sam plays his spade and his maltesers
She walked into the room like spring came early. The kind of broad that makes men weak in the wallet. This gumshoe saw trouble. But […]
View Articleshadow of another that once was
marianna qi * Age: 27 * Gender: Female * Astrological Sign: Libra * Zodiac Year: Sheep * Occupation: hedoni
View ArticleCharacter: Sakinah-bhai
The rent money was gone. Sakinah-bhai pulled back the decaying lace curtain to look outside. The street was still empty, Razi was nowhere to be […]
View ArticleA brief intro to Basheer
(An unedited excerpt from “The daughter of no one famous”) Under the grey fleece of sunset, the muezzin called out for Maghrib. She hated this […]
View ArticleI want you to love her…
…and thank the Almighty you did not emerge from her. “If you keep giving away these pieces of your heart Mummy, what’s going to be […]
View ArticleShaira
Making space to write was one of the reasons behind my move to freelance. So far, it hasn't been working out too well. I've got a great method where I write down all the things I have to do, and then...
View Articleallergic reactions
(A piece I started years ago and rounded off today) Talk to me dammit, Say something, anything. Please. I can’t stand it when you get […]
View ArticleFree writing exercise
Via via I don’t know if this counts though, as I scrawled while (wo)manning our paper goods stall at the fleamarket on Sunday. Probably took […]
View ArticleAnd after, an overwritten rooster
At 2am, the magnificence of the night was defiled by unholy shit spewing from the house five doors away. She stuffed the comforter into her […]
View Articleof sons and daughters (pdf)
Download the complete and roughly edited first draft of this short story here
View ArticleThe Buried
It was 3 AM and I was digging a hole in the desert. Christa stood next to me. In the torch light, she was a […]
View ArticleHome Invasion
We were introduced to the Black Box writing technique by supervisors Silke Heiss and Paul Mason in an MA seminar that dealt with conceiving the […]
View ArticleThe Fare [shortlisted- African Writing Prize for Flash Fiction 2011]
[shortlisted- African Writing Prize for Flash Fiction 2011] The Fare The day wound up its mound of tangled rope. Abdou pulled on the last of […]
View ArticleWritivism 2014 Flash Fiction: No Juju That Strong
She sways and spins, her position held by hips as broad as a baobab. The feather-duster in her hand sheds ostrich plumes. They rain down hope on the woman kneeling before her. Mama Eve raises feet clad...
View ArticleWriting News: Writivism Short List and poems for Pen Powered Mic 1
The writing life is rough. Gritty as sandpaper against the skin of all four of your cheeks. Some people talk of bleeding onto pages, they’re not […]
View ArticleFiction: Moon Sonnet (A Short Story)
I submitted this short story for Short Story Day Africa 2014. This year's theme was Terra Incognita. Though I do read in the genre, writing speculative fiction is indeed unknown ground for me. My story...
View Article(Fiction) Words for Wednesday: What we did to Sara
I wrote this opening with the grand plan of developing the story through the manic mechanism of NaNoWriMo. But as I’ve come to expect every single year, I start out fizzy and end up flat. I don’t see...
View ArticleWriting News: 36 Hours [20 writers, 4 countries, 1 anthology]
My short story, The Sin-Eater, has been selected to appear in 36 Hours: 36 hours, 20 writers, 1 anthology.
View ArticleFiction Friday: Three Tellings
While editing older writings, I came across this narrative exercise from my MA coursework. For this assignment we had to take a scenario/vignette and write […]
View ArticleI Feel You
Here’s an odd little story I submitted to a local literary magazine for their ‘Siblings’ issue. It didn’t make it through to selection, and so I share this tale of strangeness with you here. I Feel...
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