Support poco.lit. with Steady!
Intruders ranges from stories about familiar monsters – werewolves and ghosts, say – to imagining technologies of the not-too-distant future – eye implant computers, for example. Even when the imagined taps into a familiar trope or figure, like the mermaid, Mashigo gives it a twist…
more...Recitatif is a writerly experiment that sees the acclaimed Toni Morrison toying with her reader as she frames an insightful commentary on racial categorizations. First published in 1983, it is famously the only short story the Nobel-laureate ever wrote.
more...Friday Black is the acclaimed first collection of short stories by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. He has a knack for locating the horror already existing in the everyday and drawing it to chilling yet strangely logical conclusions.
more...A listicle of five books set in Nigeria it’s worth checking out – from classics to less well-known newcomers, there’s some great reading here.
more...Last year, poco.lit. published some articles on Afrofuturism, Africanfuturism, and speculative fiction. This year, we’re pleased to publish some short pieces of creative writing that speculate on alternative futures on and of the African continent.
more...With a heavy sigh and an uncanny discomfort, her untrained fingers dug around the plant. Suddenly, her nostrils were filled with a pungent smell which was possibly coming from the dead leaves lying around. What she could not understand was the untimely death of the Tulsi plants in her courtyard every monsoon season.
more...Last Friday evening I tuned in to livestream the ilb’s reading with Nana Kwame Adjey-Brenyah of Friday Black, a collection of short stories that explores issues of race and social justice in dystopian near-future settings.
more...Ali’s writing is characterised by a felicitous turn of phrase. She has a way of buckling two or three words together in surprising but evocative ways, and a capacity for refreshing metaphor.
more...Jennifer Neal’s short story, “In Search of Better Skies”, was published in The Willowherb Review in 2019 and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. In it, Neal’s narrator describes the major movements of her grandfather’s life.
more...The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing’s shortlist for 2020 is out. The selection includes five short stories, all freely available via their website. It’s definitely worth checking them out. Here’s a short review of each to whet your appetite.
more...
