short stories
Pant has won several international and national awards for her short stories, which include the Frank O'Connor International Award, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and the FON South Asia Short Story Award. Among her short story collections are THE TROUBLE WITH WOMEN (Juggernaut, 2016) and HAPPY BIRTHDAY (Random House India, 2013), which was selected among the ‘World's Top 10 Most Memorable Short Story Collections’ by Wikipedia.
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Due to her clarity in writing and poignant narrative, her short stories have been published in over a dozen literary magazines globally. These include prestigious journals like Guernica, Wasafari, Avatar Review, Eclectica, EGO, QLRS, Every Day Fiction, Six Sentences, Muse India, Reading Hour, Pothi, DifferSenses, The Bombay Review, QLRS and The Indian Quarterly, as well as in several anthologies including Namita Gokhale's THE HIMALAYAN ARC, where her story Boongthing was critically acclaimed by all major publications, including The Hindu and Hindustan Times. Pant is known for having abridged the world’s longest epic, The Mahabharata, into one hundred tweets that The Guardian reviewed as ‘wonderfully descriptive and paced’.
01
PEOPLE OF THE SUN
(WINNER OF THE 2016 FON SOUTH ASIA SHORT STORY AWARD)
Panchangam threw the coke
can on the ground. There was a sound of crunch as the red can hit arid land.
Click to read - ​Kitaab
03
GECKO ON THE WALL
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I stare in confusion at Dipti
and Choti standing outside my front door.
Click to read - ​​Eclectica/Wasafiri
05
CHICKEN ON THE TREETOP
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It's after waking up that Jamie realizes his bag has been stolen
Click to read - ​​QLRS
07
HOOPSTERS
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We enter a narrow muddy path with jhopadpattis on both sides.
Click to read - ​​News18
09
DOLL HOUSE
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Uncle tells me that he has two gifts for me: a pink doll and a red lollipop.
Click to read - Cosmopolitan
11
I AM MAN
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They think he knows something, these people do. But he doesn’t.
Click to read - ​​The Bombay Review
02
FAMILY DINNER
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They are at dinner at the hotel when they hear the first sound of gunfire.
Click to read - Every Day Fiction
04
FLURT
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“Can I tell you something?”
Porus leans over and asks.
Click to read - ​​Avatar Review
06
BOONGTHING
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New husbands are like burrs: they stick, they irritate, and they’re mostly unwanted
Click to read - ​​The Indian Quarterly / Helter Skelter Magazine/ Vogue
08
THE GOOD HUSBAND
(SHORTLISTED FOR THE DNA-OUT OF PRINT SHORT FICTION COMPETITION)
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The digital clock is blinking its red numbers: 3:45 pm.
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Click to read - DNA
10
31B
The brown-and-yellow steel snake slithered to a screechy stop at the Churchgate dock.
Click to read - ​​Pothi
100 TWEET MAHABHARATA
Pant rewrote The Mahabharata, the world's longest epic, in 100 tweets, as part of the international Twitter Fiction Festival (2013). The Mahabharata is the world's longest epic and poem. It contains more than 74,000 verses, around 200,000 lines and about 1.8 million words.
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Pant's tweets caught the attention of international and national media. India's biggest newspapers and online portals –– The Times of India, The Hindu, The Indian Express, The Asian Age, CNN-IBN, Mid-Day, The Hindustan Times, The Deccan Chronicle, The Financial Express, DNA, Sakal Times, Pune Mirror, Rediff.com –– covered the story. The event also received international exposure with the Oprah Book Club mentioning it on Twitter and The Guardian (UK) publishing: “Somehow, Meghna Pant has managed to contain all of the dynamics of power struggle, war, love, lust and greed in her 140 character tidbits. Wonderfully descriptive and paced.”
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Pant has been invited as a speaker to national conferences like Young Makers Conclave and #RiseWithTwitter to speak about the impact of The Gita and The Mahabharata on corporate leaders and women.
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LEADERSHIP LESSONS THE GITA TAUGHT US (SHETHEPEOPLE)
http://www.shethepeople.tv/leadership-lessons-the-gita-taught-us-by-meghna-pant/
