MANDIRA PATTNAIK

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Hello readers — welcome to the November 2025 edition of A Newsletter With a View of One’s Own.

How are you? I hope you’re absorbing the changes around you and collecting memories. Writing spontaneously about perceptions and experiences, is extremely rewarding. Imagine your responses to “How are you” and pen a story. For example, “How are you?” is a powerful starting point of “DATE MYSELF” by Tom Misuraca in SoFloPoJo (August 2024). As for me, I watched a lot of YouTube during the first half of this year to focus away from the Iran-Israel conflict and the India-Pakistan flare-up. Result was a flash fiction born spontaneously, in a matter of minutes, and accepted as quickly. Titled “I can’t tell if I’m in lov with the travl vlogger”, it was published in Centaur Lit yesterday.

Anyway, words are therapy for both writers and readers. If you have weaved some words, several magazines opened for submissions this month, notable among them are NIMROD (fee-based), Temz Review’s inaugural “London” Literary Prizes contest (fee-free; last date Dec 31), REVOLUTE (deadline Nov 15), Variant Lit (until Nov 30), THE SPECTACLE (until Nov 15), Usawa Literary Review (theme-Witness; until Nov 15), MEETINGHOUSE (until Nov 16), THE BALTIMORE REVIEW (until Nov 30), BLACK FOX LITERARY MAGAZINE (until Nov 30), Carmen et Error (fee-free; until Nov 15; token GBP 5 payment per accepted piece) and THE FIDDLEHEAD (Disability-Themed; until Nov 30).

What are you enthusiastic about? The Republic of Letters requests to share about something in society, the world, or life, that one is genuinely enthused about. Deadline is Nov 8. Send to republic.of.letters.substack@gmail.com with “Enthusiasm” in the subject line. Also, the Florence Literary Society together with the magazine The Florentine have launched a flash fiction contest: up to 150 words, with a prompt tied to the city of Florence. Submissions open 1 November 2025 and run through 15 January 2026. (The Florentine)

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Tip for you: If you’re writing flash fiction or short stories, prompts or themes can be a great way to spark your creativity.

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In other news, the Mumbai LitFest (India) returns 7-9 November 2025 with over 100 writers, speakers and performers. Includes fiction, nonfiction, poetry and workshops. Festivals are excellent for networking, hearing authors talk about their process, and discovering new writers. If you’re attending this one, or any others in your region, let us know.

In subscriber news, Claire Schoen posted an excellent and inspiring article about what it means to show up with intention, and why your talents deserve more than elevator music treatment. Subscriber Sonia Dogra has an upcoming book Kuhu Learns to Deal With Life (Bare Bones) that looks amazing.

On the personal front, I’m so happy to share that I’m deep into editing my Commonwealth Prize longlisted story. Contract is signed, and it’s great to be working with far-more accomplished writer-editors than yourself, such a learning experience. I am also looking forward to the print publication of “Snowboarding” in Canadian magazine Funicular. They’ve promised me a copy besides the honorarium, and I’m so excited. It feels surreal that my work should reach me by moving across the planet twice, this time perfectly printed and bound. Registrations for my upcoming workshop with Fahmidan Education remain open. In this 2-hour class, we will look at “what to submit” rather than “how to write” as in other workshops. I believe marginalized writers are as talented as anyone else and their underrepresentation is merely because of wrong stylistic or strategic choices more than anything else.

I’m also furiously reading in order to compile my Best of the Year list published on the blog at year-end, as I’ve done in previous years. Feel free to send in your nominations–your own, or written by others.

Talking of compilations, my novella-in-flash fiction “Glass/Fire” will be turning one later this month. It was published on November 22 last year. Should a Small Press Book Have Big Ambitions? I answered the question in two parts. If you’re interested, here’s Part 1 and Part 2.

That’s all for this month.

Before I go, here are my reading recommendations for this month: Shweta Ravi published The Second Law of Thermodynamics in the Kaleidoscopes issue of Boudin Mcneese Review in October, which I loved. My Husband Watches Henry the Donkey by Debra A Daniel (3rd prize; BFFA; October 2025), touched me because of its honest portrayal of our current times.

Please remember to subscribe (it’s free!), and if you’re able, please support my work through a small donation on PayPal. Thank you.

This blog is a monthly newsletter published on the first week that is truly a newsletter–updates from the literary world, open windows, a few personal updates, some tips, opinions and conversations, and a round-up of recent work I truly recommend. If you enjoyed this, please share with your friends. Consider subscribing, commenting and/or liking this post. Thanks!