Writing

Stories that sit
at the edge of
the possible.

Swetha Siva is a fiction writer and poet whose work moves between speculative and literary modes — rooted in South Asian landscapes, queer longing, and the systems that shape who gets to tell their story.

She holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from the University of Miami and has taught creative writing at the university level. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in publications including It Gets Even Better: Stories of Queer Possibility, Out of Print, Dust Poetry, and Particle magazine.

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Published Work

Cover of Goldspun by Swetha S. Published

Goldspun

Meraki Press

Every story started with a prayer to the gods — except mine. In fact, a peasant's story wasn't written at all. But I was going to change that.

A peasant girl born into a world that denies her the right to read or write finds an unlikely ally in Aavirai, a scholar who defies the royal family to give her the one thing that could change everything: the Golden Kurinji flower. As the royal family hunts them across the kingdom, the two must complete an impossible task or lose their lives — and everything they've fought for.

A story about who gets to be a scholar, who gets to hold power, and what it costs to defy the order you were born into.

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Novel in progress

Leave Now and Return Tomorrow

A literary speculative novel set in Then Madurai, a fantastical Tamil city suspended between past and future. The story follows Veera through a choose-your-own-adventure structure — branching paths, contested histories, and a city that remembers differently depending on who you ask.

Completed at 91,000 words. Currently in revision.

Short Fiction

Chock full of speculative elements and mommy issues.

unchartered territories

It Gets Even Better: Stories of Queer Possibility — Speculatively Queer

2022

The Moon

Particle Magazine, Autumn Issue 15

2020

My Old Hometown

Out of Print Magazine

2019

Poetry

Queer, feminist, and meant to be screamed into a void.

Parambarai

Dust Poetry Magazine

2021

Voices

Variety Pack Literary Magazine, Issue II

2020

Teaching

University of Miami

ENG 209 — Speculative Creative Writing

An undergraduate creative writing course exploring speculative modes — science fiction, fantasy, horror, and the uncanny — as tools for writing about the present. Students read across a range of speculative traditions and developed original work through guided critique.

2022 – 2025

University of Miami

ENG 290 — Beginning Fiction Workshop

An introductory fiction workshop grounded in close reading and Socratic discussion. Students developed short fiction across multiple drafts, with emphasis on building community in the classroom and learning to give and receive substantive feedback.

2022 – 2025