Saiyara's bio:
Raised in Queens, New York, in a Bangladeshi American household, Saiyara Khanom developed a love for storytelling at a young age, shaped by the rich blend of cultures, traditions, and stories surrounding her upbringing. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in English from St. John's University, where she further cultivated her passion for literature and creative writing.
Saiyara is especially drawn to romance, horror, and fantasy, genres that allow her to explore emotion, atmosphere, and the complexities of human connection through imaginative worlds and haunting narratives. Her work is often inspired by gothic aesthetics, folklore, and the emotional depth found in both everyday life and the supernatural. Through her writing, she hopes to create stories that linger with readers long after the final page.
You can find Saiyara online at Reedsy and Substack.
----------interview by Sue Bradford Edwards----------
WOW: What was your motivation for “The Plant that Doesn’t Die?”Saiyara: I've always been interested in the way grief and love can coexist with resentment. We often expect stories about parent-child relationships to end with forgiveness or reconciliation, but real life isn't always that simple. Sometimes someone can hurt you deeply and still leave behind evidence that they loved you in ways you couldn't see at the time.
The image of a houseplant that simply refuses to die came to me first. It felt like the perfect metaphor for a relationship that continues to exist after someone is gone. No matter how much the narrator tries to distance herself from her mother, even through neglect, the fern keeps surviving. It becomes an unavoidable reminder that some relationships don't disappear just because we wish they would. I wanted to explore the quiet space between anger and forgiveness. The story doesn't ask the narrator to absolve her mother. Instead, it asks whether she can acknowledge that love may have existed alongside hurt. To me, that's a more honest ending.
WOW: And that honesty is vital in hooking our readers. Flash fiction is all about choosing what deserves space in the story. We don’t know the POV character’s name, but we know the plant is a fern. How did you decide what to include and what to omit?
Saiyara: When you're writing flash fiction, every sentence has to do more than one job. I knew early on that the emotional center of the story wasn't the narrator's identity, but it was her relationship with the fern and what it represented. Giving her a name wouldn't deepen that relationship, so I chose to leave it out. I wanted readers to focus on the emotional distance between mother and daughter rather than on biographical details.
The fern, on the other hand, deserved specificity. Calling it "a plant" felt too generic. Ferns have this reputation for being resilient and quietly persistent, which mirrors the role the plant plays in the story. Naming it made it feel like a real object instead of a symbol. Throughout revision, I kept asking myself whether each detail revealed character, moved the story forward, or strengthened the emotional impact. If it didn't, it probably didn't belong.
WOW: That's a fascinating way to consider each detail. Who will your character leave the fern to when she passes? Why this person?
Saiyara: I'd like to think she leaves it to someone who doesn't carry the same emotional history she does; perhaps a niece, a neighbor's child, or even a close friend. Someone who would simply see it as a beautiful fern instead of a complicated inheritance. I imagine she'd tell them only that it's important to keep it alive. By then, the fern would no longer represent unresolved grief. It would represent endurance. The idea that care can outlast the people who first offered it. In that sense, she'd be passing along not just a plant, but a story that has finally become lighter to carry.
WOW: What a good answer! What piece of writing are you working on now?
Saiyara: Lately, I've been drawn to stories and poetry that blend the emotional with the uncanny. I'm currently working on fiction that leans into psychological horror and gothic atmosphere, exploring how memory, identity, and fear can shape the way people experience ordinary places. I love writing stories where the supernatural isn't just there to frighten the reader, but to reveal something true about the characters. I've been mostly working on short stories and novellas, but I hope to complete some novels in the near future. But no matter the genre, I hope readers always have something to take away from my writing.
WOW: What question do you wish I had asked? How would you answer it?
Saiyara: Question: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
Answer: I don't necessarily hope readers walk away with a particular message. Instead, I hope they recognize a feeling. Most people have a relationship that doesn't fit neatly into categories like "good" or "bad." We carry love, disappointment, gratitude, anger, and grief all at once. If the story encourages someone to sit with those contradictions instead of trying to resolve them, then I feel it has done its job. I think some of the most meaningful stories don't provide answers, but they simply make us feel understood.
WOW: That's a great insight! Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to share all of this with our readers. Reminder: You can find Saiyara on Reedsy and Substack.
