Fiction
Beasts
We were stacked high and narrow in that terraced Victorian house. The attic contained two bedrooms, one of which always…
Broken String
Qhunna sat under a makeshift shelter, a torn tent, at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Part of the protest. It…
A Room Full of Teddy Bears
‘Your skin is beautiful — that’s why they look at you. They admire it. They are just too afraid to…
Bread and Butter
August 1977, Jaffna The year that I turned eleven, every Wednesday, when school was over, I would skip the two…
Final Effort of the Wind
This work of fiction includes graphic depictions of sexual violence that some readers may find distressing. Heat slices the…
Mother May I
I am to be a mother this weekend. The assignment came through when I was dusting the house earlier. It’s…
A Song Sung in Secret
Some still wear masks. Neither his mask nor the weight of all the years separating you can hide him from…
Wrinkle Release
Uncle wasn’t really my uncle. He was a Jamaican man who ran the laundromat down the street. My Trinidadian parents,…
Sookie Woodrow Goes to Heaven
‘I got called to prophecy on a night like this. Lonely feeling. I know you’re lonely here. But if you…
Terre Brulée
Boy-chirren different. A daughter will always be yours, but boy-child come like guava: brace yourself; it might have worm. My…
Nobody Owns a Fire
Angelo from next-door had arrived first, letting himself in through the gate in the side fence, grinning and rubbing his…
The Marriage Proposal
It was what he said about the children that made Adeline so upset she barely heard anything he said after…
Milk
I trudged home from school through dirty snow and mud. The temperatures seesawed high and low, slicking the paths. I…
The Woman Upstairs
Pei was sitting in the middle of the empty classroom, one leg crossed over the other thigh. Her hanging leg…
House No. 49
Before the posters arrived, word had reached us about a new football academy coming to town. Celestine’s father brought the…