Fiction Summer Supplement 2022 September 26th, 2022 University of Iowa International Writing Program Africa Cohort The Pledge: Noka's Story by Keamogetswe Bopalamo n the curb, she is alone. In a scoldingly cold, familiar place. Before this moment, she was considered “risen”. People who had once looked down on her and compared her to the Messiah they demonised now looked at her in awe and venerated her. But, as with the Messiah, whose truth they had massacred, telling him he was ...
Read MoreFiction Summer Supplement 2022 September 26th, 2022 University of Iowa International Writing Program Africa Cohort The Mess by Olukorede Yishau During the years when we were both Demola’s women, the one thing I marvelled at was how Idera and I never ran into each other. The bus 472 route from Thamesmead went through Woolwich where she lived with her children. I boarded it nearly every day. We lived a mere 25 minutes apart and I’m certain that we ...
Read MoreFiction Summer Supplement 2022 September 26th, 2022 University of Iowa International Writing Program Africa Cohort Mamas' Bodies by Chinaza Ebere Eziaghighala hioma was flipping through the Pilot newspaper, relaxed in her chair, hair packed in a bun at the nape of her neck, in her red suit and trendy mule sandals, when the same overwhelming discomfort she had felt for days now welled in the pit of her stomach, again. It was like the feeling that comes with ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #10: Women's Health April 22nd, 2022 April 22nd, 2022 Promises Like Dolls by Jenna Jacobs hen I was seven I was promised motherhood with baby dolls. Hold them gently to your chest and don’t shake them awake and always love them no matter how much they may silently cry. When I lost my first pregnancy I was held up as a strong Goddess, carried by outstretched arms of close friends and further family. The ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #10: Women's Health April 22nd, 2022 April 22nd, 2022 A Sound Heart by Tajwar Taher hump-thump. Thump-thump. The sound of Isabel’s heartbeat, pulsing through the arch of an ear smashed down against her pillow, woke her up. Eyes blinking away fading sleep, she stretched her arm out towards the cold, other half of her bed. Her fingers curled around her phone. She brought it up to her face. 9:24 AM. She sighed. The girls were gone ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #10: Women's Health April 22nd, 2022 April 22nd, 2022 Fiction Server Not Found | Megan Wildhood Magnetic Resonance | Monica Anderson In the Chillest Land | Cristina Legarda A Dreadful Case | Barbara Ridley Breaking Free | Alice Shaw
Read MoreFiction Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 Server Not Found by Megan Wildhood verything takes longer than you think, except life. My daughter and I have matching crow’s feet after only thirty-six years. We both have mysterious knuckle calluses that Western medicine chalks up to aging. We started getting stiff and sore from sleep at forty-two; we both thought it was too soon. I thought I passed down a strong memory from ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 A Dreadful Case by Barbara Ridley he day started off well enough. Ryan was gone until late afternoon, playing racquetball with his work buddies in Mountain View, but Maddy was content. She welcomed some time alone, catching up on emails, replying to the guy from the Center for Independent Living about their campaign to improve the local transit system’s elevators, and reviewing the agenda for ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 Breaking Free by Alice Shaw rominent Western Cape physician arrested for contravening COVID regulations. I could just imagine the potential headlines. Even the sky was red that morning as I pulled up in my Jeep. My mother and dear grandfather were waiting on the sidewalk outside her cottage, Irene draped in a bright sarong and Oliver stooped over his cane. Irene had painted her lips ...
Read MoreFiction Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 In the Chillest Land by Cristina Legarda ust outside this operating room a dozen people are waiting to cut my daughter open. They want to take her heart out of her chest and give it to someone else. Lungs, liver, and kidneys too. And bowel? Did I hear that right? I didn’t even know they did that. They’re going to cannibalize her for parts like ...
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