Out of Print: The Short Story Online

01/12/2023

At the Bangalore Literature Festival on Dec 2!
Bangalore Literature Festival

15/11/2023

Out of Print is thrilled, as always, to be partnering with Sangam House, The Jamun, Attagalatta ( Atta Galatta Koramangala ), and this year with the Alliance Francaise ( Alliance Française de Bangalore ) for Bangalore's finest literary gathering, Lekhana.

30/10/2023

Congratulations to Rai for winning the Tata Lit Live Book of the year for non-fiction for her memoir 'Raw Umber'.
We, at Out of Print: featured her work as a translator. Read her translation from Urdu of Hayat's 'Pigeons of the Dome' here:

You are the Sun, Olivia Fraser, 2015, stone pigment, gold leaf and gum arabic on handmade Sanganer wasli, one of nine panels, each 14x14’’. For biographical information on the artist go to Editor’s Note.

19/10/2023

Out of Print: 49 - Shahdat’s ‘Friday Prayers’ translated from Hindi by Akshat Jain follows a young man as he makes it to the mosque for his father, the Imam’s, sermon. When his father elaborates on the sins of homosexuality, pointing to the decadent ways of the practitioners of other religions, Qasim’s mind wanders to life in the madrassa. He must, in the course of the day, confront the imbalance between what is said and what is done. Read the full story in Issue 49: https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/archive/june_2023_issue/shahadat_friday-prayer.html

12/10/2023

Out of Print:49 - The reader is privy to the delicate unfolding of a new relationship in Lall’s ‘Boys with Toucan Noses at Thursday Night Parties’. Full of wide-eyed feeling, this story draws the reader into an exploration of the consuming nature of young love situated in the contemporary dating world. Read the full story in Issue 49: https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/archive/june_2023_issue/amrita-lall_boys-with-toucan-noses.html

Rahael Mathews

07/10/2023

Out of Print: 49 - A young woman confronts ugly and insidious prejudice as she looks for a place to live in Salini Vineeth’s ‘Nest’. Closely observed, sharply rendered, both setting and character leap out of two-dimensions in this story that is woven throughout with the vulnerability, anxiety, anger and resentment, and desire for privacy that accompany the protagonist’s escape from a violent relationship. Read in Issue 49:
https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/archive/june_2023_issue/salini-vineeth_nest.html7 Rahael Mathews

02/10/2023

Read Tripurari Sharma's 'His Father's House' here:
https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/archive/december_2022_issue/tripurari-sharma_his-fathers-house.html

29/09/2023

. of Print: 49 - Rynjah’s ‘A Body of One’s Own’ takes the reader along the internal journey of its protagonist Dahun as she tries to schedule an abortion despite family pressures. Set in ‘small town’ Shillong, the story deals with pregnancy politics and women’s bodily autonomy.

Read the story here: https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/cheryl-rynjah_a-body-of-ones-own.html

27/09/2023

Out of Print 49: Written in second person, Arora’s ‘We Women’ follows a woman’s life as it is buffeted by the instructions that surround her without, and perhaps within. In this commentary on the treacherous and all-pervading influence of patriarchal mores, we wonder whether she will find peace and fulfilment. Read the story here:
https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/nidhi-arora_we-women.html

20/09/2023

Out of Print: 49: Disease has overrun the world, and Jagat’s wife is one of the leaders of a group of construction workers who confront the contractor, demanding proper food for their colony. But Jagat feels such conflict is useless, and that they must wait, and things will get better. Then begins the long, exhausting walk to a distant home that they left out of desperate necessity … and Jagat formulates a radical plan … one which will make any reader of Paralkar’s ‘March’ think about why things did not happen that way.
Read the story in Issue 49 out: https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/shilpa-paralkar_march.html

26/08/2023

Launch of the book celebrating forty years of the International Music and Arts Society with principal author, Out of Print: editor, Indira Chandrasekhar and Punja Ballal, Devi, chief guest Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar and guest of honour Malavika Sarukkai. Monday the 28th at the Bangalore International Centre.

02/08/2023

Out of Print: 49 - In Praveena Shivram’s ‘Run’, a story of war, violence, family, death, nationalism, and the power of internal imagery, Devan realises he might die without ever having tasted a piece of chocolate, but knows he must keep going, because, that is the way, his grandfather says, they can remain ‘borderless’.

Read the story here: https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/praveena-shivram_run.html

Read stories other from Issue 49 at outofprintmagazine.co.in

17/07/2023

Out of Print:48 - In this tale by Jose da Silva Coelho, the reader meets Dr Pancrácio – a doctor whose tempestuous liver renders him unable to carry out medical procedures to completion. Funny, vivid, and satirical, Paul Melo e Castro's translation from Portuguese draws the reader into the pithy observations about twentieth century Goa that characterise much of Silva’s literary scope. The full story can be found in Issue 48: https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/archive/march_2023_issue/jose-da-silva-coelho_dr-pancracios-liver.html

13/07/2023

Editor Indira Chandrasekhar with Westland Books Ask Me Anything
Three tips for writing a good short story:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CujUKHqAcg6/
A starter pack for short story writers:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Culpdxugmwj/
How to pitch a short story:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CuoHKOGgPGk/
Three things to avoid while writing a short story:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CutXOGtgb6h/
Five short story writers on your reading list:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CuytENbgSBB/



Ajitha G S Amrita Talwar Karthika Vk Jacaranda

02/07/2023

Founding editor Chandrasekhar in conversation with Jyman about his award-winning collection Neelakurinji on Thursday July 6 at 6:30 pm. Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScb4xb_3LNnVggG42QGOBYpP-u0Lb5pK0FjRkpZijujotPPaA/viewform?usp=pp_url

28/06/2023

Founder editor Indira Chandrasekhar speaks to Scroll about starting Out of Print, its principles, the evolution of the publishing landscape, and more. Read the article at Scroll.in

https://scroll.in/article/1051254/we-want-high-levels-of-craft-founder-indira-chandrasekhar-on-the-literary-journal-out-of-print

Thanks to Amrita Talwar Arunava Sinha Context Books Westland Books Jacaranda Ajitha G S for making this conversation happen.

26/06/2023

In our June 2023 issue of Out of Print: the characters go through love, loss, fear, anxiety, thrill, anger, defiance, oppression, release – and confront prejudice, dishonesty and the difficulties of exercising autonomy over their bodies. This is an edition about women and individual agency, new relationships, labour and the pandemic, war and violence, and the essential complexity of human beings.

Featured authors are :

Praveena Shivram, Paralkar, Arora, Saikrishna, Rynjah, Vineeth, Lall, translated by Jain, Kumar

Cover art is by Pushpamala Narasingarao, ‘Triptych’ 8x6x6 feet, a painted diorama.
https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/index.html

25/06/2023

On the Out of Print blog, this weekend:- a review of Out of Print: author Kuzhali Manickavel's newest book, 'Conversations Regarding the Fatalistic Outlook of the Common Man' (Blaft, 2022) by our editor Rahael Mathews.

http://outofprintmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/06/book-reviews-kuzhali-manickavel.html

Blaft Publications Pvt Ltd Rahael Mathews

24/06/2023

Out of Print:48 - Naik’s ‘She Reminds Me of Sunshine’ views, through an uncompromising lens, a relationship lacking in love, and the complexities of seduction.

Read the story here: https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/prashila-naik_she-reminds-me-of-sunshine.html

14/06/2023

Out of Print:48 - Bela Negi's ‘Gangrene’ as the name suggests, is a detailed description of the disease settling into the protagonist’s leg. Negi’s descriptions of the grotesque are tempered by an awareness of the environment, and insightful observation of life in the Himalayan foothills. Her writing forces the reader to reckon with the body, illness and the state of healthcare in the country in an ornate narrative that is a skillful bracing of the senses.

Read this piece here: https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/bela-negi_gangrene.html, and more from Issue 48 on the website.

12/06/2023

Last day to submit your writing to the June 17/18 Out of Print: writing workshop at Infinite Souls Farm and Artists Retreat.

Only ten slots available. Send in your work to [email protected] now.

Workshop details on our lovely posters

06/06/2023

Do you have a piece of writing you would like to edit in a workshop setting?
Get feedback from authors, editors and fellow writers, and hone in on your craft at the Out of Print Writing Workshops! Drop us a line at [email protected] and learn more about the next workshop in Bangalore!

06/06/2023

Out of Print: 48 - This formally inventive piece from Kiran Bhat is a second story in this issue that is centred around ecological concerns. ‘A Normal Day’ is a collection of reflective and recondite entries on volcanoes stretching as far back as twenty thousand years.

Read this exercise in imagination here: https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/kiran-bhat_a-normal-day-matahau-tonga.html

04/06/2023

Work on your writing with Out of Print: Stay tuned for more details on the long-awaited Out of Print writers' workshops - in person, in special locations.

25/05/2023

Founding editor of Out of Print: Indira Chandrasekhar will be in conversation with Annie Zaidi at IIHS City Scripts 2023, this Friday May 26th at 5PM IST.
The webinar is on Zoom and open to all - tune in!
Register here: https://bit.ly/CityScripts2023
The full schedule is available at Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS)

24/05/2023

Responding to the clothed, pink version of the statuette from Mohenjodaro [https://thewire.in/the-arts/mohenjodaro-dancing-girl-museum-mascot], author Nancy Adajania shares an excerpt from her story in Out of Print:

She was always leaving, leaving. Only she’d never left. To leave is to start all new. But she had left so many times, she did not know what it meant to cut loose forever.

21/05/2023

Out of Print: 48 - Arjun Rajendran’s ‘The Martyr’, his first ever venture into short prose, details the aftermath of a shootout in which both characters are caught. This tragedy leaves the narrator, who is dealing with the trauma, in a quandary, especially given that their relationship bore the strange closeness yet distance of two people, without much in common, thrust together into the same living space.

Read 'The Martyr' here: https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/arjun-rajendran_the-martyr.html

02/05/2023

Out of Print: 48 - ‘Selfie’ by Mohammed Khadeer Babu, translated from Telugu by Dhurjati Venkata Subhashri, the reader finds out that a marriage of desire has transitioned, through the pressures of life, into a state of suspended engagement.

Read the whole story at:
http://outofprintmagazine.co.in/mohammed-khadeer-babu_selfie.html

Venkata Subhashri Mohammed Khadeerbabu

20/04/2023

We’re excited to announce a reissue of the Out of Print anthology published by Context Books, Westland!

Editor Indira Chandrasekhar says of the anthology in an interview with Suhit Sheyrab for the Hindustan Times
'We wanted to mark the tenth anniversary with something radical. What better way than to take Out of Print to print.
As Sampurna Chattarji said in her endorsement to the volume, “For ten years now, Out of Print has cheekily turned the notion of obsolescence into its opposite by leveraging the benefits of the digital domain – access, reach, sustainability, cost-effectiveness. A print anthology to celebrate this decade-long online dedication seems befitting.”'

More on the anthology in our recent interview with the Hindustan Times.

The book is available now on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.in/dp/9357763813

Westland Books Ajitha G S Karthika V S Jayapriya Vasudevan Jacaranda Books

13/04/2023

Out of Print: 48 - Padmapriya Muralidharan’s ‘The Last Day’ is an invitation into the world of Manoma, a fisherwoman living by the Coovam river. Framed in the shadow of a tsunami-fueled evacuation, this piercing story shows us the resilience of one woman with affecting clarity. Touching on themes as socially relevant as body autonomy, and imminent ecological disaster, Muralidharan offers a window into the lives of women in India today.

Read the story here: https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/padmapriya-muralidharan_the-last-day.html

03/04/2023

Out of Print: 48 - Our first story from this issue is Salma Siddiqui’s ‘Mangalsutra’, first published in 1976. Translated by Out of Print author, Meenakshi Jauhari, it is set in a mortuary, where two men, pressured by the oppressions imposed on them by family and community, each abandon the co**se of a young woman. Told, in most part, in the voice of the dead woman, the narrative highlights the pain that each character must feel.
With thanks to Kausar Munir Rehana Munir Mariam Munir
Read the story here: https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/salma-siddiqui_mangalsutra.html
More from Issue 48 on our website !

02/04/2023

Super delighted to have spoken to Suhit Sheyrab about Out of Print: for the Hindustan Times. Thank you for the questions, Suhit. Made me reflect on the critical role of , and the wonderful and we are privileged to engage with.
Thank you Hindustan Times for supporting small publishing efforts.
Thank you Manjula Narayan for posting this and featuring the interview.
Mridula Garg Sam Arni Meena Kandasamy Tanuj Solanki Tashan Mehta Nisha Susan Rajathi Salma Paul Zacharia Lapata Tastic Keerti Ramachandra Sampurna Chattarji Altaf Tyrewala Vasudhendra Annie Zaidi Annam Manthiram Shabnam Nadiya

The writer and literary curator talks about the 12-year-old online platform for short fiction, the publishing ecosystem, and what she looks for in a story

23/03/2023

Vidya, who came with me from Guntur to Springfield in the Spring of 2004, had to be transported back in a coffin. It might as well have been me instead of her had the assassin’s bullet taken a slightly different trajectory that fall afternoon in Darwin Hall, and she died protecting me when Mike Ro...

23/03/2023

Batuk Batbyal’s life was as inglorious as his name, something for which he had often been derided, all the way from his school days right down to the present in the office where he worked as head clerk. A below-average student who always messed up memorised lessons at exams, Batuk was hopeless in ...

23/03/2023

Out of Print 48!

Delighted to announce the release of the new edition.

We feature nine stories that deal variously with bodily afflictions – sensitive livers, gangrene – death, environmental destruction, displacement and the emptiness of relationships without love. Characters are left dead, wounded, bereft, saddened, resigned, or in some cases, looking forward.

Stories by
Siddiqui translated by Jauhar, Muralidharan, Mohammed Khadeerbabu translated by Venkata Subhashri, Arjun Rajendran Kiran Bhat Bela Negi Avishek Parui Naik Jose da Silva Coelho translated by Paul Melo e Castro

Cover art, Khurasani's ‘Land-Escapes’, 48x 40 inches, woodcut print on paper. More on the art, and the stories in the Editor’s Note. Head to the link in bio to read more from this issue!

21/03/2023

Out of Print:47 - In ‘His Father’s House’, Sharma illuminates mundane activities -- eating a home-cooked meal, a father and son playing catch in the mustard fields -- in a tender portrayal of complex family dynamics. Quotidian pleasures form the crux of this layered story told through the eyes of a wonderstruck child seeking his father’s attention.

Read the story here: https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/tripurari-sharma_his-fathers-house.html

13/03/2023

Of the Gandhi Prize 2022, founder and judge Kumar says, ‘My overwhelming 2022 impression is one of grace. Not only our winners, but the enormous majority of entries, made their points gently while not compromising. Taken together, they offered a reflection of our times that is both hopeful and tempered with doubt or sorrow.’
http://outofprintmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-kodaikanal-gandhi-prize-2022.html

The shared winners of the first, second, third and creative expression prizes as well as the four Honourable Mentions may be accessed here.
http://outofprintmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-kodaikanal-gandhi-prize-2022-prize.html

Gandhi Prize, Khushwant Singh Literary Festival Niloufer Billimoria Singh Batliwal Kumar

12/03/2023

Out of Print:47 - ‘Life in the Big City’ by Kalia, translated from Hindi by Sharma follows a conversation between old friends who know each other well, proceeding in a predictable way, both challenging and caring, until a matter that preoccupies the protagonist comes to the fore. The ensuing tension brings to light the motivations that drive daily life - seeming less and more important at times, leaving the reader to consider their own stance on the mundanities of existence.
Tastic

Read the story here:
https://www.outofprintmagazine.co.in/ravindra-kalia_life-in-the-big-city.html

21/02/2023

A new post in our series READING, WRITING AND BOOKS:
In a rather extraordinary reflection on the body, Out of Print: editor, Rahael Mathews takes us through her thoughts on the writings of Ismat Chughtai and Wajida Tabassum, and the poetry of Kamala Das and Tishani Doshi.

http://outofprintmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/02/reading-writing-and-books-rahael-mathews.html