Swallow Publishing became aware of the prolific writer, Fabiyas M V Orumanayur, when we chose his poem ‘War and Children’ to appear in Humans in the Wild: Reactions to a gun loving country.
Just like everything in his literary canon, Fabiyas’s poem beseeches the reader to carefully consider our humanity in the throes of anger, entitlement or pain originating from the most primitive part of us.
“I want to uphold the human values in the callous, fanatic and greedy modern world,” he said during our interview about his upcoming book of short stories, Being Human.
In twenty works of short fiction, the Indian born writer takes what critics call ‘snap shots’ of his hometown of Kerala.
John Reinhart, author of Arson, dig it, broken bottle of time, was enchanted by Fabiyas’s collection when he eventually came across it after discovering the poet, first, via Moon Pigeon Press.
“While the stories here are not the poems that brought me into contact with Fabiyas, they contain many poetic phrases. There is the middle-aged woman whose ‘countenance is like a deadpan mushroom’ or ‘Friday elapsed as a yellow mango leaf fell down.’”, said Reinhart.
He added how the stories in Being Human are like a ‘story camera’ capturing loss, love, hope, fear, deprivation, and redemption.
Reinhart points out human relationships are at the core of stories, like ‘Yummy World’, in which a young girl meets an older man on the other side of the world through an online game.
Though they come from completely different worlds, they find commonality online.
“My characters in the book try to keep aloft noble minds and human virtues, even when they drown in the vast misery. All are born human, but those who live with a heart full of compassion, empathy, and love, are comparatively a few,” said the author.
Being Human is due to appear before the end of 2022, one of Swallow Books few but stellar collections of poetic short fiction.
Because editor Jennifer Russon is a two-man operation and, in fact, one of the flawed humans Fabiyas renders so well in his works, an exact date of publication is, as of yet, unknown.
Fabiyas, a truly authentic artist, has been more than patient.
“I am never peppery, Jen,” he said, “of course, I understand your situation.”
Using the pen name of ‘FABIYAS M V’ , one can find this poet everywhere. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Fabiyas was featured in a 2020 piece by the New Indian Express.
No comment