Authors Anil Menon and Vandana Singh are editing The Speculative Ramayana Anthology for Indian publisher Zubaan Books. They’re paying Rs. 1000 (about US$25) for stories 2,000-7,000 words long, and looking for “Stories that use the Ramayana in an essential and innovative way. As the anthology title suggests, the stories need to have an speculative element. We take speculative fiction to include sub-genres like magic realism, science-fiction, fantasy, new weird, slipstream, interstitial, etc.”
They note that they “are especially interested in stories with strong female characters and feminist perspectives. The Ramayana has generally emphasized male voices; it would be interesting to hear from other perspectives.”
The reading period runs through 1 June 2010, and the book is expected to be published in February 2011. The editors talk more about what they want, and provide a submission address, on this page. They also have links to several resources, including more information on the Ramayana.
The Ramayana is one of the two great Indian epics, originally written in Sanskrit, which depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife, and the ideal king.