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A fascination with twins and love of suspense stories are what drove Ruchi Mangtani to write her award-winning piece, “Ghosthood Blues.” The short story, about a ghost trying to come to grips with the twin who killed her, examines sibling comparisons, parental expectations and media tropes.
Mangtani, 19, a Menlo Park native and Menlo School graduate, said she’s been writing her entire life. She recalls carrying a little notebook around with her as a kindergartener so she could scribble down stories. In third or fourth grade, she published two picture books about twins who talk to animals.
“Ghosthood Blues” won second place for young adults in the 39th annual Palo Alto Weekly short-story competition.
“I did not … intentionally write about twins again,” said Mangtani, a freshman at Columbia University in New York City and a prospective political science and English major. “Someone pointed that out to me … and they were like, ‘Damn, you seem really interested in twins.’”
Mangtani said she’s always found the idea of having a twin interesting — “a unique experience that I’ve just been curious to explore with writing.”
Mangtani said she has gone “down random rabbit holes” about phenomena specific to twins, like cryptophasia, when twins make up their own languages. But while she doesn’t have a twin of her own, Mangtani did draw from her own life when crafting the story.
“I wanted to definitely write something that was personal to me in the way that, like there are details only I could know about,” she said. “So I wanted to write about characters who come from my culture. Because when I was younger … I would either make the characters racially ambiguous, or just make them white, because that’s what I was used to seeing.”
Now, she is “very intentional about writing about people from South Asian communities.” She also wanted to write about parental pressures. She aimed to put a spin on the “evil twin narrative” where the person who you might think is the perfect twin might not be who they seem.
Enter the 2026 Short Story Contest
The 40th annual Palo Alto Weekly Short Story Contest is a local writing competition that invites writers from across the Peninsula to share original work and be recognized by the community.
The contest includes Adult, Young Adult, and Teen categories and highlights local voices through online and print publications.
Winning stories will be recognized with contest results and selected work published online. First-place stories are published in the Palo Alto Weekly and on Palo Alto Online. This is your chance to showcase your talent and win up to $500! Entries are accepted April 6 through May 15, 2026.
Learn more at paloaltoonline.com/short-story.
In her comments about Mangtani’s winning story, contest judge Elaine Ray said “the narrator draws the reader in with biting humor, but the story is deftly layered with haunting emotion.”
One form of media that doesn’t influence Mangtani’s stories is true crime podcasts.
“I don’t consume that media, because I think usually it just disrespects the families and the victims and glorifies the perpetrator,” she said. Mangtani did create a vision board for the novella with notes from “Dark Places” by Gillian Flynn, “The Silent Patient” by Alex Michaelides, “The Whisper Man” by Alex North and “The Final Girl Support Group” by Grady Hendrix.
Mangtani’s short story is actually the first chapter in her 100-page novella, which she began in a writing class with English teacher Oscar King during her senior year of high school. She hopes to make it into a full novel and is rewriting the entire story now, she said.
“(King) was an incredible mentor … and it was such an interesting class to take,” said Mangtani, who served as a senior editor for Menlo Literary Magazine. Growing up, she also ran a blog in her free time.
“I’ve always wanted to be a novelist. I’ve always wanted to write in some form, and so I really appreciate having that channel to do that.”
It was King who encouraged her to submit the story to the short-story contest. Mangtani said she didn’t expect to win.
“I’m really glad it worked out,” she said.
Mangtani said she’s now finding inspiration from living in New York City.
“I want to stay here forever,” she said. “I am trying as much as I can to engage in the literary community here.”
Currently, she’s taking a class called “Literature on Drugs.” As its name implies, its focus is literature that was written while under the influence of various substances. “It’s a very bewildering class,” Mangtani said, “but I really enjoy it.”
Read Mangtani’s short story and view the full list of contest winners at paloaltoonline.com/short-story.
