If you want a ‘mangai’ you should get it yourself micro fiction by author Sudha Subramanian. Published Temple in a City literary journal Enter Leaving issue

If you want a ‘mangai’ you should get it yourself micro fiction by author Sudha Subramanian. Published Temple in a City literary journal Enter Leaving issue

Your mother and brother don’t know what to do with your sugars. On a summer’s evening, the air heavy with your loss, they bring them to me in a box. Icing sugar in a Tupperware, as if you’d packed …

Amazon.com: The Invisible Lines: 9789347216633: Subramanian, Sudha: Books

We learned to paint our mouths kissable, but were taught not to. By the parish priest, by our mothers, by Seventeen magazine. Never on the first date, never more than one boy at a time, never below the neck. We practiced on the mirror and at slumber parties. When boys scratched on the window, we giggled and shivered. Only Lana slipped out, came back smeared and tight-lipped, full up with stories she wouldn’t tell us. At school on Monday, we lipsticked the mirror in the third-floor girl’s room: LANA SUCKS. Later we all learned. Later we all did it. --- Sarah Freligh is the author of eight books, including HEREAFTER, winner of the 2024 Bath Novella-in-Flash contest, and OTHER EMERGENCIES (Moon City Press, 2025). 'Lipstick' was first published in 100-Word Story in 2021.

Badi Dadi lived in an old village-style house with an open courtyard, surrounded by rooms, kitchen, and storage areas on all sides. Any wall...

My sister sells her body when she hits middle age. Ovaries first. She sprinkles wildflower seeds in the empty spaces, waters them until they...

As babes, you toddling with the cleaver, your Ma yelling. As fresh pupils, you whispering the answer, us caned by Sister Adele. As fourth gr...

It was a time when Seetha Chithi’s house on Ranganathan Street, T.Nagar, one of the hottest retail hubs of Chennai used to be the only plac...

(TW - Sexual Misconduct) Amma narrates the legend of Honamma for the millionth time as you make your way to the temple. Last week, a sharp ringing of a bicycle bell interrupted the tale as a man in a ...

I wish I could choose between the two. A sunbird couple has been busy the past week, picking, hovering, and weaving together a home to welcome their little ones. The mynas perch on my windowsill, s…

I lie because I don’t want my insurance rates to go up, because he has my family history right in front of him where it says both my parents died of lung cancer. Even if he’s too polite to say it, …

Paati has put the TV on in the back room to keep us kids out of the way of the prayers. On the veranda, Appa sits shirtless before the homam fire chanting in Sanskrit after the priest. An ancient…

Creative nonfiction Driving To the Next Thing While Neurodiverse by author Sumitra Singam. Published in Temple in a City literary journal.

Flash fiction Desert squall by author Sudha Balagopal. Published in Temple in a City literary journal.

otherwise, he will call me, or I will call him, and we will talk about his allergies, his prostate, his knees and elbows. He will ask about my day and I’ll tell him what I cooked. “Do you really kn…

otherwise, he will call me, or I will call him, and we will talk about his allergies, his prostate, his knees and elbows. He will ask about my day and I’ll tell him what I cooked. “Do you really kn…

Temple in a City literary journal