Munyori features poems by Uche Ogbuji, more properly Úchèńnà Ogbújí, who was born in Calabar, Nigeria. He lived in Egypt, England and elsewhere before settling near Boulder, Colorado. A computer engineer and entrepreneur by trade, his poetry chapbook, Ndewo, Colorado (Aldrich Press) is a Colorado Book Award Winner, and a Westword Award Winner (“Best Environmental Poetry”). His poems, published…
Njeri Marasi is a digital marketer, a storyteller, and a blogger at www.workandrelationships.wordpress.com. Her work has been published in Story Moja. Of herself, Njeri says, “I love observing as life happens and making meaning out of everything.” The Water Waves Dry feet by the seashore The waves break, swash! Ah! The cold, soft touch…
Eleven-year-old Veronica died in labour. Her kinsmen said that starting her period earlier than the rest of us made her a woman. Her cervix had insisted otherwise. It’s not as if I was so surprised when they married her off. Everyone admired her supple skin, her baby face, her petite frame. But be careful when…
The fiction section features a new short story by Abu Amirah, who is a Mombasa-based emerging writer and a second-year student of Psychology. He was shortlisted for the Writivism 2016 short story prize and was mentored by Yewande Omotoso during the Writivism online mentoring program ( 2017). Having attended the Miles Morland Foundation writing workshop in…
September 18, 2017— Graywolf Press has announced the Graywolf Press Africa Prize, to be awarded for a first novel manuscript by an African author primarily residing in Africa. The prize will be judged by A. Igoni Barrett, author of the acclaimed novel Blackass, in conjunction with the Graywolf Editors. The submission period will run from October 1—October…
Limbe is a coastal resort city by the black, sandy beaches of the Atlantic in the Anglophone South West Region of Cameroon. It is also where Africa’s first million dollar novelist, Imbolo Mbue was born and raised. Her debut novel, “Behold the dreamers” is partly set there. Most of the flashback in her novel also goes there. Imbolo’s very moving reminiscences of places like Half Mile, Down Beach and Isokolo, resonated with me a lot because they are all places that I lived in or visited in Limbe while growing up. Yet, no matter how neatly she paints the portrait of that clean city in her novel, it is ironically a place that she left. It is also a city which her novel’s two main characters, Jende and Neni Jonga also leave behind.
A Casualty of Power (Weaver Press, 2016) reads something like a thriller, and it is as difficult to put down, while simultaneously exploring some of the fundamental issues bedevilling post-colonial Africa. The experiences that Hamoonga Moya, the Zambian protagonist, endures will resonate with many in the sub-region. Corruption in high places and the recolonization of…
Laure Gnagbé Blédou whose short story, “I Haven’t Returned”, was shortlisted in August 2016 for Writivism short story competition, is passionate, a woman, lover, mother, daughter, sister, cousin, friend, Africa-ddict, thirty-something, impatient, Ivorian, French, human, reader, speaker, writer, demanding, citizen, vegetarian, traveller, road-trip fan, learner, book-lover, bridge-lover, chocolate-lover, music enthusiast, sharer, feminist, old-school, new-school, journalist.…
Sarah Ladipo Manyika was raised in Nigeria and has lived in Kenya, France, and England. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and teaches literature at San Francisco State University. Her first novel, In Dependence, was published by Legend Press in London, Cassava Republic Press in Abuja and Weaver Press in Harare.…
Aito Osemegbe Joseph works as a Sales Professional during the day and at dusk, writes horror stories and psychological thrillers. His short stories have appeared in ‘Brittle Paper’ and ‘Kalahari review’. He is set to publish a collection of short stories and is currently working on his debut novel. Read his Writivism-shortlisted story here.
