Strange Fires

Within each of us is a strange fire—a way we burn which is uniquely ours, a heat that defines us, forges us, drives us, liberates us. Strange Fires is a richly diverse collection of queer speculative short fiction, starring pagan gods, psychic violinists, telepathic pyromaniacs, rebellious priests, gender-bending time travelers and fairy-tale villains. Each of these characters is driven by their own fire. Some yearn to understand; some to transform; some to be bound; some to be free.

Pooja Mittal Biswas is the author of nine books of fiction, poetry and non-fiction, with her ninth book, a collection of poetry, due to be released by Cordite Books in 2023. She has been reviewed and interviewed in The Age, The Australian and ABC Radio National’s The Book Show, and has been anthologized in both The Best Australian Poems and The Best Australian Poetry. Pooja has written for Writer’s Digest and has been widely published in literary journals such as Meanjin, Cordite, TEXT, Hecate and Jacket. Biswas is currently pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Sydney, where she was awarded the Stanley Sinclair Bequest Scholarship for poetry. She is a sessional academic teaching Creative Writing at the University of Sydney, and she also teaches several writing courses of her own design at Writing NSW, Writers Victoria and the University of Sydney’s Centre for Continuing Education. She has been invited to speak at literary festivals such as the Emerging Writers’ Festival and the National Young Writers’ Festival. While still living in New Zealand, she was selected as the country’s national representative for UNESCO’s Babele Poetica project.