book, which itself undergoes close to eight rounds of edits in her own hands. This was followed by a peer-review session, where the Vogue Writers Club had a chance to get to know one another better, while giving and receiving feedback on their ongoing stories.
For many writers, everything that comes after finishing the manuscript is unexplored terrain. For our last workshop, I spoke to Kanishka Gupta, literary agent and founder of Writer’s Side, about the goings-on of an industry most writers walk into without any idea of what awaits them. This was followed by a chat with Rochelle Pinto, head of editorial content, who spoke about her own journey in the industry, from her serendipitous start in fashion to serving as the founding editor of Tweak India.
We couldn’t let our inaugural class graduate without a parting gift, so we put together some of our editorial team’s favourite books from Penguin published over the past year (Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong, Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson, Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood, Voices in the Wind by Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal); beauty products we recommend (Pixi Beauty DetoxifEYE Serum, Innisfree Dewy Tint Lip Balm, Kylie Cosmetics High Gloss, indē wild Sun Defense Sunscreen Glow Drops, The Body Shop Vitamin C Glow Boosting Moisturiser); a customised ‘Vogue Writers Club’ notebook from Odd Giraffe; and Pivot Micro Bag Charm from DailyObjects.
