LUMS Young Writers Workshop

A Crack in the Light
Dir. Tabish Shargo تابش شارگو

In the mountains of Quetta, a meeting between a shepherd and a traveler sets off a chain of choices and grief, leaving questions that linger long after their paths cross.

About the Director:
Tabish Shargo (b.2000, Quetta) is a Lahore-based filmmaker and founder of Kosékaza Films. A graduate with distinction from the National College of Arts, his works explore memory, spirituality, and the inner life through experimental and narrative forms. His films have screened at festivals and art spaces across South Asia.

The event will be held at LUMS on June 12th, 2026 from 4:45 - 6 PM.



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Antidotes: Prescriptions for a Sh*tty World
by Sara Khan

An essay about finding cures for writerly maladies in a malfunctioning world, and the case for productive friction.

To attend the craft talk as non-LUMS guest, sign up through the link in bio! The talks are open to all.
The event will be held at LUMS on June 12th, 2026 from 4:45 - 6 PM.




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Overhearing Yourself
By Usama Lali

In what ways can narrativizing our memories and our past make us see ourselves anew by helping us inadvertently stumble upon truths about ourselves that we are very adept at concealing from our own selves? In what ways, then, can writing redefine our relationship with our memories and, consequently, reshape how we relate to our past, ourselves, and others? Is writing’s therapeutic potential merely a writerly rhetorical fantasy, or is it a tangible, practical reality? I’ve eavesdropped on and overheard myself long enough through my writing to know a few answers to some of these questions. In this talk I’ll attempt to share them.

To attend the craft talk as non-LUMS guest, sign up through the link in bio! The talks are open to all.
The event will be held at LUMS on June 12th, 2026 from 4:45 - 6 PM.




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Writing While the World is on Fire
By Zuha Siddiqui

This is an essay about writing despite - despite AI seeping into our workplaces and feeds and classrooms, cheapening once-prestigious prizes, threatening the labor of artists and storytellers; despite temperatures soaring to record levels, floods, the erosion of century-old ecosystems, the drying up of rivers and lakes; despite techbros and technochauvinism and surveillance; despite fascists and warmongers sitting at the helm of states; despite war; despite genocide.

This is an essay about writing as resistance, that urges us to write despite the bludgeoning and misery and artifice we encounter everyday, to write despite it all, almost as though the act of writing functions as a remedy for despair; one that may help us inch towards survival.

To attend the craft talk as non-LUMS guest, sign up through the link in bio! The talks are open to all.
The event will be held at LUMS on June 12th, 2026 from 4:45 - 6 PM.




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Unselfing
By Mahrukh Aamir

This essay is about seeing clearly and creating a life of one’s own.

To attend the craft talk as non-LUMS guest, sign up through the link in bio! The talks are open to all.
The event will be held at LUMS on June 11th, 2026 from 4:45 - 6 PM.




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What is Your Unspeakable Longing?
By Aneeqa Wattoo

A roving wander through grief, the persistence to do a pullup and the monstrous fear many of us live with: am I living an unactualized life?

Can you dare to love your non-literary, unglamorous life and still make good art?

To attend the craft talk as non-LUMS guest, sign up through the link in bio! The talks are open to all.
The event will be held at LUMS on June 11th, 2026 from 4:45 - 6 PM.




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The Sketchbook Factory Exploded

By Mahnoor Azeem

Art, writing, and craft are all drawn from what is seen, remembered, and felt. This talk explores the various lines we draw from life to storytelling.

To attend the craft talk as non-LUMS guest, sign up through the link in bio! The talks are open to all.
The event will be held at LUMS on June 10th, 2026 from 4:45 - 6 PM.




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A Friendship
By Younis B.Azeem

The writer is synonymous with the searcher. Always looking for, groping for, the next authorial inspiration, mentor, craft talk, writing program, residency, fellowship, and windfall. The writer might be better off looking for something a lot more primitive and human: that one person who just gets it.

To attend the craft talk as non-LUMS guest, sign up through the link in bio! The talks are open to all.
The event will be held at LUMS on June 10th, 2026 from 4:45 - 6 PM.




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Writing in Lahore as a Loser
By Noor Rehman

The lecture will focus on Lahore as a city, writing as a difficult profession, and the experience of being a writer in Lahore as a blend of everything pretty, petty, comical and sad. The goal is to present the lived experiences and obsessions of one writer, use them as threads to connect with other writers, draw a picture of how unsexy a writer’s life can be, and sew it all together with a few funny, embarrassing, and cringe memories. Afterall, each writer is afraid of being seen as a loser and this lecture will try to render ‘being a loser’ a lifestyle worth pursuing. Maybe.

To attend the craft talk as non-LUMS guest, sign up through the link in bio! The talks are open to all.
The event will be held at LUMS on June 9th, 2026 from 4:45 - 6 PM.




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Pin Pricks
By Aiman Tahir Khan

An essay in which I talk about writing, being a dutiful daughter, not knowing what enjambment means, opening my fist, closing my fist, the uses of silence, and other questions I have asked coins, birds, and God (with mixed results).

To attend the craft talk as non-LUMS guest, sign up through the link in bio! The talks are open to all.
The event will be held at LUMS on June 9th, 2026 from 4:45 - 6 PM.


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