‘Not a Day for Outings’: A winner of the Book Review Literary Trust Short Story Contest

The 2025 Book Review Literary Trust Short Story Contest is now accepting submissions. The contest is being held on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary celebrations of The Book Review Literary Trust.

The previous edition of this contest was held in 2020. In addition to awarding the winners, a collection of the best entries was published in the anthology, The Thief’s Funeral: The Book Review Anthology of Short Stories, edited by Sucharita Sengupta, Chandra Chari, and Uma Iyengar. It was published by the Aleph Book Company in March 2024.

Here is an excerpt from one of the winning stories, ‘Not a Day for Outings’ by Armaan

Sayma called out to Razia, to join her for an airing as she checked on the state of the flower beds. She had been pointlessly struggling to revive her pitifully weak chrysanthemums, the latest phalanx of flowers that had remained staunchly wilted and failed her. But she loved them nonetheless. Sayma envisioned her flowers shielding her from the corruption and dirt surrounding her – a fortress with petals for ramparts.

She knew that Razia, on the other hand, shared none of her fantasies; for most of the day, her hands clutched a pen and her eyes were trained on...

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