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Arthur Mandal

@arthurmandal.bsky.social
2.3K followers 2K following 942 posts

Brit/US writer of uncanny fiction. Best Small Fictions 2025. Over 40 stories in The Barcelona Review, LITRO, Southeast Review, The Forge, The Los Angeles Review and others. @nightjarpress Based in Eugene, Oregon (but grew up in UK). www.arthurmandal.com

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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
A friend gave me this exquisite copy of ArabLitQuarterly, @arablit.bsky.social which has dedicated an entire issue to Syria. The sectarian violence of communities who have lived alongside oneanother for centuries (see the recent massacres of Druze) is unspeakably sad. This is Noor Dokrli’s “Soil”.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Reading Peter Ackroyd’s Blake. Sobering to think that one of English literature’s greatest poets spent his life in relative obscurity, scraping a living (pun intended) engraving other people’s work. Kafka perhaps had it worse: Blake at least believed in his posthumous fame.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Really liked this latest story of Andrew Bertaina's in the Laurel Review @laurelreview.bsky.social . Loved its surreal tone.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
1/2 Aberdeen, Orkneys and Shetlands - from a trip back in 2018.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Really loved this piece by Kylie Hough today. As someone who listens to classical music a lot at night, and who has had their own fair share of experiences in hospitals.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Just learnt I’ve won a prize in a major writing competition. I’m not allowed to say any more at the moment. As a note of encouragement to others:this story – which got into the last dozen of 4 or 5 thousand entries – was rejected by 21 journals/magazines(and only one of those a ‘tiered’ rejection).
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I wish there was a magic app which told writers which of your rejections were superficial (all your planning and nuances went right over their heads) and which were authentic (they understood all your allusions/details and still remained unimpressed).
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite. -from William Blake, "A Memorable Fancy"
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Finished a collection of stories this week by the Argentinian writer Samanta Schweblin (translator Megan McDowell). Loved them—though each has a certain emptiness at its heart, and I can’t decide whether it’s deep and enigmatic or just a cynical MFA trick. I also can’t decide whether that matters.
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Reposted by Arthur Mandal
lilithsreverie.bsky.social @lilithsreverie.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Perfect story for anyone who has ever had a pet fish. Or a human father.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Really loved this piece by Gary Fincke in @bendinggenres.bsky.social this month. A few people had talked about it so I checked it out. Very deadpan, down-talking tone produces a perfect mood. bendinggenres.com/suits/
bendinggenres.com
Suits
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Photos from a past trip to Cairo – mostly downtown Cairo. 1/2
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Just sharing a short, lucidly-written piece on “Don DeLillo’s Film Texts” by the fiction writer and artist Imogen Reid which came out a couple of years ago in @sublunary.bsky.social . I remember reading and liking this last year, but forgetting to share it. sublunaryeditions.com/magazine/don...
sublunaryeditions.com
Sublunary Editions | Independent publisher
Seattle-based publisher of literary fiction, poetry, criticism, and more.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
I have no comment to make on Nolan’s Odyssey, or the translator’s response to it, or Joyce Carol Oates’ response to that response. The only certain thing I can say is: somebody out there is making an awful lot of money.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Finally got my hands on the paper copy of this. I’ll share the full story once the next issue of WITNESS comes out. One of two or three stories I wrote inspired by a trip to India.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Recently I walked through Morecambe, a northern seaside town with a melancholy, faded air: shuttered shops, empty retail spaces, bored kids. My father remembered cafés, Hart’s, the Winter Gardens, a pier. The bay is beautiful; the disinvestment is criminal. Brighton feels like another country.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
The ending of one of my favorite Tagore stories, “The Postmaster”: a university-educated postmaster befriends a village girl, then leaves for Calcutta. Its final epiphany mixes Western and Hindu nihilisms without quite belonging to either. William Radice’s translation is superb.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
I got into London a couple of days ago and visited Tate Britain. Saw a wonderful Whistler exhibition there and decided to share some of the best pictures.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Wonderful piece this week by Mikki Aronoff. Love the figure of the grandfather never met in this.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Congrats to everyone who made this year’s Wigleaf Top 50 and longlist—looking forward to reading them. Out of bored curiosity I went online yesterday, and found a piece I had written in The Phare longlisted for Wigleaf’s 2024 Top 50 Very Short Fictions. No one tells you anything in this business...
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
A short story of mine, “The Enormous Man”, came out with Quarter(ly) Journal last year. Now that their new issue is out, I feel it’s okay to share it (link to pdf in first comment).
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Is anybody else watching Widow’s Bay? Am on episode 4. Smooth script, decent acting, some creepy moments for a horror comedy. The political subtexts are as they should always be in horror – never intruding, just palimpsestically hovering beneath the surface.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Pictures from Chile. 1/2
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
RIP David Hockney. Bradford lad. Your pools and highways and canyons have always stayed with me.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Reading this at the moment. Really enjoying it, exquisitely written. Almost a third of the way through.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
I read old LRB/NYRB issues a year or two late. This 2023 Jerome Groopman piece is grim: cancer treatment as lucrative market, with investors drawn to drugs that “don’t work too well” or cure too quickly—so the patient/customer keeps paying. Photos attached; paywalled link in comments.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
About 6 months ago I submitted a story to The Masters Review Winter Story Award (a journal I’d never had much luck with), and yesterday I got an email saying it had made it onto the longlist. Not exactly a win, but nice that it got into the last 2 percent of about 2,000 entries.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Another beautiful piece by Natalie Marino.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Photos from last week’s visit to Eh-Dan-Brah (I hope I got that phonetically correct). 2/2
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
I bought the FT’s weekend supplement for the first time today. Glossy pages of watches, luxury pens, designer pullovers and boutique-hotel décor laments. It seems written by people who do not occupy our reality. It’s called HTSI — How To Spend It. I wish I was making all of this up.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Sharing today some poems by Arun Kolatkar, who died over 20 years ago in Maharashtra. A wonderful poet: dry, sceptical, funny, yet oddly accepting about Hindu faith. Famously reclusive too — no lecture circuits or workshops. *Jejuri* is the classic, but there’s much more.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
I'm going to be in Edinburgh, Scotland tomorrow for a few days – if anyone has any tips for a) bookshops b) restaurants would love to hear them (I almost always prefer human tips over digitally generated ones).
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
My story “Hour Glass” has just come out in the latest issue of Witness, which foregrounds the theme of double/mirror/twin. Many thanks to the editors for accepting the piece. witness.blackmountaininstitute.org/issues/sprin...
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
The first few episodes of BEEF season 2 are very impressive. Great scriptwriting and casting, but also a nice comment on how the exploited class (which is now practically most people) misrecognize in one another the ‘cause’ of their pain, whilst the elites just carry on with their wellness therapy.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Some contrasts from Massachusetts, summer/winter. 1/2
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Some amazing work on show at the Green Door Gallery (in Brussels) by my friend Imogen Reid. @imogenreid.bsky.social
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
A few months ago, my India-set story “Hymn to Sri Devi” appeared in Catamaran. When I first shared it, I hadn’t realized they’d made the full text available as well. Now they have — so here are the pages (link to pdf in first comment). 1/2
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Huge congratulations to William Pei Shih @williampeishih.bsky.social (and also the Los Angeles Review) for winning an O. Henry Prize this year. Can’t wait to read the story.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
I promised Riham Adly I would share her new substack profile on my vast social media empire. Riham is a prize-winning writer based in Egypt; she’s written over 60 stories in journals such as @litromagazine.bsky.social , the Citron Review, Lost Balloon and Bending Genres. rihamadly.substack.com
rihamadly.substack.com
Riham’s Substack | Substack
My personal Substack. Click to read Riham’s Substack, a Substack publication. Launched 2 days ago.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Three years ago I visited Nepal and, with perfect timing, arrived in the middle of a general strike. Kathmandu felt like a quieter India: street-corner temples, peaceful shrine-filled squares, silent rooftop cafés. I spent a week wandering, taking photos, here are some of them. 1/2
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
It feels weird at the moment, sharing things you’ve written in times of war. But anyway, for whatever it’s worth, here is something of mine that’s just come out in the journal Pictura @pictura.bsky.social - it's called "Simulation". picturajournal.com/issue-six/ar...
picturajournal.com
Arthur Mandal - pictura journal
Arthur Mandal is a writer based in Eugene, Oregon who grew up in the UK. His work has appeared in The Barcelona Review, LITRO, and others.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
I’ve been reading Armenian short stories: a huge 20th-century volume, carefully written, meticulously translated, barely known. This Minas Cheraz story is a dark tale of genocide survival, in which an Armenian woman takes revenge. Astonishing how much of the world’s literature remains untapped.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Six weeks ago I drove through Oman to the Yemen border: ancient history, blue sea, mountains. Two weeks later, US/Israeli strikes hit the region—the town I visited was bombed, the airport I changed at struck by drones. I looked toward “war-torn” Yemen, never expecting war behind me.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Delighted to share two pieces of mine that came out in LitMagazine this week – “Pacifier”and “Museum Trips”. Thanks to the editors for accepting them – thanks also to Adam Prince and Janet Steen @janetsteen.bsky.social for helping me filter the good from the meh. www.litmagazine.org/pacifier-and...
litmagazine.org
Pacifier and Museum Trips – LIT
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Really liked this piece by Cristi Donoso in @thecitronreview.bsky.social. Love the very quiet way the narrator picks up all the details of the family arguing on the table next to them. (thanks to @jamesmontgomery.bsky.social for sharing it). citronreview.com/2023/06/30/q...
citronreview.com
Quiet
by Cristi Donoso   There is a man, I say to myself, because I’ve taken myself out to lunch, two tables over, who will not let his son speak. This restaurant is the loud sort where anyone can h…
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
One of the funniest satires on the Second Gulf War and the whole US War-On-Terror mindset was David Rees’ Get Your War On (2004), which took generic corporate office illustrations and filled them with obscenely funny commentary. (link to Pdf in first comment).
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
For all self-interest on JudgementDay will be given to darkness, as all those useless arguments which seek not love but only self-interest. By these interpretations the princes are led to cause wars, and by these ideas they attack and storm lands and people. -Jakob Böhme, Der Weg Zu Christus (1622)
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
Since we’re already in an age of horror, I might as well mention the horror issue of @thebrusselsreview.bsky.social a piece of mine just came out in, “Letting People Go.” thebrusselsreview.com/teresa-krast...
thebrusselsreview.com
"What Lurks In The Shadows Of TBR Dark" By Teresa Krasteva
Horror is a genre that still receives much undeserved negativity. It is, after all, a genre that displays the most variety: witches and vampires, ghouls and gremlins, killer forests and unforgiving gh...
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
I never get over how, in moments of crisis, you can be helped, even saved, by total strangers, whilst people you’ve known for years can completely let you down.
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Arthur Mandal @arthurmandal.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Fascinating to see the levels of enthusiasm on social media in perfectly intelligent people for things to happen to other human beings they would never want to happen to themselves.
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