- Assistant Professor
- Email: shastri.akella@uri.edu
- Office Location: Swan Hall Room 148
Biography
Shastri Akella’s debut novel, The Sea Elephants (Penguin India, Flatiron Books USA) was named a most anticipated debut by Good Morning America. He won the 2025 Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize, with judge Otessa Mosfegh calling his entry a ‘tender and haunting’ story of queer love on the Kashmir border.” Lauren Groff selected his story for the 2024 Best American Short Fiction. His stories were also winners in the 2025 Galley Beggar Prize, the 2024 William Faulkner Prize, and the 2024 BLR Goldenberg Contest. His fiction was published in 2025 in The Massachusetts Review, Black Warrior Review, and Wasafiri London.
Research
fantasy, horror, literary fiction, creative writing, film, humanities in the industry
Education
PhD. Comparative Literature and MFA Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst
Selected Publications
The Magic Bangle (2024 Best American Short Fiction)
Reva Speaks a New Dialect (BWR Summer Contest Runner-Up)
Stray Gods (BLR Fiction Prize Winner)
Poison Rivers (The Massachusetts Review)