Realizing this blog hasn’t been updated for a while to reflect our jumping activity scene, here we are again.

Lahore has proven itself with a marvelous turnout to discuss In Other Rooms, Other Wonders and is well on the way to becoming a staple at the city’s literary scene. Desi Writers Lounge has finally got a foot into that door.

Meanwhile, our Isloo book club and readings continue along with a reintroduction of our game nights. Details on that below. Please note: all our events will take place at The Niche Cafe, formerly The Paper Microphone, above Bukhari Furriers, Main School Road, F-6 Super Market.

Book Club: On Sunday, April 18 @ 5 PM sharp, we meet to discuss Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet In Heaven. The book is easily available at Saeed Book Bank and all other bookstores in the twin cities. For those of you interested in online purchases, you can find the book at Liberty Books. You can RSVP to the event here

Game Nights Word games galore as Game Nights kick right into gear on Saturday, March 24 at 6 PM at The Niche Cafe (details above). Pick your poison from Boggle, Balderdash, Taboo, Scrabble and Pictionary as you play to win a cash pot at the end of the night. Winner takes all. There are no second places, and no, everybody’s not a winner! 🙂 Consider it healthy competition for old fashioned gamers. The entry fee is Rs 200 with 50% going to the cash pot, and 50% as a cover for the event.

Readings will restart in the beginning of May. No dates yet, but as always, you can present your material at readings@desiwriterslounge.net.

That’s it for now.

– TPTB

We’ve been a little lazy in updating the blog with the recent events, so we’ll make this short and sweet.

March 15, 2010: Our writing competition finally ends; we have been disappointed with the entries thus far and because of the limited number of entries received, will look for just the one winner instead of the promised 5. If we get 6 entries, choosing 5 is kinda pointless!

March 28, 2010 (Islamabad): We meet on Saturday, March 28 to discuss Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter at 6 pm at the Paper Microphone Cafe, our usual spot for our events.

April 3, 2010 (Lahore): On Saturday, our Lahore chapter meets to discuss Danial Mueenuddin’s In Other Rooms, Other Wonders at a venue and time yet to be decided. Details on that soon, but meanwhile there’s a date and a book pick. So if you haven’t already read the book, now’s the best time to read…or reread it.

And that’s what the next few weeks look for Desi Writers Lounge. If you’d like more details on the Lahore events, email us at lahore@desiwriterslounge.net (that’s right, the city has its very own email address!), because we take you seriously…

Meanwhile, our FB page and group are linked to on the right and for general queries, we can always be reached at info@desiwriterslounge.net.

Plan out your calendars!

– TPTB

This winter, we’ve got a couple events lined up extending our official reach into Lahore and hopefully, soon into Karachi as well. Meanwhile, a heads up to our Lahore and Isloo members: we’re coming your way!

Book Club (Islamabad): On February 21st, the Isloo chapter meets after discovering the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in old Barcelona, the setting in the New York Times bestseller The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon). We will also pick out our next selection in this session, so bring your picks along with you. The Shadow of the Wind is available in all bookstores in Islamabad/Pindi, most notably Saeed Book Bank. The book is also available online through Liberty Books or free (as an ebook) via DWL’s Dropbox folder (click here to download).

Book Club (Lahore): And on February 27, we bring the book club to Lahore…also with The Shadow of the Wind as our first selection. The book is available in all major bookstores in the city, and is available online through Liberty Books as well as our online dropbox folder as an ebook. Click here to download.

2010 Reading Series (Isloo): We’re all set to restart our reading series for 2010 on February 27, which coincidentally is the same date as the Lahore book club meeting. As always, we are taking in material now up till February 23. Material can be sent in to readings@desiwriterslounge.net. We hope to hear from some of our newer members during the course of the series.

Writing Competition: Encouraging our entire membership to participate in the competition, a reminder that the deadline is March 15. There is no word limit to the pieces you send in, which can be anything from a poem to a short story to a runt, with varying themes, as long as they contain all words of your respective titles. For more details, click here. You can email in your work to entries@desiwriterslounge.net.

Facebook events for all the above will be created a little closer to the date.

If you have any questions regarding the above, place them in the comments below.

So now that we’re all set to start 2010 off in style, we’re hoping you’re as excited as we are to join us at any of the above.

Bottoms up, peoples!

Hello Everyone,

So by common favor, the ice breaker has been cooled (we couldn’t resist) off in favor of selecting a book first and then meeting up to start discussing that. Dates of course, will be pushed in favor of late February or early March, depending on how fast we select.

Tally ho!

– TPTB

DWL Lahore will have its “official” launch some time in mid-late February as we kickstart activities in the city, with a book club ice breaker meeting. The ice breaker will be used as a way to literally break the ice as we get introduced to our membership in the city, and they get introduced to one another, along with welcoming additional members and readers into our fold.

With both the Lahore ice breaker and Islamabad Book Club meet behind us, we turn our attention towards new possibilities.

It started with the LUMS Creative Writing Workshop and on Saturday, December 19 we’re convening at Cafe Life to formally kick off the currently dormant chapter, into a hub of life. Future events like book clubs, readings, game nights along with other one-off events in collaboration with LUMS and other universities, are on the cards.

Click here to be redirected to the Facebook event created for this purpose. But just to let you know the overall details, we will be picking out the next selection for January so if you’d like to be involved in that decision, come along. Remember to bring your book pick selections along, either as a list or in hard copy form.

For more information on how it went, check out Maryam’s post here. Attendees, if you’re reading this…let us know what you thought, either here or by emailing it in. We’re always on the lookout for ways to improve, so bring.it.on.

Check out the poster (inset), signifying that one of our own will be speaking at the university’s first such event. As desi writers, we are excited! Are you?

We’ve been told that there will be a fairly solid turn out of desi writers there and as TPTB (the powers that be), we’re excited to finally put faces to those (creative) voices.

See you all there! Meanwhile, enjoy…