Short stories and Flash fiction stories by Mallika Narayanan featured online and in print.

MY STARBUCKS NAME

THE PHOENIX

EMPRESS OF DEATH

NOCTIVAGANT PRESS

A REAL SOLID GUY, WAS PAWPAW, ELLIPSIS ZINE

Other Works

Dandelion Years

A magazine cover from Bath Flash Fiction. The photo contains Dandelion flowers and stalks and the title, BATH FLASH FICTION VOLUME SEVEN written across the bottom on a lime green background.

Flash fiction is a unique form of literature that allows us to traverse portals and dimensions in mere thousand words or fewer. My story, Cast Iron, which I'm thrilled made the Bath Flash Fiction long list, is a close look at what binds us to our personal worlds, and the things we chain ourselves to.

“The long list provided excellent examples of how stories can start and how they can grip a reader through conflict, through character, through precise and beautiful language.”
~Tommy Dean, writer, editor and teacher from the US.

The Empress of Death

Is horror the evil that visits us? Is it a physical phenomenon we shudder away from?

Or do we seek to escape ourselves?

In The Empress of Death, I explore ancient horrors visited upon us by the gods of death and destruction, and a maiden carrying a deadly curse, who, along with her thousand companions, is banished into the catacombs beneath a mountain.

The cover of Noctivagant press Issue Three. A skull made of tree roots sits on a deep maroon and black gradient background. Issue three is written in cursive below.

My Starbucks Name

The cover of the magazine by Pfeiffer pHoenix University. The background is a deep marron black gradient. A single rose stalk in sketch form stands vertically on the cover. The words The Phoenix 62 are written on the top in white.

In his play, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare asks us to consider the irrelevance of names.

The first time I thought about the associations we make with our own names was at a Starbucks when I was asked my name to write down on their trademark cup.

My Starbucks Name, was a delve into identity, a subject which has always fascinated me. That which we go by and that which others think we go by.

The next time you hear your name called out by a barista at a crowded Starbucks, I hope you will think about it, and this little story.

A Real Solid Guy, Was PawPaw

I took the advantage flash fiction offers, to paint thumb-nail sized snippets of a world which has always fascinated me: A growing new frontier, people caught between striking gold and appalling poverty, and of a child thrown into the jaws of adulthood.

An author friend, JP Ralph, generously called this story a heart-breaking western song. A story which began as a prompt exercise stayed close enough to my heart to submit to the amazing Ellipsis Zine, for their historical fiction issue. Ellipsis Zine is, alas, is no more. Their rich archives continue to thrive. In The Belly of the Whale is a whopper of an issue with stories that will stay with you long after you've finished reading them.

Magazine cover of Ellipsis Zine's Issue 11. An underwater photo with sunlight glinting on the deep, turquoise waves. In the center, in grey, is the title, In The Belly of the Whale, and other flashes of historical fiction.