• ABOUT
  • PRINT
  • PRAISE
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • OPENINGS
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • CONTACT
The Missing Slate - For the discerning reader
  • HOME
  • Magazine
  • In This Issue
  • Literature
    • Billy Luck
      Billy Luck
    • To the Depths
      To the Depths
    • Dearly Departed
      Dearly Departed
    • Fiction
    • Poetry
  • Arts AND Culture
    • Tramontane
      Tramontane
    • Blade Runner 2049
      Blade Runner 2049
    • Loving Vincent
      Loving Vincent
    • The Critics
      • FILM
      • BOOKS
      • TELEVISION
    • SPOTLIGHT
    • SPECIAL FEATURES
  • ESSAYS
    • A SHEvolution is Coming in Saudi Arabia
      A SHEvolution is Coming in Saudi Arabia
    • Paxi: A New Business Empowering Women in Pakistan
      Paxi: A New Business Empowering Women in Pakistan
    • Nature and Self
      Nature and Self
    • ARTICLES
    • COMMENTARY
    • Narrative Nonfiction
  • CONTESTS
    • Pushcart Prize 2017 Nominations
      Pushcart Prize 2017 Nominations
    • Pushcart Prize 2016 Nominations
      Pushcart Prize 2016 Nominations
    • Pushcart Prize 2015 Nominations
      Pushcart Prize 2015 Nominations
    • PUSHCART 2013
    • PUSHCART 2014

Arts & Culture, Special Features

Poems Against Borders

By The Missing Slate Editors

“A moment of seeing and speaking to each other through and against the fences…”
The Missing Slate’s February 2017 online poetry issue.

Read More
Arts & Culture, Special Features

Editors’ Picks of 2016

By The Missing Slate Editors

From Leonard Cohen to literary translations, a hip hop artist to a Hollywood musical, bildungsroman to the passing of a great art critic, The Missing Slate’s 2016 picks reflect a year of diversity and nostalgia.

Read More
Pushcart Prize, Writing Contest

Pushcart Prize 2017 Nominations

By The Missing Slate Editors

The Missing Slate’s six nominations for the 2017 Pushcart Prizes.

Read More
From the Editors

Public Statement: Allegations of Plagiarism against Redscar McOdindo K’Oyuga

By The Missing Slate Editors

Detailing allegations of plagiarism against Redscar McOdindo K’Oyuga.

Read More
Arts & Culture, Special Features

Saboteur showcase 2016

By The Missing Slate Editors

Showcasing the best work from the 2016 Saboteur Awards.

Read More
Arts & Culture, Special Features

I Dream in Inglish

By The Missing Slate Editors

“Poetry permeates borders, defies categorization, brings its light into the darkest of corners…” The Missing Slate’s February 2016 online poetry issue, edited by The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective.

Read More
Arts & Culture, Special Features

From the Margins to Centre Stage: A Sangam (Confluence) of Three Indian Women Poets

By The Missing Slate Editors

“Poetry is, and has always been, the art of uttering multiple truths in a single line. It’s a celebration of plurality, of contradiction… Poetry compels us to confront uncertainty. That makes it the very antithesis of the fundamentalist impulse…” A Sangam (confluence) of three Indian women poets, featuring Arundhathi Subramaniam, Meena Alexander and Priya Sarukkai Chabria.

Read More
Arts & Culture, Special Features

The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective: Building Community Through Poetry

By The Missing Slate Editors

“In the U.S… it’s easy to feel like a non-entity in the publishing world which is still dominated by cishet white men (though some aspects are changing). In India, what I’ve experienced is almost the opposite, a lot of openness and welcoming of new ideas…” A roundtable discussion with the members of The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective.

Read More
Arts & Culture, Special Features

the absurdity of the cosmos: 12 bolivian poets in translation

By The Missing Slate Editors

“Perhaps — is this just a fantasy? — the poets of Bolivia form one small part of a worldwide movement in which nations as we know them disappear, along with progressive “developmentalist” thinking, to leave only the pure flow of cash, art, and ideas.”
The Missing Slate’s January 2016 online poetry issue, edited by Jessica Sequeira.

Read More
Arts & Culture, Special Features

Editors and Contributors’ Books of 2015

By The Missing Slate Editors

The Missing Slate’s 2015 round up of the books that helped define our year.

Read More
1 2 3 Next
Ad

In the Magazine

A Word from the Editor

Don’t cry like a girl. Be a (wo)man.

Why holding up the women in our lives can help build a nation, in place of tearing it down.

Literature

This House is an African House

"This house is an African house./ This your body is an African woman’s body..." By Kadija Sesay.

Literature

Shoots

"Sapling legs bend smoothly, power foot in place,/ her back, parallel to solid ground,/ makes her torso a table of support..." By Kadija Sesay.

Literature

A Dry Season Doctor in West Africa

"She presses her toes together. I will never marry, she says. Jamais dans cette vie! Where can I find a man like you?" By...

In the Issue

Property of a Sorceress

"She died under mango trees, under kola nut/ and avocado trees, her nose pressed to their roots,/ her hands buried in dead leaves, her...

Literature

What Took Us to War

"What took us to war has again begun,/ and what took us to war/ has opened its wide mouth/ again to confuse us." By...

Literature

Sometimes, I Close My Eyes

"sometimes, this is the way of the world,/ the simple, ordinary world, where things are/ sometimes too ordinary to matter. Sometimes,/ I close my...

Literature

Quarter to War

"The footfalls fading from the streets/ The trees departing from the avenues/ The sweat evaporating from the skin..." By Jumoke Verissimo.

Literature

Transgendered

"Lagos is a chronicle of liquid geographies/ Swimming on every tongue..." By Jumoke Verissimo.

Fiction

Sketches of my Mother

"The mother of my memories was elegant. She would not step out of the house without her trademark red lipstick and perfect hair. She...

Fiction

The Way of Meat

"Every day—any day—any one of us could be picked out for any reason, and we would be... We’d part like hair, pushing into the...

Fiction

Between Two Worlds

"Ursula spotted the three black students immediately. Everyone did. They could not be missed because they kept to themselves and apart from the rest...."...

Essays

Talking Gender

"In fact it is often through the uninformed use of such words that language becomes a tool in perpetuating sexism and violence against women...

Essays

Unmasking Female Circumcision

"Though the origins of the practice are unknown, many medical historians believe that FGM dates back to at least 2,000 years." Gimel Samera looks...

Essays

Not Just A Phase

"...in the workplace, a person can practically be forced out of their job by discrimination, taking numerous days off for fear of their physical...

Essays

The Birth of Bigotry

"The psychology of prejudice demands that we are each our own moral police". Maria Amir on the roots of bigotry and intolerance.

Fiction

The Score

"The person on the floor was unmistakeably dead. It looked like a woman; she couldn’t be sure yet..." By Hawa Jande Golakai.

Back to top
One last love letter...

April 24, 2021

It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.

But… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth.

We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…

Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature.

If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at maryamp@themissingslate.com.

Farewell, fam! It’s been quite a ride.