Indulge your urge to scribble

Literature festivals are perfect occassions to stew and wallow in some writerly envy. With January approaching, and the opening date for the 2016 Jaipur Literature Festival drawing near, every budding scribbler is impelled to ask this question: why am I not on that stage already?
 The route to literary success, and a bona fide JLF invite, is a long-drawn one. But here’s your shorcut to having the spotlight directed to yourself at the coming edition of the festival.
The JLF organisers have invited entries for their annual writing competition, which reaches its second edition this season. Applicants are called upon to submit anything ranging from a book review to short story or even some 50 lines of well-composed verse that concern “any of the festival’s past or upcoming authors and their works”.
The competition is open to applicants above the age of 18, and the submission deadline is 15 December. Ten final winners will be inducted in the “official blogging team” of the festival, after receiving a grant to cover their travel and accommodation needs. And this much besides being able to freely interact with such luminaries as, among others, Margaret Atwood and Stephen Fry who are attending the JLF 2016.