Unrestrained Minors

Unrestrained Minors is a collection of short stories penned by young writers aged 11-13 years, conceptualized, curated and edited by award-winning teen author Vishwesh Desai.

This book is the culmination of Project Bibliophilia, a creative writing course, workshop and mentorship program conducted by Vishwesh Desai over the course of one and a half years at The Riverside School and 079 Stories.

This is a unique project where a teen author has mentored other teenagers and guided them towards the completion of their first short story. Out of the 16 students who participated in the course and the workshop, the best 7 stories were selected for publication in this book. The eighth story was received later, edited and include in the collection.

The young writers whose stories are part of this collection are Adya Sarin, Abhay Jain, Nargis Kachru Mathur, Shanaya Mehta, Kushan Mehta, Arjun Shah, Maia Rae Sarabhai and Anant Gupta.

The stories in this collection range from gritty, harsh tragedies to swashbuckling tales of heroism. Unrestrained Minors covers various themes ranging from dark fantasy and mythology to modern realism and action-comedy. Each story tackles a different dichotomy—desire and sacrifice, defiance and submission, resentment and forgiveness—set against a landscape best-suited to explore it. Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry, and yet others will make you whoop with excitement, but each story written by these Unrestrained Minors will leave you spellbound.

About the Editor

Vishwesh Desai is a 17-year-old with a fierce passion for reading and writing. Vishwesh was thirteen when he began writing his first novel Shadows of the Northlands and fourteen when it was published. Shadows of the Northlands published in paperback edition in May 2016 and in Kindle edition in December 2018.  It was in Top Ten Fiction List at Crossword bookstore even two years after its launch.

Vishwesh has been awarded with the 'Rana Kapoor Young Talent Award 2016' by Kumaon Literary Festival, Yes Bank and Yes Institute. He has spoken at several literature festivals all over the country.

He is currently working on writing his third book and setting up an online writing centre. Vishwesh lives with his family in Ahmedabad, India. ​You can reach him at vishwesh.desai@gmail.com. You can also follow him on Twitter (@VishweshWrites) or like his Facebook page - Vishwesh Desai