Writing
Quiet and yet charged with an emotional urgency, Erika's stories set out to remind us of the fragility of the human condition.
Whether set on the tea estates of Assam, a train charging through the Bengal countryside, or the rain-slicked streets of London, her stories reach out to anyone who has ever felt caught in a liminal space between two worlds.
Erika is currently putting together a collection of short stories. She is also working on a novel set in eighteenth century Bengal and England.
Publications and Prizes
Winner: Harpers Bazaar Short Story Prize 2025
‘Christopher’
‘A sensitive and wryly amusing tale about two childhood friends crossing paths after years living in different countries.’
-Judges’ Comments
‘This story tells you so much about class, about race, about colonialism. Short stories always have this tension of the acclomplishment of language versus the acclomplishment of form. This has both.’
-Ben Okri, Judge
Shortlisted: The Bristol Short Story Prize 2026
‘Two Lads On a Delhi Street’
Somewhere in the distance, he hears shouts and cries. The air is sharp; an early winter sun spills over the streets. A row of cycle rickshaws stand against the railings of the park that lies between Humayun Road and Rishi Road. Beyond this, the traffic of the city is a gentle hum. He passes a narrow alleyway where five young men are smashing a wooden door. He pauses and realises with horror it’s the entrance to a Sikh Gurdwara where Sukhi’s family would visit to pray every week.
At the beginning of the summer of 1986, my parents separated. My mother and I left the flat on Gurusaday Road where I’d lived all my life, to stay with my grandparents on the opposite bank of the Hooghly River in the district of Shibpur. As we sat in the taxi, Ma told me that at the end of the holidays, I wasn’t going back to my school.
Published : ‘Same Same But Different’ an Anthology of Short Stories (2021)
Highly Commended: Bridport Short Story Prize 2020
‘She Came To Stay’
‘A luminous tale about a lodger’s impact on an immigrant family.’ -Angela Readman, London Review Bookshop
Shortlisted: The Bristol Short Story Prize 2020
‘Marvellous Real’
Around Action Man’s waist was a thin plastic belt with a tiny metal buckle. Gopal sat on the hot cement and undressed Action Man, carefully unbuckling the belt, slipping off the vest. He smoothed his fingers over the contours of the toy’s limbs, the hinges at its hips, the ambiguity between its legs. He dressed it again and sat it down with its legs wide apart to eat an imaginary meal.
Other Prizes and Publications
Published anthologies
Erika’s short fiction has been published in anthologies and journals and she has won and been listed for awards including the Fish Short Story Prize, Plaza Prize, Bridport Prize, RSL V.S Pritchett, Lorian Hemingway, Bristol Short Story, BBC National Short Story and London Short Story Prize.
Literary Musings
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