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Ask anyone who reads for pleasure, and they’ll tell you South Asian voices are underrepresented in literature. For a region that is home to over two billion people, many of whom speak and write English fluently, South Asia’s literary footprint is relatively small. This was the thought that drove a collective of authors to start the South Asia Speaks fellowship, a program pairing young writers and poets with eminent voices in the field. Applications for the fellowship’s fifth edition will open on Monday.

Successful applicants will be provided six one-on-one sessions with their mentor, as well as a range of craft workshops and masterclasses to hone their skills. Masterclasses and workshops have been conducted by Pankaj Mishra, Kamila Shamsie, Vauhini Vara and Taymour Soomro for past cohorts.

This year’s fellowship will have prominent mentors such as journalists Mira Kamdar, Sanam Maher, Roman Gautam and Taran Khan and novelists Deepa Anappara, Diksha Basu, Mahesh Rao, Prayaag Akbar and VV Ganeshananthan. Poetry fellows will be mentored by Tishani Doshi, while Arunava Sinha and Srinath Perur will oversee translation. Abhishek Anicca will be overseeing the Beyond Ability programme designed especially for writers with disabilities.

The oral history category is a new addition this year, with seasoned oral historian Aanchal Malhotra as mentor. Malhotra has won awards for her writings on the lived experiences of Partition and is a co-founder of the Museum of Material Memory — a digital repository tracing family histories and social ethnography through heirlooms, collectables and antiques.

The South Asia Speaks fellowship has paired 98 fellows with 31 mentors over the last four years. Their fellows have gone on to publish seven books with prestigious publishing houses such as Penguin Random House, Bloomsbury and HarperCollins. The initiative was founded by Sonia Faleiro, who is serving as programme director. She is joined on the organisation’s board by Fatima Bhutto, Isaac Chotiner and Julia Churchill.

Applicants will be asked to provide a writing sample, along with proof of citizenship and residence in one of the eligible countries — Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan — Afghan applicants may apply even if they live abroad. Fiction and non-fiction writers must have an ongoing project they wish to work on, while other applicants can apply with just a proposal. Applications will close on September 30.