Following up on my first Blogpost, ‘Chucking the Ropes’, why not the Great Indian Rope Trick in literary world?

It’s festival season in India, and my second blogpost is dedicated to my Flash Fiction writer friends in India, and writers elsewhere who wish to submit to magazines based in India.

If you are here, maybe you are a flash writer, and have already submitted/looking to submit work in India. You may also be aware how few the opportunities are in India for flash fiction, and how hard it is to break into the international scene.

Before I started submitting, I spent hundreds of hours on online Flash Fiction litmag pages to ascertain if they’d welcome international voices. The clue would be Indian names, and I quickly jumped to the writer’s bio notes. With the exception of the writer Ajay Patri, I found no one who lived in India and was getting work out there in US and UK markets. That was both disappointing and a daunting challenge. I began by submitting closer home, and encouraged by those initial publications in Indian magazines, some of which I name below, with links, I started to explore outside. Like the magic of the rope trick, I assure you, there’s so much to learn.

You may have also noticed the differences in style, content, formatting, subject matter, not to discount the spelling, flow and language in the published fiction around here in India, and in markets in the US/UK. That effectively means a lot of modifications. But I’ll keep it for another day. Meanwhile, go check these places out:

Juggernaut Publishing – Adab, a longer story I sent them in 2018 went on to become the Editors’ Pick. They encourage new writers on the Juggernaut Writing Platform.

Bengaluru Review- They published my short story “Therefore Prayers”. ( April 2020)

Mithila Review – They publish speculative writing but are unfortunately closed to fiction and poetry and only open to nonfiction.

Ayaskala– They published my nonfiction ( July 2020) about reverse migration and the George Flyod murder, and creative nonfiction on Garage Sales (October 2020)

Muse India – Not exactly a place for Flash Fiction, they publish in the 1000-2500 word range.

Out of Print – Again, not Flash Fiction. They publish short stories 1000-4000 words.

The Bombay Literary Magazine – They published my experimental piece in Issue D3 (26 Jan, 2020). Coincidentally, it was the same Issue where Commonwealth Writers 2020 winner Kritika Pandey also had a piece.

Spark, The Magazine – They’re on hiatus currently after ten years publishing continuously every month. They published a favorite prose piece of mine, To Each Her Own Green, (5 June, 2019) and the poem Subarnarekha, (5 April, 2020) .

The Bangalore Review – They charge a reading fee, but are on Submittable.

In my next blogpost, I hope to go off course.

What about grief and solace in the content of your writing? How much does it seep in, if at all? I’m asking myself this when I’m reading others’ work or writing my own. Join me to look at this aspect, and how to keep it brief in the context of flash fiction, in the next post.

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