-
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 … -
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 …
-
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 …
-
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 …
-
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 …
-
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 …
-
Mayank Bhatt
lemon
June 1976
Is it a kiss if I suck the lemon that you sucked, too?
Masuma looked at me but didn’t answer, and then she smiled, took the lemon back from my hand and sucked it again. Her …
-
Brian Oduti
Lost
Khalid’s phone vibrated under his pillow at three in the morning. It was his friend Sema. There had been two bombings, he said. Not in Mogadishu but Kampala.
Later that day Khalid watched the scene on NTV. Red …
-
Richard Cumyn
Regrets
The great Lamar Cleveland, running back for the Riders, used to date the older sister of my best friend, Jan Vanderhoek. It was 1968. Jan and I were in the same class at school and we lived across the …
-
Charlotte Akello
Odokonyero
My waist buzzed. It was the radio tied to the belt holding up my pair of khaki trousers. The husky voice over the radio-call spoke.
…Our chief commander was captured by the government soldiers last night. We