M. L. Krishnan originally hails from the coastal shores of Tamil Nadu, India. She has been awarded Fellowships and Residencies from Tin House, MacDowell, Millay Arts, and the Clarion West Writers Workshop. Her stories and essays have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Strange Horizons, Black Warrior Review, Diabolical Plots and elsewhere. Her work has been anthologized in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Afterlives: The Year’s Best Death Fiction, Wigleaf Top 50, Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions and more. You can find her at: mlkrishnan.com.
Her BNW-winning story “Measurements Expressed as Units of Separation” originally appeared in The Crawling Moon: Queer Tales of Inescapable Dread (Neon Hemlock).
BRAVE NEW WEIRD is out now! You can order it here.
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Give us the elevator pitch of your BNW-winning story.
Set in a remote South Indian college, "Measurements Expressed as Units of Separation” is a circuitous, queer love story about obsessions that fester, a snake, a long-forgotten prince, and a large body of water.
This world is friggin' Weird in a lot of ways right now, and many of those ways are not the fun kind. What secret tips can you share to help others navigate this mess on a daily basis?
I’m going to say it, because I’m terrible at it: staying off social media. The days I put a moratorium on relentless scrolling and actually commit to anything else that does not involve a screen, are the days where my brain breaks free from the incessant guilt-doom-guilt-doom-guilt-doom hamster wheelies. This is how I remember that I’m still a human person, and not an anxious swarm of wasps trapped in a meat suit.
Gotta say, Guilt Doom Hamster Wheelies is a great band name.
Do you take naps?
I do, and I always feel less-rested and worse after taking a nap.
Ah, a human after my own heart! “This isn’t making me feel better, but if I keep doing it I can at least learn to ignore how unpleasant it is.” It’s a can’t-lose-don’t-research-further solution.
On the Tenebrous Discord board, we ask everyone to introduce themselves as a Film-meets-Music Artist (Citizen Kane x Metallica, f’rinstance). It doesn’t have to be your favorite, and don’t spend too much time overthinking it; now GO.
I didn’t even have to think about this, my hands moved on their own. Only Lovers Left Alive x INXS.
What's the capital-W Weirdest thing that's ever happened to you (that you're comfortable sharing)?
When I was a kid, I rode an elevator at a construction site that was not completely installed. It was not connected to any source of power. I stepped into it with the ignorance and bravado of an average ten-year-old, pressed the button for the fourth floor, and it took me up to the fourth floor. I remember my parents panic-screaming as they ran up the (unfinished) stairs. I remember that I was too short for the stairs that were laid too far apart, and that’s why I stepped into the elevator in the first place. I remember being grounded for an entire month. I was fine. I took the partially-installed, disconnected elevator. It worked for me.
I remember that elevator. I’m still in that elevator!
…we’re all still in that elevator. We always were. We always will be.
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BRAVE NEW WEIRD: The Best New Weird Horror + More, Vol. 3, is out now!
