For this year’s WAC, our writing initiative, we invite critical essays on ‘Writing on Art Writing.’

What does it mean to write about a dance, a painting, a meal, a performance, or a handmade object? How do different art forms demand different writing styles? What happens when criticism becomes storytelling, when description becomes interpretation, or when theory meets lived experience?

Submissions may be analytical, reflective, or experimental in form, but should engage seriously with the question of art writing itself—its purposes, politics, pleasures, and possibilities.

Submit a brief note on your experience, a pitch of up to 300 words, and one writing sample of no more than 800 words as a single PDF.
Selected writers will receive a fee of INR 8,000 for their essay.
Deadline: 4 May 2026.

Find out more here.