Guest Editor: Sacaria Joseph
The Pomegranate & The Promise is a montage of thirty flash fiction pieces – specifically, mini-sagas – twenty-eight of which were written by students of the Department of English at St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata, and two by their Creative Writing guide. These fifty-word narratives are stories distilled to their most potent form, woven with threads of suspense, mystery, irony, and the subtly unsettling. Here, a single line holds the power to ignite terror, profound tenderness, or a timeless truth. These are complete, compact narratives that crack open the ordinary to reveal the extraordinary and uncanny within the human experience.(Pomegranate & The Promise)
The mini-saga, as a form of fiction, was invented by British science fiction writer Brian Aldiss and popularised by The Daily Telegraph in the 1980s. The newspaper held annual competitions, inviting the public to submit their micro-fiction – each exactly fifty words long, excluding a title no longer than fifteen characters. Winning entries were featured in print and later anthologised, securing the mini-saga’s place as a celebrated literary form defined by its extreme brevity.
Despite its brevity, a mini-saga follows the full structural arc of a story – a beginning, a middle, and an end. Through precise writing that employs sharp narrative turns, powerful symbolism, vivid imagery, and deliberate wordplay, it provokes thought and evokes emotion. Every word, symbol, and image must earn its place, ensuring that the narrative remains cohesive, engaging, complete, and meaningful. The result is a story that lingers long after it ends – brief in form, boundless in impact.(Pomegranate & The Promise)
The mini sagas in this two-volume anthology – fifteen stories in each – were conceived and written as part of a creative writing course during the fourth semester of the English Honours programme at St. Xavier’s College. They steer you through themes that are uncanny, melancholic, ironic, and quietly profound. A forest road, a lost album, a ticking watch, a whispering voice from beyond the grave – here, the ordinary shimmers with an eerie glow.
Some stories twist like a knife; others bloom with sorrow. A few leave behind a sly smirk you did not see coming. Whether a ghost story, a crime thriller, a psychological sketch, or a social satire, each mini-saga stands on its own – yet together, they delve into the fallibility of perception and the unreliability of memory, love, safety, and truth.(Pomegranate & The Promise)
These stories draw their punch from psychological ambiguity, temporal disruption, and the instability of identity. From spectral echoes of grief to chilling encounters, they capture the fragility and strangeness of human experience. Compact yet resonant, these sagas form a cross-stitch of existential unease, challenging our certainties and inviting deep reflection.
The anthology’s title, The Pomegranate & The Promise, drawn from the opening and closing stories, invites readers into a liminal realm where the uncanny brushes against the ironic, where shadows whisper, and the past clings like an uninvited guest.
Created within an academic framework, these stories reflect both the formal discipline required by the mini saga and the boundless imagination of young writers. Personally, guiding my students through the art of flash fiction – especially in this distilled form – has been one of the most intellectually, emotionally, and aesthetically rewarding parts of my academic life.(Pomegranate & The Promise)
As I celebrate their creativity and commitment, I invite you to step into these miniature worlds. Each one is a transitory yet unforgettable encounter with characters and moments that will surprise, unsettle, and move you – proving that the briefest tales can create the deepest impressions.
