leela raj-sankar
writer (she/her)
order HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE, published with Fifth Wheel Press in June 2023
order SYMPTOM DIARY, published with Ghost City Press Summer 2023
selected publications
- "THE SUMMER MY CITY BURNED," Overheard - flash fiction (contest winner)
- "aubade after migraine cluster," Gastropoda Lit - poetry (nominated for Best Of The Net)
- "the person you love is 72.8% water," Rejection Letters - poetry
- "Rate Your Pain On A Scale 1-10," Full House Literary - prose poetry
- "Grief's Front Porch," Fahmidan Journal - creative nonfiction
readings
- reading "for ahmaud arbery," "motel bathroom soliloquy," and "graduation party," at Gaia Rajan's BIPOC Teen Poetry Reading
- reading "wasting disease," "aubade after migraine cluster," "quantum mechanical damnation," "THE SUMMER MY CITY BURNED," and more at Roi Fanéant Press April 2022 Reading
- organizer and host of a virtual reading for disabled youth poets, featuring Brishti Chakraborty, Yasmine Bolden, Audrey Snow Matzke, Zoey Leonard, and Jessica Kim
about
Leela Raj-Sankar is a teenage writer from Arizona. She's an incoming freshman at the Georgia Institute of Technology, majoring in Biomedical Engineering. She writes poetry and short prose. She's a poetry reader for Farside Review and editor for Renaissance Review. She's a three-time Best of the Net nominee, a two-time Pushcart nominee, and the winner of Overheard Lit's pop-up flash fiction contest. In her spare time, you can usually find her watching bad television or taking long naps. Her debut chapbook HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE was published with Fifth Wheel Press in June 2023, and her microchapbook SYMPTOM DIARY was published as part of the Ghost City Press 2023 Summer Series. Say hi to her on Twitter @sickgirlisms.
all publications
2023
- "How I Wrote This: An Interview With Mariya Kika", COUNTERCLOCK
- "How I Wrote This: An Interview With Carina Solis," COUNTERCLOCK
- "CHROMATIC SCALE," Empty Room - radio play
- "pantoum for blonde," HAD - poetry
2022
- "Harmonic Series," Inksounds Collective (reprint) - prose poetry
- "Subdural Hematoma," Lumiere Review - fiction (nominated for Best of the Net)
- "Blue Diner, 2:32 AM,"antinarrative zine - prose poetry
- "You, Yourself, and Newcomb's Problem," Peach Magazine - flash fiction (August Peach Seed feature)
- "Love Poem with Spaghettification" and "Cape Canaveral," fifth wheel press - prose poetry and poetry (nominated for the Pushcart Prize)
- "andromache" and "Nuclear Winter, Fated Death," Global Youth Review (reprint) - poetry
- "diary entry with failing pen," streetcake magazine - prose poetry
- "The World Is Ending And I Am Buying Groceries," Dishsoap Quarterly - poetry
- "KISSING BLACKTOP," Filter Coffee Zine - creative nonfiction
- "Scrubland," the borderline (reprint) - flash fiction
- "Dream Journal #3," tiny wren lit - poetry
- "Night Driving," boats against the current magazine - poetry
- "Grief's Front Porch," Fahmidan Journal - creative nonfiction / prose poetry
- "Rate Your Pain On A Scale 1-10," Full House Literary - prose poetry
- "Featherweight Champion of the Year" and "Harmonic Series," Zero Readers - poetry and prose poetry
- "THE SUMMER MY CITY BURNED," Overheard - flash fiction (contest winner)
- "NOTES ON HOW TO LOSE A WINNING HAND," CLOVES Literary - prose (nominated for Best of the Net)
- "I only believe in God every second Saturday," Overtly Lit - flash fiction
- "Scrubland," Idle Ink - flash fiction
- "quantum mechanical damnation," Ram Eye Press - poetry
- "my dad says i have an infinite capacity to forgive & yet," Black Stone / White Stone - poetry
- "PEACH YOGURT," celestite poetry - prose poetry
- "i comma nothing," Brave Voices Magazine - poetry
- "Brown Girl Through The Looking Glass," The Gamut Mag - creative nonfiction
- "Of The Flesh," Yuzu Press - flash fiction
- "aubade after migraine cluster," Gastropoda Lit - poetry (nominated for Best of the Net)
- "February Sonnet," The Minison Project - poetry
- "the person you love is 72.8% water," Rejection Letters - poetry
- "Nosebleed Seats," Second Chance Lit - prose
- "groundhog day," perhappened mag - poetry
2021
- "Nuclear Winter, Fated Death," warning lines - poetry
- "SECOND GENERATION ANTI-LOVE LETTER," Marías At Sampaguitas - poetry
- "wasting disease," Mixed Mag - poetry
- "pyrhhus at the houseparty," ULTRACREPIDZINE - flash fiction2020
- "letters to my mother about french braids and other assorted metaphors," ang(st) zine - poetry
- "elegy for the spoiled milk carton on the kitchen counter," Red Bean Press - prose
- "october love song," Lumiere Review - poetry
- "unfinished one-act play in which the audience refuses to cheer," Stone of Madness Press - poetry
- "breakup texts signed 'best regards,'" ayaskala magazine - poetry
- "dead man's float," Ghost Heart Lit - poetry
- "heatwave lockjaw," and "tunnel of love," Analogies and Allegories - poetry and prose
- "insomniac paints a self-portrait in the dark," Serotonin Poetry - prose
- "andromache," and "dinner in which the body is still warm," Ex/Post Mag - poetry
- "motel bathroom soliloquy," perhappened mag - poetry
- "for ahmaud arbery," Burning Jade Magazine - poetry
honors
- Winner of Overheard Literary's 2022 Flash Fiction Contest
- Nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology for "aubade after migraine cluster" (poetry), "NOTES ON HOW TO LOSE A WINNING HAND" (prose poetry), and "Subdural Hematoma" (flash fiction)
- Nominated for the Pushcart Prize for "Cape Canaveral" (poetry), and "Ghost Town's Lament" (poetry)
- Recipient of Scholastic Gold Key for "Grief's Front Porch" (personal essay & memoir)
- Recipient of Scholastic Silver Key for "Ghost Town's Lament," "letters to my mother about french braids and other assorted metaphors," and "Notes on How to Lose a Winning Hand"
collections
- "Heat Death of the Universe," Fifth Wheel Press (print & digital)
- "Symptom Diary," Ghost City Review (digital)
- "More than 'just a sick girl': A Review of Heat Death of the Universe by Eleanor Ball," Stone Pacific Zine