Apoorva Mittal (they/she) is a queer author from northern India. They write stories that break the monolith of the desi diaspora and present desi queerness in all its twisted beauty. In a previous life, they were a software coder, but now only writing they do is creative or critical scholarship.
They are the recipient of the 2023 Miranda Merklein Award for Graduating Fiction Writer, 2022 Emerging Artists Award from the Partners for the Arts, 2022 Stanley Hauer Award for Excellence in Teaching, and 2022 Joan Johnson Award for Fiction. They have received support in the form of scholarships and travel awards from the Center for Writers and the College of Arts & Sciences at University of Southern Mississippi, Roots Wounds Words, and Southwest Popular/American Culture Association. They are a 2023 Roots Wounds Words Retreat for Storytellers of Color Fellow, 2022 Lambda Literary Fellow for Fiction, and an alum of 2022 Tin House Winter Workshop.
They have taught community workshops through C4W. They have served as Editor for Product Magazine, Assistant Translations Editor for LUMINA, and Assistant Editor for Mississippi Review.
Their work can be found or is forthcoming in The Rumpus, Catapult, and Electric Literature and elsewhere. Currently, they are working on multiple projects, including a collection of linked short stories that centers on the life of a dyke, who has to move back to her regressive hometown in order to help raise her sister’s child.
Apoorva currently homes in Ohio with their partner-by-marriage and a chocolate Labrador, Jake Barnes, the River Dog, where they teach undergraduate and graduate fiction at Ohio University. They can be found on Twitter @MittalWrites and on Instagram @mittalwrites.
