Kuzhali Manickavel – författare

Representation Matters.

Fantastic Stories prides itself on being open to underrepresented voices. Science fiction and fantasy should encompass the totality of the human experience, in all of its diversity and complexity. Fantastic Stories is determined to explore a more inclusive, realistic vision of the future.

People of color have been publishing some of the highest quality science fiction and fantasy since the genre''s earliest days. Yet, there still persists a perception that science fiction and fantasy is somehow a white field. We''d like to help shatter that illusion and showcase some of the finest writer''s that science fiction and fantasy has to offer. Here are twenty six flash stories that will do just that.

An enthralling collection of new and classic tales of the fearsome Djinn, from bestselling, award-winning and breakthrough international writers. Imagine a world filled with fierce, fiery beings, hiding in our shadows, in our dreams, under our skins. Eavesdropping and exploring; tormenting us, saving our souls. They are monsters, saviours, victims, childhood friends. And they are everywhere. On street corners, behind the wheel of a taxi, in the chorus, between the pages of books. Every language has a word for them. Every culture knows their traditions. Every religion, every history has them hiding in their dark places. There is no part of the world that does not know them. They are the Djinn. With stories from Neil Gaiman, Nnedi Okorafor, Amal El-Mohtar, Catherine Faris King, Claire North, E.J. Swift, Hermes (trans. Robin Moger), Jamal Mahjoub, James Smythe, J.Y. Yang, Kamila Shamsie, Kirsty Logan, K.J. Parker, Kuzhali Manickavel, Maria Dahvana Headley, Monica Byrne, Saad Hossain, Sami Shah, Sophia Al-Maria and Usman Malik.

In the oppressive heat of a small Tamil Nadu town, strange happenings are common. And the local government secondary school is teeming with supernatural entities.For Thamarai, an outsider considered strange by her peers, life is dreary and frustrating. She endures nosy neighbours and incomprehensible tuition classes. She despises the way her lecherous English teacher harasses the other girls in her grade. But when Thamarai finds a mysterious notebook full of descriptions of the school's paranormal phenomena, she wonders if it may hold the key to escape...

A centipede in a shoe, revelations in a shoebox, nosebleeds, exploding women, and a dead mouse named Miraculous populate this collection of thirty-five short stories from one of India's most original writers."e;Possibly the most intriguing book on the list of thrilling publications from the house of Blaft is a collection of short fiction by Kuzhali Manickavel, 'Insects are Just Like You and Me Except Some of Them Have Wings'. Manickavel (who titled a section of a recent blog post on Indian writing in English 'Do not have an unnecessarily complicated name like Kuzhali Manickavel') writes in English ... The stories in 'Insects' are sometimes as short as half a page and occasionally as long as twelve pages. Many of them do feature insects, or at least insect imagery, and diagrams of insects with witty labels are found throughout the book ... It is difficult to think of a way to encapsulate this collection of so many unusual and imaginative stories: other reviewers refer to them as dream-like. I think it better to call them surreal; also: intricate, ironic and frequently hilarious."e;–Daisy Rockwell, 'Bookslut'

Things We Found During the Autopsy is South Indian writer Kuzhali Manickavel's second collection of short fiction, in which she presents a dizzying array of apocalyptic visions and fractured childhood memories.These stories contain the following: a dragon; angels; Indian culture; one Christmas story for children; no Indian culture whatsoever; men; poor people; voluntarily homeless youths; women; drugs; sex; Indian dads in cold foreign countries; vomit; boys; girl's hostels; girls; future tense; the Tropicool Icy-Land Urban Indian Slum; ash, and the people who eat ash; authentic village life written from a privileged English-speaking perspective; homosexuals; white people; references to Rajinikanth; non-italicized Tamil words; whores; brain aneurysms; Western dance in South Indian women's colleges; Pazhani; floods; shapeshifters; men named Kathir; minty-fresh non-cola cola; and wannabe Naxalites.

Conversations Regarding the Fatalistic Outlook of the Common Man is a collection of 40 dialogues that melds the classical philosophical tradition of Plato and Socrates with the anarchic freedom of a mid-1990s chat room, and tops it all off with a dash of Senthil-Goundamani comedy. Not really, but anyway.In this book Kuzhali Manickavel interviews children on the subject of ghosts, shoe racks, and gender-neutral pronouns. She speaks to adults about Hindi imposition, hipster racism, and iskisk deospray. She chats with Niira Radia about banana cabinets. She pesters anyone who will listen about Bollywood movie tropes and babies raining from the sky. Puzzles are posed, hypocrisies exposed, awesome bargaining strategies disclosed. Come listen.

"e;The Lucy Temerlin Institute for Broken Shapeshifters Guide to Starving Boys: Their Salient Features, How to Find Them, How to Care for Them after They Die, and Four Considerations"e; is the second chapbook in Blaft's "e;Monographs on Cryptodiversity and Decoherence"e; series.Kuzhali Manickavel's guidebook offers valuable tips on how to disentangle Starving Boys from older infestations, how to prepare your box for your Starving Boy, and how to consider a Starving Boy as a collection of cloudbursts and thunderstorms.Illustrations are taken from "e;The Anatomy of the Arteries of the Human Body, with its Applications to Pathology and Operative Surgery, in Lithographic Drawings with Practical Commentaries"e; by Richard Quain (1844).

"e;How to Love Mathematical Objects"e; is the third installment in Blaft's "e;Monographs on Cryptodiversity and Decoherence"e; series. It is a chapbook of experimental writing. Some concepts you will encounter here:1. Draw a line segment. Name one end Buttercup and the other Yes-In-Deedy.2. Draw another line segment. Draw it anywhere.3. Take the first line segment to a queer poetry reading or an exhibition of straight art. Be respectful of the line's space. Be woke.4. Draw two rhombuses. Make them fight each other. Threaten them with bodily harm if they ever stop.5. Measure the distance between the second line segment and the one you took to the queer poetry reading or exhibition of straight art. Divide the distance by two.6. Share this distance with a loved one or someone you wish was a loved one.7. Anticipate the wants and needs of the very first line segment.8. Buy it things.9. Call it by a word that denotes multiples of a fruit, like peaches, bananas or oranges.10. Watch it sleep.