Blaft Publications Pvt Ltd

https://www.blaft.com/blogs/news/call-for-submissions

For the last few months, Blaft has been working with R. Talitha Samuel and a crew of amazingly talented writers, translators, and artists to put together…

AN ANTHOLOGY OF ANTI-CASTE SPECULATIVE FICTION

This anthology is an attempt to collect the forays into anti-caste speculative fiction that have already been made, as well as to encourage new ones: works of SF that take an anti-caste stance and launch it into the future, outer space, the lairs of nightmarish monsters, or bizarre solarpunk dreamscapes.

Here’s what we’re looking for:

-Speculative fiction defined broadly to include science fiction, supernatural horror, magic realism, etc.

-Writers from caste-oppressed or indigenous communities or other marginalized backgrounds are encouraged to submit.

-***TRANSLATIONS***: While we will consider original English submissions, we are especially interested in translations of South Asian language speculative fiction–again, particularly from writers from caste-oppressed communities. Though we have found or commissioned translations of a few amazing pieces from Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and Gujarati, we are sure there is lots of other great work out there that we don’t know about yet. If you know any writers in South Asian languages whose work would fit in the anthology, please let us know, even if you're not a translator. And if you are a translator who knows such work, please send us your pitches (ideally, a synopsis or sample translation)!

-Length: Ideally between 1500 and 5000 words. We’ll consider translations up to 10,000 words.

-Payment: If your work is accepted we will pay ₹3/word for new English pieces. For translations, we’re paying ₹1.5/word (of the English translation) each to the translator and author. We’re also planning to run a Kickstarter campaign next month, and if we beat our target by enough we’ll share a percentage of the extra money with the contributors.

Illustration: , Graphic: Priyanka Paul, Graphic:

There's an article in the Mid-Day today about our upcoming Gujarati Pulp Fiction anthology!

Featuring quotes from our illustrious translator Vishwambhari S Parmar and the esteemed Jenny Bhatt

Apnu pulp fiction, ave English ma An upcoming anthology captures the inventiveness of beloved Gujarati page-turners across the genres of horror, crime, and adventure

Mark the date! is bigger and badder every iteration and there's always amazing new work on display!

Sunday March 17, Max Mueller Bhavan, Delhi

A gazillion thanks to our 187 backers! (And everyone who helped boost the campaign!) We're driving back into work on the book next month and hope to have it out by the end of the year!

If you missed the crowdfunding campaign, don't worry: we'll make the book available for pre-order on our site soon.

13 hours left! We've got books, signed books, ebooks, bags, book bundles, mega pulptastic ebook bundles, posters, totes, and monster boxes!

Support ! Support ! Help bring classic into English!

An Anthology of Gujarati Pulp Fiction We're translating Gujarat's bestselling crime, science fiction, and horror writers into English for the first time.

Original covers of 3 of the short novels we'll be translating for our GUJARATI PULP FICTION anthology:

"Bar Dancer" by Vibhavari Verma (Read a teaser!)
"The Coils of Fate" by H.N.Golibar
"Varunlokma" The Undersea World by Bansidhar Shukla

Chip in to our Kickstarter! Links in bio!

#ગુજરાતી

We hit our target last night! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 Many thanks to all of our backers!

You can still reserve a copy (or, for 8 more days, higher-tier rewards)! Link in bio!

Joined a protest for Palestine at . The organizers started by reading a list of names of children under 5 killed by the Israeli military over the past 4 months. I joined late, it went 45 minutes after I joined, and they stopped after getting through just 5% of the names. Pretty devastating.

Then marched with a few hundred people through downtown KC, chanting Free Free Palestine.

Glad it happened, especially in light of PEN and other American lit organizations' relative silence on the genocide.

Many of our all-time favourite Gujarati pulp covers were illustrated for supernatural thriller novels by H. N. "Atom" Golibar.

Pictured above are Raat Raani (Queen of the Night), Alabala, Chaaya Padchaaya (Shadow Reflection), Kaal Kundali (The Coils of Fate), all by N. Manwar, and the Kaal Kundali title page by G. Sandhwani.

We're happy to be in touch with Sandhwani's son, Anwar, who's helping us source his father's original black-amd-white illustrations for Kaal Kundali.

Back our Kickstarter to help our Gujarati Pulp Fiction anthology into the world! Link in bio!

Thanks to our generous backers, our Kickstarter is now past the 50% mark!

But we're not there yet. We need to hit $6000 to get the book out this year. Can you help?

We've published a teaser... an excerpt from .vish's translation of Vibhabvari Verma's BAR DANCER on our blog. Come check it out! Link in bio!

-Jilted and abandoned by her drug-dealing husband, former nightclub dancer Parvati struggles to make ends meet as a maid in a Mumbai housing society. But when she meets her old dancer friend Tahira, the two women hatch a plan to take revenge on Parvati's ex...-

The finished anthology will also include supernatural thrillers, vintage science fiction, and tales of ghostly entities like the Khavis and Palit.

Book your copy now!

So Kickstarter just selected our Gujarati Pulp Fiction campaign as a "Project We Love"... which will apparently make it more visible on their platform. Exciting!

Chip in now to reserve an ebook, paperback, tote bag, poster, or book bundle! Link in bio!

#ગુજરાતી

Announcing our Kickstarter campaign for The Blaft Anthology of Gujarati Pulp Fiction!

Check out the ace cover by Nabi Haider Ali!

Selected and translated by Vishwambhari S. Parmar!

Edited by Rakesh Khanna!

With stories by H.N. "Atom" Golibar, Bansidhar Shukla, Vibhavari Verma, Ekta Doshi, and more!

We aim to have this out in December, but for that we need your help! Please chip in, pre-order, and share widely!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blaftgujaratipulp/an-anthology-of-gujarati-pulp-fiction

Pongal-O-Pongal!

Everything in our online store is *15% OFF* from today until Tuesday the 16th!

Print books! Ebooks! Tote Bags! Crime! Horror! Comics! Folklore! High weirdness!

www.blaft.com

A Curated List of 20 Palestinian Short Stories, in Translation, Online Compiled by ArabLit Staff Below, we share twenty (plus) Palestinian short stories that are available in translation online, from across historic Palestine and beyond, by young writers such as Ameer…

Next week Wednesday Jan 10 in St Louis!

Join Rakesh Khanna, co-author of Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India, an encyclopaedia of South Asian ghostlore, for a discussion of folkloric fiends from every state and union territory.








Watkins Wisdom

Illustrations by Appupen, Samita Chatterjee, and Shyam

Super review by Hungarian folklorist Zalka Csenge Virág - Storyteller, Mesemondó on her end-of-year book blog!

https://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2023/12/2023-year-in-good-books.html

In 2024 we resolve to bring out three (count em!) cool new anthologies of fiction. What are you planning?

We hope the New Year brings you all more peace, more justice, more awe-inspiring encounters with nature, and more cool art & music & books & comics & zines.

Come say hi to Blaft at Panjim, Goa as part of the Serendipity Arts Festival!
We'll be there along with other amazing independent publishers, enjoying the weather and celebrating books!

Dates: 15-23, December
Times: 11AM -8PM
Venue: The Courtyard, Old GMC Complex
✨📚⛱️

Join us at Bangalore Literary Festival, Saturday Dec 2, 3:15 pm, for a conversation about ghosts, monsters, demons, monkeymen, pisachas, vetals, weretigers, yakshis, yalis, yamadutas, yatudhanas, yetis, hmuichukchuriduninus, onkyoboykwes & much more!

Blaft books are on display this weekend at by along with work by a ton of other incredible indie publishers. Go check it out!

The women in this podcast episode have clearly had a lot of fun reading "Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India" and it's great to hear them discuss the stories!



Watkins Publishing

Bhootylicious Part 1 | Crimes From The East It's Halloween week and we're claiming it back as a desi phenomenon. We're no experts in lore, religion or culture but that won't stop us from diving deep into the spooky waters of desi Demons! Alex read a book called 'Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India' and narrates all about some very sinister....

Happy Halloween from Blaft! 🎃

The Hindustan Times has a piece on Cherrie Lalnunziri Chhangte's MIZO MYTHS, with some new artwork from AAlyssa Pachuau!
https://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/art-culture/here-be-dragons-a-window-into-mizo-myth-101698505070656.html

Buy the book here!
https://www.blaft.com/products/mizo-myths-2nd-edition

Mizo Myths (2nd Edition) by Cherrie Lalnunziri Chhangte An expanded 2023 edition, including nine new stories! This book of fifteen mythological tales from the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram includes a creation myth and a voyage to the Land of the Dead. There are also many supernatural love affairs: one between a weret...

'Highway 117' is a two-tone, vintage action comic featured in 'The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction Vol. 2.' It stars the formidable Miss "Karate Kavitha," who is anything but a timid chembarathi flower. With her martial arts skills and detective prowess, she brings the shutters of justice down on thugs, villains, cutthroats, and other unsavoury characters from the snacks shack of crime.

PUSHPA THANGADORAI, Writer.

Pushpa Thangadorai was a remarkably versatile writer. His output included true crime stories; ghost stories; literary fiction; romance novels, such as ‘Oru Oodhappu Kan Simittugiradhu’ (“A Purple Aster Winking”), which was made into a 1976 film starring Kamal Haasan; and a popular series of articles on his visits to Hindu pilgrimage sites, published under his real name, Sri Venugopal, in which he describes the importance of each temple and the special prayer rituals specific to each deity. In 1980, he also tried his hand at writing stories for comics, in collaboration with Jeyaraj.

JEYARAJ, Illustrator and Comic Book Artist.

Jeyaraj started his career in 1958, without any formal training, as an illustrator for the popular magazines Kumudham and Dhinamani Kadhir. By 1980, he had done over 2,00,000 illustrations for short stories, novels, textbooks, and public service posters. He also drew many of the best-known Tamil comics from the period, including 'Appusami' and ‘Seethapaatti'. Some of his personal favourites from his immense body of work are the sketches he did for KJ, a science fiction novel by Sujatha, and the ones he drew for 'My Name is Kamala' by Pushpa Thangadorai (some of which were included in Blaft’s first anthology). He has travelled extensively outside of India, and says that he has been greeted in many surprising places by Tamil readers who are collectors of his work.