Category Archives: Uncategorized

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Flaunt It, If You’ve Got It

The members only writing competition has gone live. Details available here. The caveat? You need to be a registered member, but the incentives for scoring a Desi Award are many.

For starters, we’re going to bring out a special issue of PAPERCUTS specifically for the best five entries submitted; entries will be judged on creativity and general well togetherness of the piece. Participants have six different titles to choose from and one limitation: they have to include the title in their piece, every word of it. How they do it, is entirely up to them.
Along with the above, we’re gearing up to compile and publish our first anthology; winners of the competition (Desi Awards will go to the Best Poet and Best Writer) will be guaranteed a spot in the anthology.
Thirdly, winners will get a certificate, a proper certificate of participation along with their names and the award won. They’ll be encouraged to frame it for display in their homes. 🙂
And finally, as a forum member participants will get a forum medal in their honor that they’ll carry with them forever. Something along the lines of ‘Best Poet, Desi Awards 2009’.
The deadline is December 31.
If you’re suitably interested in the above, why not register if you haven’t already and give it your best shot? Fresh registrants should have at least 10 posts to their name, and should be fairly active on the community in the run up to the deadline. We don’t want members simply registering for the competition and then forgetting all about us later. Members who truly appreciate the written word, are who we’re looking for, and who the competition truly stands to represent.
One of the many advantages will be direct publication, without having to go through our very brutal workshops. Needless to say, the piece has to be very well put together to qualify.
We are insanely picky that way.
Good luck!
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Unveiling Our First Cover & Other Things

We are going through with the book club and The Exorcist as our pick of the month, on November 21 at the Paper Microphone Cafe at 5.30 pm sharp. We will also be picking the next selection, so if you know interested people in the city, or will be attending yourself, bring along some easily available books with you, as suggestions.

We had to change our original book selection because Divisadero wasn’t easily available.

And now, take a look at our first “official” cover for the latest issue of Papercuts; Vol 5 or our Fall issue. Like, dislike?

Post in the comments, below!

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New Website Launched!

Our new website design just went live! Go on, check it out here. Tell us what you think; whether this new look suits us.

The Events tab is currently empty, but that will be filled in shortly. We’ve been working on new layouts for the e-zine and promise some covers coming your way.
Also, catch the new We, The Craftsmen link: an introduction to the team behind DWL from the people themselves. We’ve got our pictures up for now, those will soon be replaced by our caricatures. Yes, we will prove writers are willing to laugh at themselves!
So…what do you think?
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Announcing PAPERCUTS

Hello Everyone,

We’ve finally settled on a title for our online literary magazine; the decision involved some pretty cool choices and a large poll. It ran for a suitable period before the unanimous decision was…yes, that’s right: PAPERCUTS.
We’re planning a new design layout in commemoration of the new title. Part of the reason of changing the design, was because we needed to upgrade our website in terms of the development aspect (migrating from Joomla 1.1.x to 1.5, a much more stable and universally acknowledged version). So that’s something to look forward to in the next couple of days.
We’re working on getting ourselves some more media exposure, so if anyone has any ideas or suggestions for that, we’re definitely welcoming them. We’ll be registering ourselves as an organization in late November/early December, and along with that, we’ve got the largest scale event we’ve ever had which will involve sponsors, people from all over Pakistan, and lots of exciting stuff like that. We’re excited. Are you excited? 🙂 We’ve been hinting at it for a while, and once the new website goes live, you’ll see it with a little more prominence.
Book clubs, readings and game nights will still proceed as normal. We still have the DW corner at the Paper Microphone Cafe that lets you write there and then, and leave the sheets there or take them with you as you see fit. Columns are Khutt, The B*tch Letters and ODTM (One Day, Two Minutes). Who knows? We might expand in the future. Be sure to check us out there, though and bring a little patronage to the Cafe while you’re at it; they’ve been our gracious hosts.
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Book Club Reconvenes Today

Alright, so we’re picking up where we left off in a slightly new and rejuvenated fashion. Today’s ice breaker is all about you and selecting books you want to read. So, we’re allowing participants to join us today, and either physically bring their selection with them (mine’s Shadow of the Wind, complete with the book itself), or create a list of books that’s on their must read list.

We’ll put all scraps of paper selections in a bowl, toss em around and pick one at random. We’ll open up a box of selections for the book club, allowing random visitors to the cafe to help us decide. The box will be left at the cafe.
Every month, we’ll pick a new title from the box and the cycle will continue.
So if you’re interested, join us today (Saturday) at the Paper Microphone Cafe, 2nd Floor, above Bukhari Furriers in F-6, Super Market at 6pm.
🙂
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Game Night Announced!

After much dillying and dallying, we’re finally announcing a finalized date for our second game night, the (hoped for) success to August’s event. We’re increasing the games played from wordy games to a slightly more pictorial debut, introducing Pictionary to the circuit bringing our games to Scrabble, Balderdash, Taboo, Boggle and now Pictionary.

The details are below:

What: DWL Game Night, Issue 2
Where: Paper Microphone Cafe (2nd Floor, above Bukhari Furriers, F-6 Super Market, next to the Shell Petrol Pump)
When: Saturdya, October 10 at 7 pm sharp
Extras: Rs 150 admittance fee. Please come early to secure a seat; space is limited.
RSVP: Click here (FB event)

Along with the GN announcement, there’s been a slight change of rules with regards to applying for registration in the forums. We now require a writing sample just to get an overall feel of incoming members, in particular their grammar and English language inclinations. This comes as an effort to streamline the quality put up on our forums, and in turn those that deserve critique less on the basis of grammar and punctuation, and more on the basis of structure and plot which is the heart of our collective vision at the Lounge.

Meanwhile, we still have the readings and the book club gatherings coming up in the future and our DW @ the Paper Microphone Cafe is operational, so please do check that out and let us know what you think.

We’ll be putting up event notifications on the white board at the corner as well, so if you patronize the cafe, check out their White Hot Chocolate and sip it while composing the next brilliance at the Corner. 🙂

Cheers!

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Naming the ‘Zine

Hello Everyone,

Thanks to one of our members for putting up the suggestion, we’re looking to brand our ‘zine with its very own name, creating a distinct identity for it apart from our site. So if you guys have any suggestions, either put em in the comments or mail them in.

Hopefully, we should get a positive response for this.

Meanwhile, yes we will update the Game Night post soon. We promise!

– TPTB

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Game Night Success!

Whoops, didn’t realize this blog wasn’t updated to reflect the success that Game Night was. We’ll upload the pictures and a more detailed write up, soon. 🙂

– TPTB

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We Get Our Game On, August 8th. Be there!

Game Night (First Edition)

Where: Paper Microphone Cafe (2nd Floor, Super Market, Main School Road. After the Shell Petrol Pump, right above Bukhari Furriers)

When: August 8, 2009 @ 7 PM (tables close at 10 PM)

Entrance Fee: Rs 100/person

The Details Consider this your chance to get even, especially if you’ve taken flack from us about your work. Codename: Revenge. Games include Taboo, Balderdash, Scrabble and Boggle…and Pictionary, for the artistically inclined.

Bring in a friend or two, create a two-player group or compete as individuals, it’s entirely up to you. Come early to nab a seat at your favorite game (we’re spreading things out Vegas-style, a game a table), register as a team or single player, pick up your score card and player number and let the festivities begin!

Play for fun, to win, or to get some cool prizes including cash…the admission fee goes to a cash pot, that will be awarded to the player (or team) with the highest score at the end of the night. More people, more cash! So rope in as many people as you can.

No registration for the event is required, just show up with your game face and play!

We hope to see you there!

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Book Club: A Case of Exploding Mangoes & Other Avenues

We met on Sunday to discuss the book (for some of us, the book had the impact of restoring our faith in Pakistani lit at large, and for all of us it was a most thoroughly enjoyable read. We also welcomed three new attendees to our group, one of whom is a Lahori and was interested enough to start a Desi Writers Lounge chapter in Lahore, or at least play a significant role in its coordination.

Our next pick is Ali Sethi’s The Wish Maker although we will, in all likelihood, be meeting post Ramadhan to discuss it. That said, there may be one or two plain DWL Isloo meetups/iftaris at the request of many of our members. Furthermore, after next Saturday’s Game Night, it will mark the last of our events until Ramadhan ends, after which the Game Night depending on the turnout will become a monthly event, as will our book clubs and the readings will continue to be once in two/three months.
Meanwhile, next week is Game Night and that cash prize incentive. The admittance fees pooled for a cash prize at the end that can go to either one individual or a voluntary team of two, playing as one. If there’s a deadlock, we’ll go into Death Match mode where an agreed upon game will be chosen to settle the final score. Festivities begin at 7pm and go through till about 10pm. Please come on time.
We’ll be issuing a formal invitation, soon. But meanwhile, check it out on our site. Event announcements will be going up on both our website and Facebook group, along with (hopefully) the Paper Microphone Enthusiasts group as well.
If you’re interested in attending our book club gatherings in the future, all that’s required is to show up, book in hand and preferably register with us so we can remind you a little closer to the date. We now have a field to input your cell phone details; please rest assured, this remains in complete confidence with yours truly (administrator) being privy to the information, and being used to send a reminder of the event you’ve registered for, only. We advise you to consider it.
And…with that, we wrap things up! Hope to see you at our coming events and at the other side of Ramadhan, when we pick up again. 🙂
– TPTB