Ravi Mangla's Blog

Gabe Blackwell and I talked about our respective books at The Millions.

"I spent a long time distancing my writing work from my day job. That distance has gotten narrower over time. I think my central preoccupation is still language, but I recognize the political content is more likely than the sentences to take center stage."

https://themillions.com/2022/09/mutab...

"In his second novel, The Observant, Ravi Mangla takes us into the trappings—both literally and figuratively—of a world fueled by luxury and power, but stripped of real agency."

Read the full review here: https://heavyfeatherreview.org/2022/0...

The author Kevin Allardice and I discussed short novels at The Nervous Breakdown.

"The form of the short story, its scope often defined by the attention span of a single sitting, has been exhaustively theorized, as has the boundlessness of the novel. But the short novel, as a form, remains discussed largely in terms of what it isn’t. It isn’t the single room of a short story, nor is it the sprawling estate of the novel."

Read it here: https://thenervousbreakdown.com/kevin...

I wrote about the genesis of my new novel The Observant over at LitHub.

"The story of Shin’s abduction served as the kernel for my latest novel The Observant, which tells the story of Vasant Rai, a documentary filmmaker, who is imprisoned in an authoritarian nation and released under the agreement he direct a film about the country’s imperious ruler. The novel, which I began writing after the rise of Trump, marries my background in political organizing with my long-standing interest in film lore—and Shin and Choi’s story, in particular."

Can read here: https://lithub.com/how-a-north-korean...

New interview on the novel up at one of my hometown news outlets the Rochester Beacon.

"Weaving a story about revolution, elite decadence, Western colonialism, and propaganda, local political organizer Ravi Mangla’s new book serves up a broad critique of authoritarianism in all its forms."

Read the full interview here:
https://rochesterbeacon.com/2022/06/0...

Excited to share that my novel The Observant is now up on Goodreads.

"Short and powerful, Ravi Mangla’s The Observant begs to be read in one sitting, but I read it slowly, piece-by-piece, marvelling at the book’s layered and emotional turns. It really is a masterful work." - Rion Amilcar Scott, author of The World Doesn’t Require You

"Ravi Mangla’s cool economy of words, his sharp, slightly ironic tone and eye for rich detail—they’re all perfectly suited to this riveting, incisive page-turner about a man making sense of his Kafkaesque captivity at the hands of a foreign dictator." - Amber Sparks, author of And I Do Not Forgive You

Check it out and consider adding it to your reading list: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

I have an article in Jacobin on police violence.

“Whether deliberately imprecise or willfully misleading, police statements are the last materials reporters should be drawing from. And amid our reckoning with racism and violent policing in America, those entrusted with reporting news can no longer afford to act as stenographers for the police.“ Read More

Read my new story (”Canvasser”) in the double issue (43/44) of Salt Hill.

I have a new story (”Giving”) in Issue 107 of The Rupture.

I have two micro stories up at Wigleaf this week. Read “Taxonomy” and “Provenance.”