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White Moon
White Moon is a collection of avant-garde short stories, micro and flash fiction.
Together they bring a stronger message than they do individually. The incidents in this book depict imaginary characters and events underpinned by dreamlike, strong surrealistic, even esoteric connections. The narratives bring together a unique blend of absorbing, entertaining and otherworldly experience.
As ever Mehreen Ahmed brings a strong and convincing voice to all of the texts. Enjoy the surreal and dreamlike quality of these stories.
Together they bring a stronger message than they do individually. The incidents in this book depict imaginary characters and events underpinned by dreamlike, strong surrealistic, even esoteric connections. The narratives bring together a unique blend of absorbing, entertaining and otherworldly experience.
As ever Mehreen Ahmed brings a strong and convincing voice to all of the texts. Enjoy the surreal and dreamlike quality of these stories.
208 pages, Paperback
Published January 31, 2025
1 person want to read
About the author
Mehreen Ahmed
113 books232 followersAustralian author Mehreen Ahmed is celebrated by the Midwest Book Review for her "exceptional flair for narrative storytelling and compellingly memorable characters" in her novel, "The Pacifist". The review describes the book as "deftly crafted and consistently entertaining," as well as "original, compelling, skillfully written from cover to cover," making it "very highly recommended."It is also, a Drunken Druid Editor's Choice.She has authored eleven books comprised of novels, novellas and shorts_short stories, micro/flash fictions were widely published and translated into Greek,Bangla,German and have won contests,shortlisted for Editor's Choice Awards,nominations for BestSmallFictions,5botN,2Pushcart and JamesTait.AntipodeSF Radio featured her shorts. Currently,she is the Guest Fiction Editor of Panorama:JournalofTravel,Place,and Nature.
>Publications/Forthcoming
TempleinaCity,BendingGenres,Boudin:McNeeseStateUniversity,CambridgeUniversityPress,ChironReview,UniversityofHawaii Press,MichiganStateUniversityPress,PerceptionMagazine:SyracuseUniversity,StraylightMagazine:WisconsinParklandUniversity,TheTalonReview:NorthFloridaUniversity,MetachrosisLiterary:DundeeUniversity,BitterleafBooks:YSJ,PopshotQuarterly,CoffinBell,AntipodeanSF,Aphelion:Website of ScienceFictionandFantasy,Callej,UniversityofKentPress,TheSheaf,Jimson WeedUVA,UltramarineLitRev,TheBayouReview,MuseIndia,CentaurLit,HootReview,
ShortsMagazine,BlazeVOX,ArgyleLiteraryMagazine,JournalofExpressiveWriting,SixSentences,IceFloePress,LitroUK,PanoramaTheJournalofTravelPlaceandNature,MrBull,Otoliths,SoFloPoJo,
OlneyMagazine,AlternateRoute,TheGorkoGazette,PorchLitMag,WordCityLit,TheAntonym,The HennepinReview,LiteraryHeist,MadSwirl,RogueAgent,VineLeafReview,OctoberHillMagazine,OddballMagazine,InParenthesis.artLitMagNew Modernism,ConnotationPress,DoorIsAJar,ELJ
ScissorsandSpackle,VisualVerse,FlashBoulevard,
FiveMinutes,QuateraryRealmsAnthology,ChewersandMasticadores,QuailBell,Crêpe&Penn,FlashFrontier,EllipsisZine,Ginosko#24#29#30,TheCabinetofHeed,ActiveMuse,HeroinChic,LoveInTheTime ofCovidChronicle,WellingtonStreetReview,NailpolishStories,Setu,ImpspiredMagazine,ThornLiterary,Magazine,3MoonMagazine,SageCigarettes,TheBombayReview,FlashBackFiction,DownInTheDirt,DarkWinterLiteraryMagazine,AcademyOfHeartAndMind,PikerPress,Kitaab,CommuterLit,AngelCityReview,FreeFlashFiction,CafeDissensus,ThePunch,FurtiveDalliance,InkPantry,FlashFictionNorth,BridgeHouse,CosmicTeapot and others.
Awards/Nominations/Recognitions
>Winner
DrunkenDruidEditor'sChoice2017/ThePacifist
FirstPlace_AcademyoftheHeartandMind,May FlowersContest2022/ThePhasesoftheMoon
CoWinner_WaterlooWritingCompetition May2020/Dolly
AyaskalaLiteraryMagazine2023/RainandCoffee
Cabinet-of-Heed Stream-of-ConsciousnessChallenge April2020 DrawerFour/BlackMirror
>Nominations
2Pushcart:ParadoxOfLove:CentaurLit2026,Ylem:PaperDjinn2020
BestSmallFictions,TheStretch:Boudin2025
5BestoftheNet:Interlude-LiteratiMagazine2020,Elysium:FlashFictionNorth2020,NumberNinetyFour:DecolonialPassage2024,OftheBlueEvening:GorkoGazette2025
JamesTaitBlackPrize2021,Gatherings:BridgeHousePublishing
>Finalist/Shortlist
Finalist:FourthAdelaideLiteraryAward contest,February2020/FlowerGirl/
Shortlisted:FreedomFictionJournalEditor'sChoiceAwards/Flamenco24/AroundtheBend25
>Honourable Mentions
WeaversOfWordsContestUnpublishedPlatform 2022/SilentBleat
>Bestof/MostRead/Top10
AntipodeanSF25PainttheCityRed
AntipodeanSF25Cloudfields
EthelZine24Dead-Fly
AlienBuddha23/24TheRiverofMelted Chocolate/The Scripts
TheGorkoGazette23/OftheBlueEvening ReadersFavFic
MadSwirl23/24Space/Vape/CitySmell/InStillness
ImpspiredMag/MultipleTimesTop10Read
CafeLit8Writer'sChoice2019BatsDownunder.
>Milestone Selection
AlienBuddha2023/DeepWell
>Special Collector's Edition
PopshotQuarterly 41:2023/RiverofMeltedChocolate.
>Audiobooks Best Seller/Others
ThePacifist2017
PeekingCatLiterary
>Publications/Forthcoming
TempleinaCity,BendingGenres,Boudin:McNeeseStateUniversity,CambridgeUniversityPress,ChironReview,UniversityofHawaii Press,MichiganStateUniversityPress,PerceptionMagazine:SyracuseUniversity,StraylightMagazine:WisconsinParklandUniversity,TheTalonReview:NorthFloridaUniversity,MetachrosisLiterary:DundeeUniversity,BitterleafBooks:YSJ,PopshotQuarterly,CoffinBell,AntipodeanSF,Aphelion:Website of ScienceFictionandFantasy,Callej,UniversityofKentPress,TheSheaf,Jimson WeedUVA,UltramarineLitRev,TheBayouReview,MuseIndia,CentaurLit,HootReview,
ShortsMagazine,BlazeVOX,ArgyleLiteraryMagazine,JournalofExpressiveWriting,SixSentences,IceFloePress,LitroUK,PanoramaTheJournalofTravelPlaceandNature,MrBull,Otoliths,SoFloPoJo,
OlneyMagazine,AlternateRoute,TheGorkoGazette,PorchLitMag,WordCityLit,TheAntonym,The HennepinReview,LiteraryHeist,MadSwirl,RogueAgent,VineLeafReview,OctoberHillMagazine,OddballMagazine,InParenthesis.artLitMagNew Modernism,ConnotationPress,DoorIsAJar,ELJ
ScissorsandSpackle,VisualVerse,FlashBoulevard,
FiveMinutes,QuateraryRealmsAnthology,ChewersandMasticadores,QuailBell,Crêpe&Penn,FlashFrontier,EllipsisZine,Ginosko#24#29#30,TheCabinetofHeed,ActiveMuse,HeroinChic,LoveInTheTime ofCovidChronicle,WellingtonStreetReview,NailpolishStories,Setu,ImpspiredMagazine,ThornLiterary,Magazine,3MoonMagazine,SageCigarettes,TheBombayReview,FlashBackFiction,DownInTheDirt,DarkWinterLiteraryMagazine,AcademyOfHeartAndMind,PikerPress,Kitaab,CommuterLit,AngelCityReview,FreeFlashFiction,CafeDissensus,ThePunch,FurtiveDalliance,InkPantry,FlashFictionNorth,BridgeHouse,CosmicTeapot and others.
Awards/Nominations/Recognitions
>Winner
DrunkenDruidEditor'sChoice2017/ThePacifist
FirstPlace_AcademyoftheHeartandMind,May FlowersContest2022/ThePhasesoftheMoon
CoWinner_WaterlooWritingCompetition May2020/Dolly
AyaskalaLiteraryMagazine2023/RainandCoffee
Cabinet-of-Heed Stream-of-ConsciousnessChallenge April2020 DrawerFour/BlackMirror
>Nominations
2Pushcart:ParadoxOfLove:CentaurLit2026,Ylem:PaperDjinn2020
BestSmallFictions,TheStretch:Boudin2025
5BestoftheNet:Interlude-LiteratiMagazine2020,Elysium:FlashFictionNorth2020,NumberNinetyFour:DecolonialPassage2024,OftheBlueEvening:GorkoGazette2025
JamesTaitBlackPrize2021,Gatherings:BridgeHousePublishing
>Finalist/Shortlist
Finalist:FourthAdelaideLiteraryAward contest,February2020/FlowerGirl/
Shortlisted:FreedomFictionJournalEditor'sChoiceAwards/Flamenco24/AroundtheBend25
>Honourable Mentions
WeaversOfWordsContestUnpublishedPlatform 2022/SilentBleat
>Bestof/MostRead/Top10
AntipodeanSF25PainttheCityRed
AntipodeanSF25Cloudfields
EthelZine24Dead-Fly
AlienBuddha23/24TheRiverofMelted Chocolate/The Scripts
TheGorkoGazette23/OftheBlueEvening ReadersFavFic
MadSwirl23/24Space/Vape/CitySmell/InStillness
ImpspiredMag/MultipleTimesTop10Read
CafeLit8Writer'sChoice2019BatsDownunder.
>Milestone Selection
AlienBuddha2023/DeepWell
>Special Collector's Edition
PopshotQuarterly 41:2023/RiverofMeltedChocolate.
>Audiobooks Best Seller/Others
ThePacifist2017
PeekingCatLiterary
Ratings & Reviews
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 3, 2025
.
To open the pages of Mehreen Ahmed’s second collection of short stories, published by Bridge House Publishing, is to enter a dream-world, a realm inhabited by fantastical characters…phantoms; fairies, pixies, robots (found together in one story, ‘The Yellow God’!); and even, a hobbit! It is a surreal landscape, where time, as well as setting and characters, shapeshifts back and fore – as it says in ‘Water Hyancinth’, ‘The past, the present and the future in the human narrative of a timeline floated like water hyacinth.’
That the settings are often ‘foreign’ might be expected from an author, born and brought up in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Many of the stories are, in fact, set in the Asian sub-continent, with names, practices, gods, unfamiliar to western readers. I chose, on occasion, to look up some of these, to clarify certain references, but this is simply my own preference, and not essential to the enjoyment of the tales.
The collection opens with a story ‘Sensible Shoes’, which is told from the point of view of those shoes – a conceit which put me in mind of the essays we were asked to write in school, with titles such as ‘A day in the life of a penny.’ But Mehreen’s interpretation is, of course, far more imaginative, with the shoes being a loyal friend to their owner, Samira, and experiencing empathy to her plight, followed by despair, when they are ultimately replaced, when Samira rises in the world.
And from this first strange encounter we move on to stories featuring speaking crows, who rule over humans, and ruin two women’s crops; a child-snatcher; Sufis; owls rescuing abused girls. In ‘River of Melted Chocolate’ the audience of a film disappears into a setting from that film. Or we find a city that is able to smell.
And yet, amongst these marvellous creations there are themes relevant to all of us, wherever we are in the world. Love is at the heart of several stories, such as ‘Number Ninety Four’ or ‘Oasis’, where it survives through repeated adversity; Death and time are often present, both in ‘Aina Ghar/The Mirror Room’ which contemplates how short the journey to death is. And how time can change everything… or nothing. The rights of the ‘ownership’ of land is considered, in ‘Of the Blue Evening’ and ‘The Giver’ for example. Do humans have more claim to the earth, above nature and its creatures? The end of the world, often through war – man, again – appears several times.
And certain subjects – some of them quite mundane – crop up repeatedly, often described in startling detail. Food (Indian recipes, relayed in mouth-watering fashion). Houses. Wealth – both the lack of it, and too much of it. Going up in the world – or down. Clothes. Names. A lot of tea is drunk! Forests, fire. Dance. So many of these assault the senses, with their vibrancy of colour, sound… and taste.
One quite unusual feature of some of the stories, particularly the shorter ‘flash’ pieces, is the use of a form of rhyme. This technique sneaks up on the reader, with a sudden realisation of its presence. One almost feels that it would be beneficial to read them aloud – or hear them read aloud. This, in ‘Debt’, ‘They waited in row, at cocks crow, for Natalie the pro to bow, slow and low. Lo…’ In ‘Ylem’ – spotted, gloated, bloated. ‘Over the water, bold and low, fluttered a lorikeet, a flying rainbow.’ One can only admire the author’s skill in accomplishing this!
Yet, in the midst of all this, we have two stories firmly fixed in historical events and harsh reality: ‘Bengali 1971’, which centres on the war fought between West and East Pakistan, resulting in the creation of Bangladesh, and ‘Phantom War’, which is right up to date, about Gaza. Both focus on children dying in these conflicts, in a moving manner.
Mehreen Ahmed is a multi-award winning author. Based on these stories, I suspect she will be winning even more prizes in the future.
To open the pages of Mehreen Ahmed’s second collection of short stories, published by Bridge House Publishing, is to enter a dream-world, a realm inhabited by fantastical characters…phantoms; fairies, pixies, robots (found together in one story, ‘The Yellow God’!); and even, a hobbit! It is a surreal landscape, where time, as well as setting and characters, shapeshifts back and fore – as it says in ‘Water Hyancinth’, ‘The past, the present and the future in the human narrative of a timeline floated like water hyacinth.’
That the settings are often ‘foreign’ might be expected from an author, born and brought up in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Many of the stories are, in fact, set in the Asian sub-continent, with names, practices, gods, unfamiliar to western readers. I chose, on occasion, to look up some of these, to clarify certain references, but this is simply my own preference, and not essential to the enjoyment of the tales.
The collection opens with a story ‘Sensible Shoes’, which is told from the point of view of those shoes – a conceit which put me in mind of the essays we were asked to write in school, with titles such as ‘A day in the life of a penny.’ But Mehreen’s interpretation is, of course, far more imaginative, with the shoes being a loyal friend to their owner, Samira, and experiencing empathy to her plight, followed by despair, when they are ultimately replaced, when Samira rises in the world.
And from this first strange encounter we move on to stories featuring speaking crows, who rule over humans, and ruin two women’s crops; a child-snatcher; Sufis; owls rescuing abused girls. In ‘River of Melted Chocolate’ the audience of a film disappears into a setting from that film. Or we find a city that is able to smell.
And yet, amongst these marvellous creations there are themes relevant to all of us, wherever we are in the world. Love is at the heart of several stories, such as ‘Number Ninety Four’ or ‘Oasis’, where it survives through repeated adversity; Death and time are often present, both in ‘Aina Ghar/The Mirror Room’ which contemplates how short the journey to death is. And how time can change everything… or nothing. The rights of the ‘ownership’ of land is considered, in ‘Of the Blue Evening’ and ‘The Giver’ for example. Do humans have more claim to the earth, above nature and its creatures? The end of the world, often through war – man, again – appears several times.
And certain subjects – some of them quite mundane – crop up repeatedly, often described in startling detail. Food (Indian recipes, relayed in mouth-watering fashion). Houses. Wealth – both the lack of it, and too much of it. Going up in the world – or down. Clothes. Names. A lot of tea is drunk! Forests, fire. Dance. So many of these assault the senses, with their vibrancy of colour, sound… and taste.
One quite unusual feature of some of the stories, particularly the shorter ‘flash’ pieces, is the use of a form of rhyme. This technique sneaks up on the reader, with a sudden realisation of its presence. One almost feels that it would be beneficial to read them aloud – or hear them read aloud. This, in ‘Debt’, ‘They waited in row, at cocks crow, for Natalie the pro to bow, slow and low. Lo…’ In ‘Ylem’ – spotted, gloated, bloated. ‘Over the water, bold and low, fluttered a lorikeet, a flying rainbow.’ One can only admire the author’s skill in accomplishing this!
Yet, in the midst of all this, we have two stories firmly fixed in historical events and harsh reality: ‘Bengali 1971’, which centres on the war fought between West and East Pakistan, resulting in the creation of Bangladesh, and ‘Phantom War’, which is right up to date, about Gaza. Both focus on children dying in these conflicts, in a moving manner.
Mehreen Ahmed is a multi-award winning author. Based on these stories, I suspect she will be winning even more prizes in the future.
February 10, 2025
WHITE MOON
By Mehreen Ahmed
A Book Review by Zea Perez
January 2025
The tales are timeless treasures to read!
Once again, Mehreen Ahmed’s prowess in weaving proficient, literary narratives to convey her distinctive creativity and imagination, is affirmed in this anthology of short tales.
The core-theme of the stories revolves around the intriguing intricacies of love as expressed in various phases of love found, love lost and love found again.
What makes it very interesting to read is Mehreen's exceptional creativity in storytelling is expressed in boundless, symbolic and timeless ways. The tales of love are expressed in mythical, legendary, periodical, spatial and even how love unfolds and forms in the current times of online, cyber age.
No wonder some of the tales included in this anthology won awards and recognition. The author I am sure put a lot of time polishing the tales, thus becoming timeless treasures to read!
By Mehreen Ahmed
A Book Review by Zea Perez
January 2025
The tales are timeless treasures to read!
Once again, Mehreen Ahmed’s prowess in weaving proficient, literary narratives to convey her distinctive creativity and imagination, is affirmed in this anthology of short tales.
The core-theme of the stories revolves around the intriguing intricacies of love as expressed in various phases of love found, love lost and love found again.
What makes it very interesting to read is Mehreen's exceptional creativity in storytelling is expressed in boundless, symbolic and timeless ways. The tales of love are expressed in mythical, legendary, periodical, spatial and even how love unfolds and forms in the current times of online, cyber age.
No wonder some of the tales included in this anthology won awards and recognition. The author I am sure put a lot of time polishing the tales, thus becoming timeless treasures to read!
May 5, 2025
Editorial Review: Bridge House Publishing
The tales are timeless treasures to read!
Once again, Mehreen Ahmed’s prowess in weaving proficient, literary narratives to convey her distinctive creativity and imagination, is affirmed in this anthology of short tales.
The core-theme of the stories revolves around the intriguing intricacies of love as expressed in various phases of love found, love lost and love found again.
What makes it very interesting to read is Mehreen's exceptional creativity in storytelling is expressed in boundless, symbolic and timeless ways. The tales of love are expressed in mythical, legendary, periodical, spatial and even how love unfolds and forms in the current times of online, cyber age.
No wonder some of the tales included in this anthology won awards and recognition. The author I am sure put a lot of time polishing the tales, thus the become timeless treasures to read!
The tales are timeless treasures to read!
Once again, Mehreen Ahmed’s prowess in weaving proficient, literary narratives to convey her distinctive creativity and imagination, is affirmed in this anthology of short tales.
The core-theme of the stories revolves around the intriguing intricacies of love as expressed in various phases of love found, love lost and love found again.
What makes it very interesting to read is Mehreen's exceptional creativity in storytelling is expressed in boundless, symbolic and timeless ways. The tales of love are expressed in mythical, legendary, periodical, spatial and even how love unfolds and forms in the current times of online, cyber age.
No wonder some of the tales included in this anthology won awards and recognition. The author I am sure put a lot of time polishing the tales, thus the become timeless treasures to read!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews