Excelling in dynamic community-based writing projects – Interview with Nivy of Lampshade Writers and Pages – Part 1

Your career journey?

I have done my engineering, like a lot of people from the South, in 2008. During engineering I started writing poetry. Education is good for structured growth. What we are thinking about inside gets reflected through poetry. I was volunteering with an NGO. It opened a lot of areas not thought of in regular life. It had opened up a different domain. I wouldn’t have written poetry as such. I would not write so much. This experience of working with an NGO teaches us should do things we love. I changed my postgraduation subject with a diploma in Mass Communication from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. I was a part of an Orkut group called Ah poetry. There was a lot of mentoring. I thought, ‘Why not bring a book of all the people I met in this poetry group.’ I set up a small press called Nivasini Publishers, where we will publish poetry. And we did a lot of events around these books. I was working with an NGO in those days. Whatever we would earn from the small press books I would invest into the same. Then, I moved to the US. In the US, I could see how groups of poets supported each other. I joined groups of amateur writers. I helped create a lot of communities of poets – lot of people helped in doing this. It is not easy to promote poetry books. I also started volunteering for YK Antiques Museum. We did a lot of events. Now, I am a core member – curate community lead events for them.

Why did you think of the name Nivasini for your publishing house?

My father’s name is Srinivas. My mother’s name is Subhashini. My name is Nivedita. I was looking for a name where we could all dwell together.

How long did you run Nivasini Publishers?

2010 – 2017. I wrote poetry and could not find a publisher. I am solutions oriented if things are not working. I have published books, typeset books, and edited books. I first published physical books with an offset printer – 500 books. We launched the books in Saptaparni in Hyderabad, a cultural center. The first book was called Ah poetry. It was poems from the Ah poetry group and there were 55 poets in total. I had freelanced for The Hindu. I learnt typesetting at Thomson Reuters. I realised we can’t stand out unless we do something different. My co-editors and I started putting together close to 10 anthologies. Family Matters also had short stories.