MANDIRA PATTNAIK

2023 began with a lot of planning ahead (which entailed refusing some offers!) as I was expecting big changes on the home front. I’m glad everything fell into place quite nicely and I ended up with more publications than I had imagined. Here’s the list for record purposes:

• TRAMPSET: “Five Handy Rs for Writing for Litmag Publication in 2024″; Column; December 30, 2023
• NUNUM: “At Dawn I’ll Be Lying In Bed And Thinking” -Done in a Hundred Anthology
• RIVANNA REVIEW: Story “What Birina Might Hoard This Spring”, In Issue 10, December 2023
• ASTROLABE: “Pachisi”, Experimental prose; December 21, 2023
• TRAMPSET column: Writing vs. Activism ; Dec 16
• GORDON SQUARE REVIEW – LIT CLEVELAND: “How to Get Pulled into a Whorl”; Flash prose ISSUE 13; DEC 6, 2023
• VARIETY PACK: “Scardust”; Flash Fiction; Nov-Dec 2023 ISSUE 10 “Futurisms”
• THE QUARTERLY PRESS (Laughter & Tears): “Half Lives of Yeyi & Yermada”, Pre-order
• SFF Awards Eligibility 2023
• ACROPOLIS JOURNAL: Issue Eight; Photography
• SAND JOURNAL (Berlin): “Angry, Rich Avians”; Flash Fiction; ISSUE 26; November 2023
• PITHEAD CHAPEL: “An Irregular List of The Effects of Fire On Poor Women” November 1
• TRAMPSET: “Don’t Self Reject“; Oct 17
• TRAMPSET: “An Early Sketch of Literary Novelty“; Oct 6
• DISCRETIONARY LOVE: Mary Ann Bertie and Other Jokes; Fiction, Sep 30
• TRAMPSET: “Late, Later, Latest — Story of a Writing Life“; Column; Sep 15
• YELLOW ARROW READING: Igniting Your Spark: Sharing what sparks my writing!
• Alphanumeric Podcast/NON BINARY MAGAZINE: Flash Prose; “To Dear Miss“, Issue #33 WORLD TOUR; Sep 7
• INVISIBLE CITY (AM-Univ): “Between Us“; Flash Fiction; ISSUE 7 TRIUMPH, Sep 5
• YELLOW ARROW VIGNETTE: Spark Issue; “Reasons for a Pragmatic Approach“; Aug 28
• FEVERS OF THE MIND: Poetry Showcase; August 17
• TRAMPSET: “Dispatch from the Center of the Universe”; Column; August 10
• SOUTH FLORIDA POETRY JOURNAL: “Applied Trigonometry”; Flash Fiction; July 31
• MIDWAY JOURNAL: “There are Four…”; Flash Fiction; July 17
• TAMARIND LITERARY MAGAZINE: “Back and Forth With Oscar Wilde’s Son”; Short-story, Issue 5; July 15
• “Where We Set Our Easel”: 23 May 2023 Novella-in-Flash Stanchion Publishing Also AVAILABLE from Barnes & Noble, BookShop.Org and Amazon
• “Girls Who Don’t Cry“: 6 January 2023, Flash Fiction collection, Alien Buddha Press
• “What I told the TV Host”: Scifi thriller, Et Sequitur Magazine; July 10
• WRITERS RESIST READS: Saturday July 8, 2023 Reading Event
• WRITERS.COM: My craft essay mentioned in the article “On Setting Your Story” by Sean Glatch  |  June 29, 2023
• Crow Collective, hosted by Sage Tyrtle LIVE INTERVIEW, July 1
• TRAMPSET: “Taylormade“; Column, June 29
• Reading at CHICAGO-SALON: a curated literary reading series, now in its 17th year; June 25
• NATIONAL FLASH FICTION DAY Anthology 2023 Scratching the Sands: “How to Sleep on Friday Night”; Flash Fiction
• NATIONAL FLASH FICTION DAY (FLASH FLOOD JOURNAL): “March Goes to the Market“, June 24
• WIGLEAF TOP 50 (very) Short Fictions 2023 included flash prose “Dark Matter”, originally published in Contrary Magazine (Also included in Twenty Years of Contrary Magazine — Selected Works)
• WRITERS RESIST Issue 140 June 2023: “A Moon is a Moon is a Moon”; Flash prose; June 15
• TRAMPSET: “Backing Myself“; Column, June 14
• THE FLASH CABIN writing workshop; June 10, 2 PM BST
• NATIONAL FLASH FICTION DAY NEW ZEALAND: “When The Train”, MicroMadness, Shortlisted, June 6
• FRACTURED LITERARY: “What’s Wrong With Sienna”; Micro, May 25
• JMWW: Author interview with Rashi Rohatgi, author of Sita in Exile, May 29
• INTERVIEW: Author Conversation with Cath Barton; May 19
• FIVE SOUTH LIT: Review of “Where We Set Our Easel” by Nonfiction Editor Dave Nash; May 17
• ATTICUS REVIEW: TRANSCENDING THE IMMEDIATE — A CONVERSATION Interviewed by Emily Huso; May 13
• KITAAB: Article about mother-daughter relationships mentioning my work; May 13
• SHORT STORY TODAY: Podcast by Jon DiSavino, Ranked #11 of 20 Best Short Story podcast in 2023; MAY 10
• TRAMPSET: “Notes on Smart Fiction”; Column; MAY 7
• GONE LAWN: “Collector of Souls Comes to the Shadow Shop”; Flash Fiction; MAY 5 (2023 BEST OF THE NET nominee)
• FATAL FLAW LITERARY: “Our Family of Hard Truths”; Prose, ‘Agency’ Issue, April 21
• TRAMPSET; Column: “Understanding Nonfiction versus Fiction” April 18
• QUARTER AFTER EIGHT Vol. 29; Flash Fiction: “To Dear American”, March 6
• THE CITRON REVIEW: “In Leaping”; Microfiction, April 2
• FLASH FRONTIER Ra Issue: “Ra” Microfiction, March 25
• MOONFLAKE PRESS:  “Mid-Flight, Plummeting Albatross”, Micro; SANCTUARY issue, March 28
• TINT JOURNAL; flash fiction “un~broken”, March 10
• AMSTERDAM QUARTERLY; No Planet B-themed Flash Fiction, March 21
• THE GATEWAY REVIEW; “Matchbox”, Short-Story, Fabulism, Print, Spring Issue 2023
• TRAMPSET: Column; “Not Me Offering Advice on Writer’s Block”, March 17
• DIAGRAM: Study Paper on the Prevalence of Pockets, Creative Prose; Issue 23.1; March 1
• RECKON REVIEW; Column; “In Defence of Omissions”, February 15
• “AI & U — The Generated Content Debate”; TRAMPSET column; Feb 24
• “Of Foliage”; Flash Prose: MICROLit ALMANAC; February 2
• “The Glorious Aftermath of a Period”; Column; TRAMPSET January 28
• “Towards Zero“; ALAN SQUIRE PUBLISHING: Flash; January 18

Among the big highlights of the year: Crossing three-hundred individually-published pieces, that is, three-hundred self-contained pieces floating in the world! WOW! Reading in Sunday-salon Chicago, Writer’s Resist and other multiple author forums. Leading highly successful workshops, including for Crow Collective and Flash Cabin (deciding not to take up any more workshop assignments in order to focus on my own writing projects for the remainder of the year and into 2024). Appearance in Short Story Today’s podcast. Being quoted in articles (with or without my permission!) was something that happened for the first time this year (Kitaab & Writers.com including). Received two Best of the Net, two Best Small Fictions, and one nomination for the year’s Best Spiritual Literature for the year. Big excitement when I entered Wigleaf’s List of Top 50 Very Small Fictions for the first time, having been longlisted last year. Finally, I was lucky to have two print paperback books out in the world in the same calendar year: Where We Set Our Easel and Girls Who Don’t Cry. Seeing the two books in reader’s hands in pics posted on social media has been the ultimate thrill for this baby writer. I have finally started believing in myself!

I continue to be part of trampset and Vestal Review, reading hundreds of submissions each month and also writing columns for trampset (styling them as conversations between my writing life, the place I live in, and the global publishing arena). In 2023, I made a conscious shift to try my luck publishing in paying publications and/or university- affiliated journals. I’m immensely delighted the attempt somewhat succeeded. Meanwhile, I continue to diversify my writing: I write in different formats and categories ranging from poetry to short fiction to essays and speculative. Finally, I look forward with eagerness to the publication of my work in some wonderful places in the new year. There’s also huge excitement for Glass/Fire, my latest novella-in-flash (forthcoming Quernecia Press), as I believe it is the closest I’ve ever ventured to writing a novel — multiple characters, time arcs, and a deeply resonant theme.

With the good comes the bad. Among the bottom three not so good things this year, about which I continue to be somewhat disturbed: one, when I had to sever ties with Reckon Review following editorial differences and it was not the best of experiences. Next, a workshop organizer cancelled my workshop (scheduled months in advance and already booked) without informing me or seeking my concurrence. Finally, one podcaster interviewed me twice in the space of six months (once between the two of us, and a second time with a live audience also asking me questions) but neither of them found publication.

It’s nice that I have projects I’m excited about lined up in the new year. I continue to offer Fiction consultations, with particular focus on flash fiction and BIPOC writing. The month-end craft essays will continue. Stats tell me that the top three craft essay posts read in 2023 were Top 10 Flash Stories of 2023, Publication Contract and Good Gracious, This is Excellent! The final one for 2023 coming on Decemeber 30/31 will be “Ten Prompts to Kickstart 2024”, and will be subscriber-only.

Again this year, similar to last, I am expecting turbulence to hit my writing life at least for the first few months of 2024. One knows how the act of creating is. Sadly, it demands complete and undivided attention! For one, I’ll be moving to a new place in the coming months for which I’m not scheduling anything that’ll require a specific date/time commitment. Once I’m settled in, I’ll announce new workshops but that is unlikely in the first half of 2024. Hope that works out. Finally, for those new to my author site, I’m also on Medium (where I post selected works, selected craft essays and my trampset-published columns), and I have a wee YouTube channel (where I post readings, craft essays and How-to tips). Follow me on Social Media as everything I post is related to writing (my non-writing-related posts are next to zero!).

I hope you continue to share your creativity with the world, be generous, positive and kind. Here’s wishing you a wonderful new year!!