A Journal of International Science Fiction & Fantasy. Estd. 2015.
Mithila Review publishes excellent science fiction, fantasy, poetry, reviews, excerpts, and articles from award-winning and emerging writers around the world. We seek to publish stories that birth creative thought and positive action. Stories that accurately describe our world, triumph over fear, mistrust and despair, and guide the future. Because the world needs saving, and honestly, nothing seems to work better than amazing stories. Please subscribe or donate to Mithila Review to help us find, create, publish and spread original voices and impactful stories.
FICTION, POETRY & MORE
“All true knowing is mutual…”: Notes on Vandana Singh’s Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories
Singh’s stories in this collection present a new way of articulating planetarity and narrating the cosmos and map out a new terrain of science fictionality. She incorporates the fantastic, the magical and the wondrous to create a mythopoetic engagement with the cosmos.
Pilot Narratives
For me, the grim realities of flight did not negate The Little Prince— / instead, I became more certain / that everything Saint-Exupéry said was true: / that same sincere voice, that never-lost child’s wonder / at being alive.
Soul Lanterns
Our loft starship, tear-shaped pod of night, / Glows inward with familial joy, / A hearth of laughter, warm, bright— / Hearts leap across deep space…
How to Question Asteroid 16 Psyche
Do not ask who did this to her, / who shattered her to her core. // Do not ask what she remembers / of the larger self she’s lost.
Patroclus
Forget he held me in his arms / before our burnt bones shared an urn. // Forget the past and let us rest. / Step up. Bow. Take your own turn.
Afterwards
Life / goes on. // The cats still demand their food, / the garbage trucks still rumble by, / your throat still craves cold liquids.
Young Witch, Old Witch
In my heart, I wanted to be better, more patient, more adequate. Grandma had hurt me many times in the past. She never had a good thing to say, and her criticism went from fat and ugly to selfish and useless. When I was younger, she would say both that I was heartless and that I was kind to the point of stupidity, and she would laugh whenever I felt pain, saying my mother spoiled me rotten.
Rose Glasses over Mercury Mirrors
Who needs a mirror with eyes / like that—eyes that make you trust / your own bones, that know your form / is beautiful because it can dance.
Ghost Apples
Here in the old / Enchantments / you can find remnants / of her still, / her smile a ragged / and torn tarn shore, / her perfume / the come-gone scent / of slapdash rain.
Haunted Castle on the Midway
Standing there in the shadow of the building with the entire town’s held breath in her hand, she knew they’d suffer if she went through. That somehow, their lives were wrapped up in or… antithetical to the existence of the haunted castle.