Meet NUNUM'S Contributor: Mandira Pattnaik

NUNUM

Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Interview with Mandira Pattnaik

Mandira Pattnaik gave NUNUM a brilliant piece of flash called 'Unknot' for our Fall 2021 issue, and after reading it we were so looking forward this interview.

By now everyone knows how this starts, so we'll just get straight to it.

Mandira, what is the first book that you remember reading all by yourself?

Little Women.

Well that is a first, interesting. What about more recently, what was the last book you read that made you say damn that was a good book?

Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island.

Ah, that is a new one for me, thank you. What about when you are on holiday Mandira, who are your go-to writers when you need something to read on holiday?

​I read anything I fancy, preferring to pack in books on themes

that I might be interested in at that moment/working on. I’ve read travelogues, history, thrillers, brilliant bugs, space, really whatever that enthuses me.

What writer(s) or which book(s) influenced your decision to become a writer?

James Joyce, R.K. Narayanan, Arundhati Roy.

Which contemporary writer do you most admire?

Since I predominantly write flash, I admire contemporary flash writers like Nuala O’Connor, Kathy Fish, and also Lydia Davis. 

Is there a writing craft book that you would recommend to new writers?

I am not very drawn to craft books of any nature and on any subject. But there are a lot available and new writers can certainly read them.

Is there a writer who has influenced your current writing style?

No. I write essays, poems and hybrid too, and I do that precisely to be as varied as I can in both my style and approach, without any influences or set expectations of myself.

Pen, pencil or phone, which one do you reach for when you need to write something down?

Pen and paper, always!

​

Why write flash fiction?

The form is interesting. My first publication was a poem, many years ago! But when I started to write again, I was immediately attracted to the flash form and its possibilities.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting to send their work out to journals?

Read the journal you’re sending work to,

read what your contemporaries are writing, and finally, cultivate a unique way of looking at ordinary things.

Can you tell us something about “Unknot”?

It’s about a young girl called Nikki trapped in the circumstances of her life. She can see how she has a chance to escape her entrapment, but is repeatedly unsuccessful.

What was the inspiration behind it?

​How certain phases of our lives are sometimes like

concentric circles from where we wish to escape but can’t. This idea, where one returns to where one started, influenced this piece.

​Looking forward, what are your goals?

I’d like to keep writing as I’m doing now. I think I’ve been massively fortunate in the way my work is being received right now, and want to keep doing it.

Mandira Pattnaik is an Indian fiction writer and poet published

in print and online in over 150 journals/magazines across fifteen countries. Her writing features in Best Small Fictions 2021, Passages North, DASH, Miracle Monocle, Timber, Watershed Review, and Press53, among other publications. Pushcart, Best of the Net and Best Microfictions nominated, her fiction has been translated and highly commended by editors including Honorable Mention in CRAFT Flash Contest 2021, and Litro Summer Contest 2021. 

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