Start Here – Paradise Prose Blog

The other day, I interviewed an autumn leaf

By: Shreya October 19, 2022

Start Here, Writingautumn, creative, creative writing, death, ecology, fall, leaves, nature, orange, poem, poetry, rebirth, red, yellowLeave a Comment

I picked up a leaf off the ground because I thought it was pretty. Did not expect a full interview, but here’s the poem-transcript.

You Intrigue Me

By: Shreya September 17, 2022

Start Here, Writingcreative, creative writing, friendship, kindness, love, poem, poetry, romanceLeave a Comment

A poem about love, emerging, and curiosity. Enjoy!

Prose in the Time of a Pandemic (An Essay)

A post about the role that blogging, writing and the study of Literature plays during a pandemic like coronavirus.

Water-Forms Poetry Project – Part 1

Hello again, I’m back with (more) attempts at writing poetry and an update about starting Hilary Term (i.e. Term 2) at Oxford. Since I’ve been gone, I’ve been writing away for our weekly essays about everything including the lives of saints in Old English up until the modernist experiments of T.S. Eliot. I’ve taken up…

On Being Neither the Outsider Nor The Insider at the University of Oxford

By: Shreya December 8, 2019July 27, 2020

Life, Start Here, Writing in the Real Worldoxford, Study Help, university of oxfordLeave a Comment

It’s the age-old controversy: bring up the hallowed halls of the University of Oxford or Cambridge in a conversation, and you are bound to find yourself dredging up countless accusations of the institution being steeped in elitism and a lack of diversity. Having heard a good few of these myself before applying to Oxford, I…

Back with the Books: Learning Old English at the University of Oxford

By: Shreya October 31, 2019July 24, 2020

Life, Reading, Start Herecourse, english, old, oxford, study, university of oxford, VideoLeave a Comment

I’m back! I missed writing on this blog, but over these first few weeks of university I’ve gotten up to plenty of (essay) writing for my course tutors which will make my writing here much more worth reading. So, you might know that one of the things that makes the English course at Oxford stand…

Literary Theory: Why Should a Young Writer Care?

By: Shreya July 14, 2019

Reading, Start Hereacademia, critical, english, literary theory, literature, studies, study, Terry eagleton, university, WritingLeave a Comment

Why should I be spending my summer holidays reading Terry Eagleton’s ‘Introduction to Literary Theory’? The unglamorous reason, of course, is to acclimatise myself to the looming rigours of studying English at university. Another reason is anxiety: count yourself lucky if you can sit in one place without your mind running wild. Mine, meanwhile, needs…

An English Literature Workshop with Myself, Age 14

Humbling, funny and cringeworthy – that was my experience of writing this scene imagining myself as a mentor to a teenage version of myself. For all the earnest young writers and English students out there!