Kintsugi: Flash Fiction First - Volume 1

by Abha Iyengar (Editor), Aakshat Sinha, Aishwariya Laxmi

KINTSUGI is a collection of flash fiction written by Indian writers, some seasoned, several new. It is a part of a series of flash fiction, and more will follow. The theme for this collection is KINTSUGI, the Japanese art of using gold lacquer to repair broken objects, giving them a renewed beauty and place in the world. What is broken can be repaired, and renewed. Each author comes to this theme with a different approach. The pandemic is a part of our lives and it is a part of the collection with three of the stories featuring it in some form. Then again, a story brings in a broken idol as the main character, another a broken doll as representing a greater social malaise. While one story talks of scars, another speaks of domestic abuse while another speaks of unspoken love. The interpretations are many. The language is often simple, sometimes poetic. The stories are short, but long enough to think about and touch you someplace within. This is the magic of flash fiction. Do pick up a copy and explore this collection of fine stories edited by Abha Iyengar for your reading pleasure.

89 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 26, 2021

About the author

Abha Iyengar is an award winning, internationally published poet, author, essayist and a British Council certified creative writing mentor. Her work has appeared in Muse India, The Four Quarters Magazine, Kritya, Cha-An Asian Literary Journal, Bewildering Stories, Arabesques Review and others. She is a Kota Press Poetry Anthology Contest winner. Her haiku won her the 2nd Prize in Life Positive. Her story, The High Stool, was nominated for the Story South Million Writers Award. Her stories have been selected for A Rainbow Feast: New Asian Short Stories, The Asian Writer, Crime Scene Asia Vol.1 and The Unisun-Reliance Time Out anthologies. She has received the Lavanya Sankaran Writing Fellowship for 2009-2010. She also received the Mariner Award 2010. She was Featured Poet at Poetry with Prakriti, 2010. She has been honoured with the BTB Literary Award 2012 for Best Fiction in a New Genre. Her poems have appeared in The Anthology of Contemporary Indian Poetry. Her poem was long-listed in the RaedLeaf Poetry Contest 2013. Her micro-fiction has won several contests. She was among the top 15 finalists at Flash Mob 2013, an international flash fiction event. Her short fiction, The Marshlands, was short listed in the DNA-Out of Print short story contest 2016.
Her poem-film, Parwaaz, has won a Special Jury prize in Patras, Greece.

Her published works include Yearnings (poetry collection), Flash Bites (flash fiction), Shrayan (fantasy novel), Many Fish to Fry (novel), and The Gourd Seller and Other Stories (short story collection). She dabbles in street photography, digital art and writes poems in Hindustani as well. Her website: www.abhaiyengar.com She blogs at www.abhaencounter.blogspot.in and ankahi-abha.blogspot.in

Abha holds Creative Writing Workshops and personally mentors some students. She also speaks on Motivation, Confidence Building and finding the Creative Self.

Reviews

[Anushree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kintsugi is a 500 years old Japanese tradition and art form of putting back together the pieces of broken pottery with gold or lacquer, embracing and emphasizing that scars and imperfections are integral to having lived. Kintsugi embodies acceptance of what is and whatever has to come to pass. It shows how to stay poised whenever something falls apart and highlights the beauty of human fragility that is easily ignored. Kintsugi, the flash fiction anthology curated and edited by Abha Iyengar does the same. A collection of thirteen short stories, all below thousand words, this book is an immersive experience of the brokenness of life and how people from different socio-economic strata deal with it.

My favourites from the lot are Sequins by Sarita Rao Rayachoti, Hemingway by Sandeep Narayan, The Broken Glass by Ramya Srinivasan, Come lie down beside me by Aakshat Sinha, Slap by Vijayalakshmi Sridhar and Never Again by Vandana Jena. I learned a lot from these five stories as a writer. As a reader, each of these stories stole my heart with their evocative setting, POV, characterization of the protagonist, seamless flow of the narrative or lyrical prose. As a collection, the stories segue together, all of them evoking the theme of Kintsugi — some gold to fill out the hollow space, for a fleeting moment or for what seems like an eternity.

Disclaimer: I am a co-author and have contributed the story Snow Days to this anthology. Even if I weren't a part of this beautiful book as a contributor, I sure would have cherished this as a reader. The lovely stories strung together in this anthology have soothed me and moved me. I hope others also give them a try.

[Aishwariya Laxmi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grateful that my story 'Mended and Precious' appears in this anthology.