Announcing:
The May Thornwillow Dispatch
"The Infamous Bengal Ming"
by Rajesh Parameswaran
“The object of my love wasn't another tiger at all.
I was in love with my keeper, Kitch.”
Dear friends of Thornwillow,
It gives us great pleasure to present the next Thornwillow Dispatch: "The Infamous Bengal Ming", a beautiful and disturbing story by exceptionally talented author Rajesh Parameswaran. Praised by the Washington Post as “a genuinely distinctive voice in American fiction,” in this tale Parameswaran takes us inside the mind of a lovesick tiger who escapes the zoo and narrates his own unforgettable journey. Brace yourself for an adventure that compels us to question whether it is ever possible to change who we are and to escape our nature.
"The Infamous Bengal Ming" is available for pre-order via subscription to the Thornwillow Dispatch until April 27th, 2023. EST in three letterpress printed limited editions:
- Classic Edition: Copies bound in letterpress paper wrappers
- Patrons’ Edition: Volumes featuring deluxe engraved paper wrappers
- Centaur Patrons’ Edition: Hardbound in cloth and decorative paper boards*
Patrons’ and Centaur Patrons’ Editions will also be individually numbered and signed by the publisher.
*Available only to Centaur Patron subscribers to the Thornwillow Dispatch
About Rajesh Parameswaran:
Rajesh Parameswaran was born in Chennai, India, but moved to the United States when he was an infant. His family spent time in Michigan before moving to Houston, where he spent most of his childhood. Parameswaran studied English at Yale and went on to graduate from Yale Law School. Although he never practiced law, he worked as a law clerk for a federal judge while establishing himself as a writer of fiction.
Rajesh Parameswaran's first short story collection I Am an Executioner: Love Stories appeared in 2012 and was immediately recognized as a masterpiece of the genre. His characters are explosive, funny, and wildly original. They inhabit a marvelous region between desire and death, playfulness and violence. At once glittering and savage, daring and elegant, his wholly unforgettable tales loop and twist the power of love and desire and shine with surprise and delight.
Parameswaran’s stories have appeared in McSweeney’s, Granta, Zoetrope: All-Story, Five Chapters, and Fiction. His Story “The Strange Career of Dr. Raju Gopalarajan” was one of three stories for which McSweeney’s earned a National Magazine Award in 2007. In addition, he has been honored with fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars & Writers, the MacDowell Colony, the Ucross Foundation, the Santa Maddalena Foundation, and Yaddo.
