Tara Isabel Zambrano

Oct 15, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Tara Isabel Zambrano |Sally Rooney |Louise Erdrich

Parenthood and family amid the Indian diaspora, both fantastical and realistic, form the basis for this new short story collection. In each of these 40 stories, family pulls at the characters in different ways. In “Mother, False,” it’s in a fantastical way, extra hands growing out of her body after her mother dies and she must take over that role in the household.

May 30, 2024 | fracturedlit.com | Tara Isabel Zambrano

After she gave birth, she could hardly sleep because she was either leaking milk or blood, or both at the same time or because she heard every sound the baby made—the widening of his thin lips while dreaming of a past life to his little fingers opening from a fist releasing his fate, or blinking his eyes, adjusting to the light.

May 28, 2024 | tahomaliteraryreview.com | Tara Isabel Zambrano

After Baba lost his land to pay off Grandpa’s debt, the village witch gave him a bag of mulberry leaves and silkworms in exchange for Ma’s gold bangles. Thrice a day, the label read. Steeped with caterpillars and mulberry leaves, Ma gave the soup to my sister, Sana, and me for weeks until our earlobes curled, our chests swelled like cocoons, and our pores released resham.

May 13, 2024 | identitytheory.com | Tara Isabel Zambrano

I smell my mother beneath her fur. Her face is of an animal, covered in long hair, but her eyes still have that lazy, soft indolence. It’s a new moon night, the night she often chooses for her transformation. I light three candles on the windowsill of her room. One for the life that is escaping her–one for the life to come, one for the endurance when she is in between bodies. My mother has said that she cannot stay in one body. It suffocates her.

Apr 25, 2024 | gooseberry-pie.com | Tara Isabel Zambrano

Winner of First Place in Gooseberry Pie’s First Writing Contest April 2024 (tie)by Tara Isabel ZambranoCW: Domestic violenceThe thunderstorms came on suddenly that summer night, do you remember?