Shortlisted stories

Uncle wasn’t really my uncle. He was a Jamaican man who ran the laundromat down the street. My Trinidadian parents,…

‘I got called to prophecy on a night like this. Lonely feeling. I know you’re lonely here. But if you…

Boy-chirren different. A daughter will always be yours, but boy-child come like guava: brace yourself; it might have worm. My…

Angelo from next-door had arrived first, letting himself in through the gate in the side fence, grinning and rubbing his…

It was what he said about the children that made Adeline so upset she barely heard anything he said after…

I trudged home from school through dirty snow and mud. The temperatures seesawed high and low, slicking the paths. I…

Pei was sitting in the middle of the empty classroom, one leg crossed over the other thigh. Her hanging leg…

Before the posters arrived, word had reached us about a new football academy coming to town. Celestine’s father brought the…

The first woman is pulled from the water by a fisherman. She is so perfectly preserved and lifelike, as if…

Bel isn’t surprised when her mother slams the door: she’s always dramatic; she loves to make a scene. It’s one…

When I stepped out of our home to move to the new school in the city and choked on the…

It’s 5pm. The white car pulls out of the yard onto the road. Baba sits beside Fadi in the back…

His name is Harry Joseph, and he is a decorated scholar. Over his sixty-two years of life, he has published…

‘Chances are that bright light is one of Musk's satellites.’ Aloe dropped this bit of trivia while arcing his finger…

On the internet, on certain websites, there are pictures and videos of a version of me. * Her real name…

I The day after her baby boy was stolen from the maternity ward, Achan was featured on the evening news.…