TJ Benson, whose “Waiting for Beauty” we feature in hour fiction section,  is a male Nigerian short-story writer whose works have appeared in the 14th issue of the Sentinel Literary magazine, the Kalahari Review, Myne Whitman, Aspire.org.ng. He works as a columnist for the online magazine afrisphere.com.  He was published in the annual Contemporary Literary Review, India,  and he started an art journal for young artists  at kaanem.com. He was also  recently selected for the Yasmin Creative-Writing workshop and his debut novel, The Color of Silence, awaits publication.

 Beauty comes once in a year, so I am always prepared. I sweep up the cobwebs from the cave in my skull where my brain used to be and grease my rusty heart with parched smiles at myself, so that I can feel again. Lights bounce off the slimy wet floor from the window to the far end of this enclosure, this hollow, a corner I have never ventured to since I found myself here. I had decided staying in the shadows would be safer, away from the merciless rays of light that would search me and find the blackness I have become. READ THE WHOLE STORY.