ISSUE 23
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Amatoritsero Ede
Bruce Gilley and the Language of Stupid
Africa has been in trouble since 1441 when the Portuguese sailors, Antão Gonçalves and Nuno Tristão, “threw down rusted anchor” in Cabo Branco on the coast of modern Mauritania, went on land, …
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Patrick Chuka
Life in Pen and Pencil
Amatoritsero Ede: Why do you work in pencils or Ink rather than acrylic colours?
Patrick Chuka: I prefer working with graphite and charcoal pencils because it is such a flexible medium, you …
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Jacqueline Larkin
After
“I’m pregnant.”
There is silence on the line.
“Hello?”
“Yeah.” His voice finally comes, sounding thick.
“Did you hear what I said?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.” I wrap my fingers around a strand of hair and pull—a long-standing habit of … -
Adam Dickinson
The Body as Bacteria
(Scholar-Poet, Amatoritsero Ede, in conversation with Adam Dickinson , Poet and Scholar)
Amatoritsero Ede: Since your well-received first collection, Cartography and Walking in 2002, you have issued out other works, including Kingdom, Phylum (2006) …
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John Sainsbury
Lord Rochester is Dying: A Comedy
Prologue: Aphra Behn
The centuries fall away. We live to see
England merry after war’s murd’rous spree.
Foul Cromwell’s head rots on a spike. Hail Charles!
Your regal smile supplants a tyrant’s snarls.… -
Natalya Polyakova
A Letter to Jealousy
Dear Jealousy,
I hope this will be the first and only time I address you. They say do not talk to your enemies, destroy them. But what if they live inside your head? Therefore I …
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Nilofar Shidmehr
Celebrating My Namelessness
Not a rainy or stormy day. Neither is there full sunshine. This is an ordinary day, with no distinguishing mark. There is absolutely nothing about this day that would make you remember it later. The day …
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Abimbola Adebayo
Avalanche
Not only does she take Chudi’s wonder drug in desperation to cure her obesity, she also resolves to coke and molly, and lands in a psycho ward. Apart from being overweight, she is bullied at school. She resumes …
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David Frank
The Robeson Connection
We were parked on the street, at a sharp angle to the curb. It was the only street I knew where you could park this way. It was as if you had just pulled into place …
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Sonia Saikaley
Basil, Not the Spice
Carcasses of goats or sheep hung from wooden stalls covered with jute sacking. I walked through the marketplace. There was a mix of smelly fish, fruits, vegetables, flatbreads, woven seat-covered chairs, antiques, trinkets, jewellery, clothes …