March was Women's History Month, in which we celebrate women’s contributions to history, culture and society. This year’s theme is “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories”, acknowledging the women—both past and present—who have been active in all forms of media and storytelling. This year, my readings have taken me all the way to Zimbabwe with …
Continue reading Truth-telling through Surrealism in Yvette Ndlovu’s Drinking From Graveyard Wells
Originally published in the Sunday, February 12th, 2022 edition of the Stabroek News Photo of Akwaeke Emezi Akwaeke Emezi used to intimidate me. They have bounced from genre to genre, storyform to storyform, leaving ground-breaking and provocative work in their wake since their debut novel Freshwater shook the literary world in 2018. Since then, they …
Continue reading Love and Loss Collide in Akwaeke Emezi’s You made a Fool of Death with your Beauty
Originally published in the Sunday, November 13th, 2022 edition of the Stabroek News In 2019, two African MFA students—Yvette Ndlovu from Zimbabwe and Shingai Kakunda from Kenya—met while studying in the United States. Appalled by the lack of resources for and about Black speculative writers in their programmes, the two would frequently dream about creating …
Continue reading Voodoonauts Presents: (Re)Living Mythology – A Collection of Alumni Writing
Originally published in the Sunday, October 2nd, 2022 edition of the Stabroek News Dear friends,The best craft happens when writers are safe, well-fed and comfortable. Currently, Teri Clarke (aka Zin E. Rocklyn) is trying to start a newer safer life so that she can meet her basic physical, emotional and mental health needs. But she …
Continue reading Monstrosity is Self-Defence in Zin E. Rocklyn’s Horror Stories
Originally published in the Sunday, September 4th, 2022 edition of the Stabroek News Sometimes the perfect book just happens to find you, ticking all the boxes you want for a review even before you knew those boxes needed to be ticked. I have been hearing the name Darcie Little Badger floating around the literary landscape …
Originally published in the Sunday, August 7th, 2022 edition of the Stabroek News “What is life if we don’t repeat our stories?” - Boubacar from “Liquid Twilight” by Ytasha Womack I am always mindful about what I want to review for Emancipation Day. It’s important to continually re-examine the history of slavery and colonisation, and …
Continue reading Africa Risen: A showcase of African speculative fiction
This week was burnout week for me. My mind just veered off course, plunged over a cliff right into hyperfocusing on Horizon: Zero Dawn and Horizon: Forbidden West. I absolutely enjoyed playing Zero Dawn and watching the gameplay for Forbidden West. Both games taught me a lot about story and worldbuilding that I think I …
Soursop Fruit, a known writer's block cure. Image from Things Guyana I will be honest. Week 4’s prompt genuinely scared me when it dropped. We were tasked with writing a flash story in the form of pure dialogue between two speakers who aren’t human. I spent a full day in a swirl of dread. Dialogue …
Writing went a little smoother for me this week. I had fewer distractions and more time to write and was thus able to push myself a little bit more. The prompt for the flash workshop this week was to write a letter that speaks truth to someone powerful. As soon as I saw the prompt, …
Sisterhoods and motherhoods are complicated affairs, filled with love and joy as well as chaos and betrayals. The Mothers by Brit Bennett is a book that shows these complex relationships by following the lives of three young African Americans and exploring how their connections with their mothers – biological, adoptive, or just the elderly church …
Continue reading Love, Shame and Betrayal in Brit Bennett’s The Mothers
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