Guest Editors Jo Maenzanise, Roopa Farooki & Kevin Mwachiro
Joyline ‘Jo’ Maenzanise is trans nonbinary. Their words have found homes in publications such as Hedone, HOLAAfrica, Adventures From the Bedrooms of African Women, Pink News, Healthline, Well+Good, Broadview, Verywell Mind and Kickoff (an online fitness coach).
Jo also edits fiction and non-fiction. Some works they’ve edited include children’s and adults’ novels, cover letters, personal statements and research proposals.
When they are not doing their best to keep up with the rising cost of living, Jo loves to sleep, listen to music, watch TV. A nice stroll around the neighbourhood where they get to imagine how good and peaceful it must feel to own a home does them good too.
Dr Roopa Farooki is a writer and internal medicine doctor for the NHS. She is the author of six novels with Macmillan and Headline that have been translated into over a dozen languages, a series of middle-grade medical-themed children’s books for Oxford University Press, and a memoir on pandemic medicine for Bloomsbury.
Her writing has been awarded the John C. Laurence Award and an Arts Council Award and has been nominated three times for the Women’s Prize. She is also a lecturer on the Master’s in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford and the Ambassador for Family Counselling for Relate, the counselling charity.
Kevin Mwachiro is a writer, podcaster, journalist and queer activist. His professional media and communications practitioner career is over 20 years old. Kevin’s first book is Invisible – Stories from Kenya’s Queer Community. He was part of the editorial team for Boldly Queer – African Perspectives on Same-sex Sexuality and Gender Diversity. Kevin’s most recent work of fiction is the short story ‘Number Sita’, published in the anthology Nairobi Noir. His play, Thrashed, is part of the Goethe Institut’s ‘Six and the City’ collection. Kevin also writes articles and opinion pieces for several media platforms and is published in various cultural journals. Kevin is a cofounder of the Out Film Festival, the first LGBTQI film festival in East Africa.
