This is my first year having produced work eligible for anything, and it feels about as surreal as 2020-2021 has been. I published two short stories in 2021 that are awards eligible, and I would be more than honored if you would choose to read and consider them!
︎ “Bride, Knife, Flaming Horse” | Apparition Lit, April 2021 | PodCastle (reprint, forthcoming) | 4703 words
This is a story about rules, about sentient knives and shape-shifting horses, about queer love and desire, about seizing joy and swallowing it whole. But above all, it is the story of my own beating heart, and a love letter to Chennai which is the city of my birth. A love letter to its forgotten ghosts and the demigods that pass it by. If there is a single piece you choose to read this year, I would be thrilled if you picked this one. Here it is, on the Nebula Recommended Reading List.
Reviews and features:
Jeff Reynolds at Trollbreath | Maria Haskins Monthly Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Fiction Roundup April 2021 | Paul Jessup’s April Short Story Roundup | Las escritoras de Urras Podcast Spanish Translation (forthcoming) | P H Lee’s Favorite Stories from the First Ten Months of 2021 | Amanda J. McGee’s Favorite Stories of 2021 | Banshee Press Best of 2021 Reading List | #sfstoryoftheday 2021 mixtape | Maria Haskins Recommended Reading List for 2021 | An Incomplete List of Beautiful Stories 2021, by Eugenia Triantafyllou | 2021 Locus Recommended Reading List | 2021 Stabby Awards Finalist, Best Short Fiction
︎ “A Lamentation, While Full” | Baffling Magazine, Issue 3, April 2021 | 939 words
This is as much a recipe for idiyappams, as it is a story about the trauma and generational hurt housed in our physical bodies. It involves a raucous funeral, a series of possessions, body horror, improbable yearning across bounds that can never be crossed, and an ear-canal that feels like the sea. This piece is also on the Nebula Recommended Reading List.
Reviews and features:
Charles Payseur at Quick Sips | Tor.com Must-Read Speculative Short Fiction: April 2021 | Book Riot Spotlight