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Fiction & Poetry

Date Name

Desc Asc

“She rightly read the moment while I stumbled through a second-hand text.” – Jeanette Winterson But second-hand texts lay…

By Carol D'Souza

April 5, 2021

Murderously simple thing

SPREAD. BUT NOT READ I feel like you walk over me, all over me, Your gait was long and…

By Jessica

April 5, 2021

Jessica Singh’s Poetry

A picture of a rainbow coloured heart hanging on a wall

The thing about crushes, is that eventually they stop being that. I’m not saying love dies or anything, I’m just saying, that Love never was and sometimes it takes a few months of tumbling across perfumed bedsheets

By Breton Lalama

February 1, 2021

Poem: ‘The thing about crushes’

A black and white picture of a person’s legs folded in the form of v

All I have known of loving men is emotional labour, And by that, I mean back-breaking, soul-sucking toil, Oh, the relief of carrying nothing but yourself, Oh, the relief of taking nothing but pleasure from their sex

By Malini Gopalakrishnan

February 1, 2021

Poem: ‘A debauchee’s ode to self-love’

1. A Certain Type of Life since the age of 16 I idealised a certain type of life involving certain…

By Nhylar

July 1, 2020

Poems by Nhylar

You speak in so many tongues to me as you journey languorously down my body.

By Damini Kulkarni

May 1, 2018

Two Poems: ‘Tongue’ & ‘Names’

I want to 377 you so bad (and Other Poems)

Abstract painting of a distorted face outlined with bold lines

i want to 377 you so bad till even the sheets hurt i want to ache your knees singe your…

By Akhil Katyal

June 17, 2015

I want to 377 you so bad (and Other Poems)

an abstract painting of various shades of green and blue

Girl, when you blow your boy, or boy, when you go down on her, or when both of you use…

By Akhil Katyal

October 1, 2014

Poems

Black and white picture of a child covering their face

tender lips that had forgotten, momentarily, the taste of mother’s milk and couldn’t tell the silence of the womb from…

By Mukesh

February 1, 2014

Poem: Age 7

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Themes

In Plainspeak publishes two issues with a theme every month. A cross-cutting theme across all issues is how we can expand safe, inclusive self-affirming spaces.

CURRENT ISSUE:

June 2023: Body and Sexuality

The body has never had one solitary meaning throughout human history. As an accurate or misread marker of identity, it impacts how sexuality plays out. How can the body be both the focus of violence as well as a site of resistance against it? In what ways is it linked to desire and pleasure? How are bodies – especially marginalised, subaltern bodies – policed, and how do individuals assert themselves in self-affirming ways? How do popular ideals about body image, ability, and gender identity help or hinder taking control of sexual and reproductive health and rights? In this issue of In Plainspeak, we seek to explore these and other topics around the body and sexuality.

UPCOMING ISSUES:

July 2023: Food and Sexuality

August 2023: Comprehensive Sexuality Education

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