Shikhandin is the nom de plume of an Indian writer who writes for adults and children. Her published books, as Shikhandin, include "Immoderate Men" (Speaking Tiger), and "Vibhuti Cat" (Duckbill Books), and another forthcoming in 2020. Prior to that a novel and a short story collection were published. Shikhandin's accolades include, pushcart nominee by Aeolian Harp (USA) 2019, winner 2017 Children First Contest curated by Duckbill in association with Parag an initiative of Tata Trust, winner Brilliant Flash Fiction Contest 2019 (USA), runner up Half and One Short Story Competition (India), Shortlist Erbacce Poetry Prize (UK), first runner up The DNA-OoP Short Story Contest 2016 (India), 2nd Prize India Currents Katha Short Story Contest 2016 (USA), winner Anam Cara Short Fiction Competition 2012 (Ireland), long list Bridport Poetry Prize 2006 (UK), finalist Aesthetica Poetry Contest 2010 (UK), Pushcart nominee by Cha: An Asian Literary Journal 2011 (Hong Kong). Shikhandin's work has been published worldwide. Notably in HuffPost India, Scroll.in, Asia Literary Review (Hong Kong), Eclectica (USA), Per Contra (USA), Markings (Scotland), Himmal Magazine (Kathmandu), Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine (UK), The Nth Position (UK), Mascara Literary Review (Australia), Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (Hong Kong), Stony Thursday (Ireland), The Little Magazine (India), Out of Print (India), Sybil's Garage (USA), Pushing Out the Boat (Scotland), South: A Journal of Poetry (UK), Off the Coast (USA), Etchings (Australia), Going Down Swinging (Australia), Scoundrel Time (USA).
Life will become meaningless if I cease to write. There will be no reason to live. I am not happy when I don't write. I have nowhere else to go. If I cease to write I cease to exist.
Everything fuels my creativity: the world around me, the world within and also the world/s I do not know and do not understand.
It's a wide range: Franz Kafka, Hermann Hesse, Alberto Camus, Charles Dickens, Anton Chekov, Gerald Durrel, TS Eliot, Ane Sexton, John Keats, Jayanta Mahapatra, Kiran Desai, Anita Desai, JRR Tolkien, Jack London, Earnest Hemingway, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, John O Hara, O'Henry, Alberto Moravia, RK Narayannan,Thomas Hardy, Ursula Le Guin, Steinbeck, Balzac, Walter De La Mare... The list is pretty long.
Some of the most memorable books, can't say favorite because there are just too many: A Lesson Before Dying, Gone With The Wind, The Left Hand of Darkness, David Copperfield, Bleak House, The Little Prince, The Old Man and the Sea, almost all of Marquez and Hesse's works, ditto for Kafka and Camus. The Inheritance of Loss...
Let me be the first to welcome you here. Hope to see some of your stories here soon. It's an exciting place.
Let me be the first to welcome you here. Hope to see some of your stories here soon. It's an exciting place.