The Innovation & Empowerment: A Workshop for Writers (July 10-28, 2026) brings together an extraordinary faculty on the gorgeous greek island of Kefalonia to explore innovation and empowerment across literary genres. Featuring seminars led by Rita Banerjee, Molly Gaudry, Kristina Marie Darling, Simone Muench, Cutter Streeby, & Elizabeth A.I. Powell, we will discover new strategies for collaboration, hybrid writing, crafting short films and book trailers, as well as celebrating the artistic heritage of the island through lectures on the ode, Greek drama, and other topics as determined by student interest. The workshop will culminate in excursions to Assos, Fiskardo, Myrtos Beach, and many other breathtaking places on the island, where we will write and perform our work. Several distinguished visiting writersโincluding Matthew Rohrer, Avia Tadmor, Diana Whitney, and Jose Filipe Alvergueโwill also join via zoom to share their work and provide writing prompts that will guide our creative practice. More information about the workshop details and registration deadlines follow below:
During the Innovation & Empowerment: A Workshop for Writers (July 10-28, 2026), Rita Banerjee will be teaching a lecture and workshop for writers on “Classical Greek and Indian Approaches to Poetry, Dramaturgy, and Storytelling” on July 18-19, 2026, followed by a faculty reading with Dr. Kristina Marie Darling on July 18, 2026 at 6 pm. More information about the course follows below:
In The Republic (ca. 375 BCE), Plato states, โthe tragic poet is an imitator, and therefore, like all other imitators, he is thrice removed from the king and from the truth.โ Plato wants to kick the poet out of the republic because the poet does not answer to the king, and because poets challenge the ready-made truths of the status quo. In the Sanskrit tradition, the poetย (kavฤซ)ย is depicted as a wise seerย (rishi),ย and one who holds up the heavens from the earth and thus serves as a translator of the celestial and the spiritual in theย Rig Veda (ca. 1500 BCE). In response to his tutor Plato, Aristotle composes a defense of poetry in theย Poetics (ca. 335 BCE), and argues that poetry, theatre, and literature are critically necessary for audiences as literature, and tragic theatre in particular, allows audiences to undergoย catharsis. Aristotle maps how effective narratives can be built and how literature can be separated into the categories of comedy and tragedy. In contrast, in theย Nฤแนญyaลฤstraย (ca. 200 BCE),ย Bharata outlines the eight main emotional states that are required to make any work of art become a classic. Bharataโs development ofย rasa theoryย provides a new way of considering narrative design which centers emotion, as do his discussions ofย bindus (turns)ย and how characters and plot develop in literary texts where emotion gives rise to action. In this class, we will study how literary theorists and dramaturgs such as Plato, Aristotle, Bharata, and Abhinavagupta offer different but intriguing approaches to poetry, dramaturgy, and storytelling and how we might use these classical Greek and Indian approaches to poetry and narrative design in our own creative work.
Rita Banerjee will introduce and lead the discussion for Mira Nair’s 1991 film,ย Mississippi Masala,ย staring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury, on June 16, 2026 from 6:15-8:30 pm at the Institute for Indology and Tibetology atย Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitรคt Mรผnchen, (Ludwigstr. 31, Seminarraum 427).ย Anyone interested in translation studies, Modern South Asian literature, or art house film is welcome to join the screening.
โMississippi Masala vividly dramatizes the uncertain, frequently comic progress of the love affair of Mina, a spirited young Indian who has never seen India, and Demetrius, a conscientious, upwardly mobile black American who has never seen Africa. The landscape of Mississippi Masala is brown and black and white. The blacks and whites have been in Greenwood for generations. The browns are newcomers. They are the Indian immigrants who have somehow found their way to Greenwood and, for reasons not entirely clear, have wound up owning most of the motels. The Indian innkeepers are fastidious about their own manners and morals, but they are equally willing to rent rooms by the night, day or hour. It’s recognized as a respectable business. Yet the so-called New South remains a network of social and cultural taboos that almost wreck the lives of Mina and Demetrius.โ โ Vincent Canby, The New York Times
Rita Banerjee is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and Director, MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
Founded in July 2020 by Nigerian novelist Ukamaka Olisakwe, Isele Magazine publishes notable fiction, poetry, essays, interviews, art/photography, and reviews from writers on the African continent and around the world. Isele believes that literature and the arts are an integral part of the daily conversations that uplift and/or shape our thinking. Isele publishes writers and artists who hold a mirror to our society, who challenge conventional expectations about ways of being, how to be, and who decides who should be.
Rita Banerjee’s essay “American Caste” explores the various kinds of caste systems, or social hierarchies, which invisibly structure, stratify, and thus, harm American society. In the essay, she writes:
Thereโs an old saying in India: โIf you move across oceans, you lose all caste.โ The dictum is meant to be a presage, a warning to those who seek the riches and adventures of outside worlds and once there, lose their foothold in society, or when returning home, find themselves a stranger in a strangerโs land.
Cross the dark waters and lose all varแนaโlose all indication of status, wealth, social rank, prestige, privilege, and power. Lose the language of home, lose its logic, lose the understanding of supremacy and subordination, lose the sense of right action, lose wrong thought.
When my father moved to the United States in 1973 as a young graduate from engineering school and then married my mother in 1976 and brought her back to New York with him (thus, abruptly halting her graduate studies and what might have been a prosperous career in academia), I like to think, in some sort of unconscious, subversive, maybe even self-destructive way, what my parents were fleeing was not war or communism or difficult financial circumstances or a democracy trying to grow through the stinging shards of post-colonialism, but what they subconsciously were escaping was caste.
To be a Brahmin in India was to acknowledge (if one dared) both your great privilege as keepers of sacred knowledge (as conveyers of grammar, astronomy, mathematics, statecraft, social mores, philosophy, and theories of art and human behavior) across generations, and your incredible complicity in the social violence that is the Indian caste system.
The first acknowledgement celebrated high culture and the triumph of Brahmanism across millennia in the face of challenges from Buddhism, Jainism, Cฤrvฤka materialism, and Bhaktism (all of which sought to dismantle caste), and in the face of Zoroastrianism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, and Judaism (which offered South Asians alternative models to achieve enlightenment). The second asked Brahmins to interrogate what was behind their lofty, aspirational, and supposedly innocuous ideal of โknowledge is power.โ
* * *
In Caste Matters, Suraj Yengde writes, โcaste should no longer be invisibleโ (35).
Caste, in its most basic form and intent, identifies, venerates, and calcifies social hierarchies. By capitalizing on the fear of the other, caste systems hinder social mobility and aim to prevent people from mixing across tribal, class, gender, religious, linguistic, and ability categories. By being encoded into social stigmas and taboos and being systemic in nature, caste often functions as an โinvisibleโ force that makes us fear anyone who is unlike us. Caste makes us suspect anyone who exists outside of our spectrum of knowledge, culture, or kin. By consolidating socio-political power to those who have the most cultural capital or are perceived to be of the highest social rank, caste allows the few to benefit from the oppression, exploitation, and sacrifices of the many.
If you are planning to attend the AWP 2026 Conference in Baltimore, MD from March 4-7, 2026, stop by these events featuring Rita Banerjee and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College! The MFA Program for Writers will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary at a variety of events on March 6, 2026. And to learn more about theย MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, stop by the Warren Wilson MFA Booth (#T492) at the AWP 2026 Conference!
Theย MFA Program for Writersย at Warren Wilson College recently celebrated its annual winter residency in Black Mountain, NC this July. The residency featured inspiring lectures and classes from both faculty and graduating students. And writers and readers can access the wonderful craft discussions and lectures from the MFA Program for Writers facultyย online here. All MFA Store proceeds directly support graduate student scholarships in the MFA Program for Writers.
Rita Banerjeeโs Opening Lectureย “Weaving, Braiding, Spinning: Art of the Lyrical, Nonlinear Narrative” challenges the dominance of the plot triangle, heroโs journey, and Aristotelian ideal of โplot as actionโ by exploring three approaches to narrative design that are derived from what was historically considered womenโs work: weaving, braiding, and spinning. These structural forms, which help acknowledge the context of a textย and make room for nonlinear,ย polyvocal narratives, move storytelling away from an egocentric,ย โmasculo-sexualโ plot triangle, to what Jane Alison calls aย more communal,ย โallocentricโ narrative design. Authors studied in this talk include Jane Alison, Elissa Washuta, Theresa Warburton, Ovid, Goethe, M.ย NourbeSe Philip, Lidiaย Yuknavitch, and Kate Morton.ย
The Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers store features a rich archive of faculty lectures and craft discussions from January 1992 โ January 2026, and can be accessed here:ย warrenwilsonmfa.org/store/
Rita Banerjee will introduce and lead the discussion for Nandita Das’s 2018 film,ย Manto,ย about the life and trials of the modernist Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto,ย on December 16, 2025 from 6:00-8:30 pm at the Institute for Indology and Tibetology atย Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitรคt Mรผnchen, (Ludwigstr. 31, Seminarraum 427).ย Anyone interested in translation studies, Modern South Asian literature, or art house film is welcome to join the screening.
โBorn in Punjab in 1912, Manto was one of most controversial writers of the age, eloquently crafting empathetic and shocking short stories about those living on the edges of society. Many of his best tales were inspired by his time in what is now Mumbai between 1936 and 1948. He would recall these years as the happiest of his short life, with stories that portrayed a very different side to India, embracing both beauty and uglinessโฆ While best known for his tales of partition such as โToba Tek Singh,โ he also masterfully captured the underbelly of [Mumbai], telling stories of pimps, gangsters, salon madams, and prostitutes living in cramped chawls. His stories were frank, forthright and imbued with a sense of moral outrage that aimed to give a voice to the voiceless. Notoriety inevitably followed him, and Manto faced trial six times on charges of obscenity for his short storiesโฆ
“โHeโs so relevant to today, and it is my way of responding to what is happening now,โ explains [Director Nandita] Das, speaking from Mumbai. โHis empathy was very deep for those that exist on the margins of society โ especially for women and sex workers โ and no one in India was writing about that at the timeโโฆ Das was fascinated by the fact that Manto wrestled with the theme of identity all his life. It was this that inspired her to make the film. He was a Muslim living in a cosmopolitan city also populated by Sikhs, Christians, and Jews. It was a place where textile workers huddled in cramped tenements while film producers puffed on fat cigars in luxurious surroundings. Manto lived and breathed a city of contrast and contradiction, much of which is still reflected in its modern incarnation, Mumbai.โ โ Joseph Walsh, The Guardian
Rita Banerjee is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and Director, MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
In the 21st Century, creative writers in the United States are facing unprecedented challenges to their discipline, craft, and survival. In 2025 alone, writers have witnessed large cuts in government funding for universities and humanities departments, the suspension of the NEA Fellowship for Creative Writers, and a number of class-action lawsuits against Artificial Intelligence companies, such as Bartz vs. Anthropic, in which A.I. companies are accused of illegally downloading 7.5 million literary and scholarly books and 81 million research papers to train their Large Language Model systems.[1] In this era of late capitalism, how can writers find viable ways to maintain and grow in their craft, seek the education in the humanities they desire, and create sustainable careers and communities in creative writing? As a multi-genre writer who is deeply inspired by world literature and transnationalism, Dr. Rita Banerjee will discuss her journey as a writer and literary citizen, and will share resources on how creative writers can create sustainable, nurturing, and viable careers, writing practices, and literary communities despite the pressures of American capitalism.
About the Author:
Rita Banerjee is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and Director of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She received her doctorate in Comparative Literature from Harvard University and her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington. She is editor of the forthcoming anthology Disobedient Futures (University Press of Kentucky) in which writers imagine what the future cultures of the United States and the world could look like if folks disobeyed gender, tribal, and class paradigms, and explored disobedient forms of environmentalism and borders. She is also the author of CREDO: An Anthology of Manifestos and Sourcebook for Creative Writing, the poetry collections Echo in Four Beats and Cracklers at Night, the novella โA Night with Kaliโ in Approaching Footsteps, and is co-writer of Burning Down the Louvre, a forthcoming documentary film about race, tribalism, and intimacy in the United States and in France. Her work appears in Sign & Breath: Voice and the Literary Tradition,Academy of American Poets, Poets & Writers, PANK, Nat. Brut., Hunger Mountain, Tupelo Quarterly, Isele, Vermont Public Radio, and elsewhere. She serves as Senior Editor of the South Asian Avant-Garde and Executive Creative Director of the Cambridge Writersโ Workshop, which she co-founded at Harvard in 2008. She received a Vermont Arts Council Creation Grant for her new memoir and manifesto on female cool, and one of the bookโs opening chapters โBirth of Cool,โ was a Notable Essay in the 2020 Best American Essays, and another chapter, โThe Female Gaze,โ was a Notable Essay in the 2023 Best American Essays.
[1] Reisner, Alex. โThe Unbelievable Scale of AIโs Pirated Book Problem.โ The Atlantic. Online. March 20, 2025.
On September 18, 6:30 pm EDT, Shanta Lee and Philip Brady, the editors of Sign & Breath: Voice and the Literary Tradition, will be celebrating the launch of their new anthology with a reading featuring their Sign & Breath Authors. Featured authors will include Tim Seibles, Rita Banerjee, Diana Whitney, Ru Freeman, Diane Raptosh, Philip Metres, Haleh Gafori, Claire Bateman, Carolyn Finney, and Bruce Smith. Please register on Zoom to attend the reading at 6:30 pm EDT.
Rita Banerjee will be reading from her flash essay “The Spirit Door” during the Sign & Breath Reading Launch.
Featuring a range of contemporary artists, many of whom work across different mediums and genres, Sign & Breath introduces the reader to one page that sings in any genre โ prose, fiction, poetry, spoken word, hybrid forms, and song โ across diverse traditions. Rather than define poetry as a genre with conventions, traditions, codes, and modalities, this book features poetry as a faculty that thrums in all written and spoken art. Readers are introduced to a text followed by a discussion with the author about creating the piece, ties to creative lineage, and the definition of voice through their practice. This anthology contributes to the dialogue among genres which will reframe understanding of poetry as an aesthetic experience of language. With one page that sings in any genre, Sign & Breath presents a new, inclusive perspective on poetry while two questions remain: Do we have a clearer understanding of what defines poetry? Do we have a clearer understanding of voice?
Sign & Breath: Voice and the Literary Traditionย debuted on August 26, 2025. You canย orderย Sign & Breathย hereย and read Rita Banerjeeโs personal flash essay โThe Spirit Doorโ and interview, which are featured in the anthology.
Sign & Breath: Voice and the Literary Traditionย (ed. Shanta Lee and Philip Brady) is a new critical anthology that takes a different approach to exploring these questions: What is poetry? What defines voice?
Featuring a range of contemporary artists, many of whom work across different mediums and genres, Sign & Breath introduces the reader to one page that sings in any genre – prose, fiction, poetry, spoken word, hybrid forms, and song – across diverse traditions. Rather than define poetry as a genre with conventions, traditions, codes, and modalities, this book features poetry as a faculty that thrums in all written and spoken art. Readers are introduced to a text followed by a discussion with the author about creating the piece, ties to creative lineage, and the definition of voice through their practice. This anthology contributes to the dialogue among genres which will reframe understanding of poetry as an aesthetic experience of language. With one page that sings in any genre, Sign & Breath presents a new, inclusive perspective on poetry while two questions remain: Do we have a clearer understanding of what defines poetry? Do we have a clearer understanding of voice?
Sign & Breath: Voice and the Literary Tradition debuts on August 26, 2025. You can pre-order Sign & Breath here and read Rita Banerjee’s personal flash essay “The Spirit Door” and interview, which are featured in the anthology. A trailer for the anthology follows below:
Rita Banerjee 