Mimi Mondal

Monidipa "Mimi" Mondal is an Indian speculative fiction writer based in New York.[2] She writes in many genres, including science fiction. Mondal is the co-editor of Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler, an anthology of letters and essays, which received a Locus Award in 2018.[3] It has been nominated for a 2018 Hugo Award,[4][5] and the William Atheling Jr. Award.[6] Mondal is the first writer from India to have been nominated for the Hugo Award.[5]

Mimi Mondal
Born
Monidipa Mondal

Kolkata, India[1]
CitizenshipIndian
Education
Websitemimimondal.com

Early life

Mondal was born and raised in Kolkata, where her father worked as a West Bengal Civil Services (WBCS) officer and her mother worked at the State Bank of India. Mondal was given the nickname "Mimi" at birth, "like Bengali children usually are," she says in a roundtable interview.[1] From 2015 onwards she has primarily published as "Mimi Mondal" rather than "Monidipa Mondal".[7]

Mondal states in an online essay that her two first languages were Bengali and English.[8] She later learned Hindi, Old English, and small amounts of several other languages.[8]

Education

Mondal attended Nava Nalanda High School, Calcutta International School, and Jadavpur University,[9] receiving a B.A. in English in 2010 and an M.A. in English in 2012.[10] She received the 2013 Commonwealth Shared Scholarship in Publishing Studies and attended the University of Stirling, Scotland,[8][2][11] from which she received a Master of Letters (MLitt) in Publishing Studies in 2015.[12]

In 2015, Mondal attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle, US, where she was the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholar.[2] In 2017, she completed her MFA in creative writing from Rutgers University.[13]

"I feel like many of us are writing the stories we’d like to see! I would really like to see regional mythology, folklore from India being used in stories.... I would also like to see more traditional performances, and actually uncensored historical research reflected in stories, because so much of Indian history that we know is curated to match the idea of post-British nationalism."[1]

Career

Mondal worked as an editor at Penguin India between 2012 and 2013, and as the poetry and reprint editor of Uncanny Magazine between 2017 and 2018.[14] Her work has appeared in such venues as Tor.com, Uncanny Magazine, Fireside Magazine, The Book Smugglers, Daily Science Fiction, Kindle Magazine, Muse India, Podcastle, and Scroll.[12] Mondal is also a history and publishing scholar with a special interest in South Asian speculative fiction, and wrote a two-part history of South Asian speculative fiction for Tor.com in 2018.[15][16]

Luminescent Threads

Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler is a collection of works by more than 40 writers, issued in honor of the 70th anniversary of Octavia E. Butler's birth.[5] It is Mondal's first book-length work.[17] The anthology was co-edited by Mondal and Alexandra Pierce.[5] It consists of memoirs written as if addressed to Butler personally, mixed with more scholarly essays.[5] The title is derived from Butler's novel Patternmaster.[18]

Luminescent Threads was nominated for the 2018 Hugo Award in the category of Best Related Work,[17] and received the Locus Award for Best Non-fiction on 22 June 2018.[19] It was nominated for a British Fantasy Award.[20] It was also nominated for a 2018 William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism or Review, an Australian Science Fiction Award, being eligible for its Australian editor Pierce and Australian publisher Twelfth Planet Press.[6]

Game design

Mondal wrote the Dungeons & Dragons adventure "In the Mists of Manivarsha" in the 2022 anthology Journeys through the Radiant Citadel.[21][22] Mondal and the other writers on Journeys through the Radiant Citadel were nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Game Writing in March 2023.[23][24]

In 2022, Mondal joined Asmadi Games as a game writer.[25]

Awards and nominations
Year Award Category Work Result Ref.
2018 Locus Award Non-fiction Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler Won [3]
Hugo Award Best Related Work Nominated [5]
William Atheling Jr. Award Criticism or Review Nominated [6]
British Fantasy Award Best Non-Fiction Nominated [26]
2019 Nebula Award Best Novelette "His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light" Nominated [27]
2022 A.C. Bose Grant for South Asian Speculative Literature "Twenty-Nine Days Before Remaking the World" Won [28]
2023 Nebula Award Best Game Writing Journeys through the Radiant Citadel Nominated [23]

Bibliography

The Other People series (published anachronistically)
  • Other People (2016)[1][29][30]
  • This Sullied Earth, Our Home (2015)[1][29][31]
  • The Trees of My Youth Grew Tall[32] (2018)
  • His Footsteps, through Darkness and Light (2019)[29][33]
  • So It Was Foretold (2018)[34]
  • Learning to Swim (2017)[4][35]
  • And the Final Frontier is Heaven (2015)[4][36]
  • Things to Do after They’re Gone (2015)[37]
  • The Sea Sings at Night (2015)[38]

Anthology
  • Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler with Alexandra Pierce (Twelfth Planet Press, August 2017; ISBN 978-1-922101-42-6)[4][18][29]

Essays
  • A Short History of South Asian Speculative Fiction, Part I[15] and Part II[16] (2018)[39][40]
  • On Translating the Stories Yet Unwritten: A Dalit Perspective from India (2017)[8]
  • Missive from a Woman in a Room in a City in a Country in a World Not Her Own (2017)[41]
  • Characters Are Not A Coloring Book Or, Why the Black Hermione is a Poor Apology for the Ingrained Racism of Harry Potter (2016)[42]

References
  1. Karki, Isha (11 April 2018). "Women of Color in Speculative Fiction: A Round Table Discussion". Mithila Review. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  2. Varma, Pallavi (9 May 2018). "Meet Mimi Mondal: India's First SFF Writer Nominated For A Hugo". Feminism India. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  3. "2018 Locus Awards Winners". Locus Online. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  4. Xalxo, Jessica (8 April 2018). "To the stars and beyond: A conversation with Hugo Award nominee Mimi Mondal". She the People TV. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  5. Sharma, Swati (22 April 2018). "Hugo Nomination for Indian Writer". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 22 April 2018. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  6. "2018 Ditmar Award Winners". Locus. 2 April 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  7. "Summary Bibliography: Mimi Mondal". Internet Science Fiction Database. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  8. Mondal, Mimi (28 October 2017). "On Translating the Stories Yet Unwritten: A Dalit Perspective from India". Words Without Borders.
  9. "Kolkata girl nominated for global sci-fi award". The Times of India. 6 April 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  10. Mondal, Monidipa. "Curriculum Vitae". Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  11. "MLitt in Publishing Studies". University of Stirling. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  12. "Mimi Mondal". Uncanny. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  13. "Alumna Mimi Mondal is a Finalist for the Hugo Award". Rutgers University. 8 May 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  14. "Uncanny Staff Changes". Locus. 27 June 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  15. Mondal, Mimi (30 January 2018). "A Short History of South Asian Speculative Fiction: Part I". Tor.com. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  16. Mondal, Mimi (26 February 2018). "A Short History of South Asian Speculative Fiction: Part II". Tor.com. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  17. "Lawyer Gautam Bhatia, writer Mimi Mondal nominated for 2018 Hugo Award". Scroll. 1 April 2018. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  18. Wolfe, Gary K. (14 January 2018). "Gary K. Wolfe Reviews Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler edited by Alexandra Pierce & Mimi Mondal". Locus. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  19. "2018 Locus Awards Winners". Locus Online. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  20. "British Fantasy Society, British Fantasy Awards 2018". The British Fantasy Society. 6 July 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  21. Chapman, Matt. "Writer Interview: In the Mists of Manivarsha by Mimi Mondal". Dungeons & Dragons. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  22. Lopez, Rachel (21 July 2022). "In pics: Ancient Bengal shines in a new Dungeons & Dragons adventure". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  23. Farrell, Rebecca Gomez (7 March 2023). "SFWA Names the 58th Nebula Award Finalists". Nebula Award (Press release). Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  24. Templeton, Molly (8 March 2023). "Here Are the 2022 Nebula Award Finalists!". Tor.com. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  25. "That New Spaceship Smell". Project Updates for 1001 Odysseys. BackerKit. 28 September 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2023. Our writing crew grew this summer, please welcome Mimi Mondal
  26. "Announcing the 2018 British Fantasy Award Winners". Tor.com. 22 October 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  27. "Mimi Mondal - Past Nominations and Wins". The Nebula Awards. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  28. "Mondal Wins A.C. Bose Grant". Locus Online. 11 April 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  29. "Mimi Mondal to be Published in Tor.com!". Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers. 1 March 2018. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  30. Mondal, Mimi. "From "Other People"". Words Without Borders. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  31. Mondal, Mimi (3 February 2015). "PodCastle 349: This Sullied Earth, Our Home". The Fantasy Fiction Podcast. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  32. Mondal, Mimi. "The Trees of My Youth Grew Tall". Strange Horizons. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  33. "Writings". Mimi Mondal. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  34. Mondal, Mimi. "So It Was Foretold". Fireside Magazine. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  35. Mondal, Mimi. "Learning to Swim". Anathema: Spec from the Margins. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  36. Mondal, Mimi. "And the Final Frontier is Heaven". Kindle. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  37. Mondal, Mimi. "Things to Do after They're Gone". Daily Science Fiction. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  38. Xalxo, Jessica (9 April 2018). "Mimi Mondal Hugo Award nominee on queer writing, the marginalised and this nomination". Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  39. Yalamanchili, Pavani (18 March 2018). "South Asian Authors Nominated For Science-Fiction & Fantasy Writing Awards". The Aerogramme. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  40. Akbar, Prayaag; Mehta, Tashan; Bhatia, Gautam (30 April 2018). "Remaking the Difference: A Discussion about Indian Speculative Fiction". Strange Horizons. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  41. Mondal, Mimi. "Missive from a Woman in a Room in a City in a Country in a World Not Her Own". Uncanny. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  42. Mondal, Mimi (20 December 2016). "Characters Are Not A Coloring Book Or, Why the Black Hermione is a Poor Apology for the Ingrained Racism of Harry Potter". The Book Smugglers. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
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