Indian
First Language(s): Gujarati
Second Language(s):
English,
Hindi
Darshita Jain is a New Arts Journalism grad student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the Literary editor for F News Magazine. Her work can be found in the Awakenings Foundation Journal, Untitled Magazine, Chicago and is set to appear in the Airplane Poetry Movement Anthology. She is also the co-founder of the first spoken word initiative in the city of Ahmedabad, India called Povera.
What was your favorite book as a child?
Jane Eyre. Both my parents are professors teaching English at Gujarat University and there were always texts lying around. I remember picking up Jane Eyre because it had illustrations and fell in love with it at age 8. I have since made it a tradition of reading it every year.
Do you remember the original reason or motivation why you started writing creatively?
I have always been super introverted. I wouldn't speak but I felt a lot, all the time. I remember feeling my body was too small to hold all these feelings in, and I needed to get them out somehow, which is how I started writing.
What was the most adventurous or thrilling thing you ever did/experienced?
I got to participate in a poetry workshop with Winter Tangerine in New York this year. It was the first time I had been to NYC, all alone, on a strict budget and I managed to live, enjoy and meet some of the best people I know there. I couldn't believe I had come from Ahmedabad, Gujarat to NYC all in half a year.
Do you listen to music while reading or writing?
It varies. I listen to music when reading fiction. But not if I am reading poetry, or journalism or criticism. I find myself paying a lot of attention to song lyrics and it can be distracting when writing or studying.
Poetry
I am too British, I use a fork when I eat
Issue Fall '19
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