• 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

Roving Eye, Spotlight

Poet of the Month: Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé

By Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé, Jacob Silkstone

“I like poetry best when its meaning is at its most fluid…” In our July Poet of the Month interview, Poetry World Cup winner Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé talks to Jacob Silkstone.

Read More
Literature, Poetry

Excerpts from Kangarewe & Wittgenstein’s Whoopee Cushion

By Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé

A selection of new work from Poetry World Cup winner Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé.

Read More
Alone in Babel, Arts & Culture

Poetry World Cup Final: Singapore-Pakistan

By Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé, Mehvash Amin

Welcome to the Poetry World Cup final!

Read More
Alone in Babel, Arts & Culture

Poetry World Cup: Meet the semi-finalists

By Ali Znaidi, Bryan Thao Worra, Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé, Mehvash Amin

“Our readers are in for a treat and will find thought-provoking verse that pushes words to the very limit… Who can ask for anything more?” Catch up with the Poetry World Cup semi-finalists!

Read More
Alone in Babel, Arts & Culture

Semi-finals: Tunisia-Singapore

By Ali Znaidi, Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé

The first semi-final of the Poetry World Cup.

Read More
Alone in Babel, Arts & Culture

Quarter-finals: Trinidad & Tobago-Singapore

By Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé, Vahni Capildeo

The second quarter-final of the Poetry World Cup.

Read More
Alone in Babel, Arts & Culture

Round 2: Singapore-Cyprus

By Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé, Nora Nadjarian

Will Singapore and Cyprus be in the headlines again after today’s match?

Read More
Alone in Babel, Arts & Culture

Round 1: China-Singapore

By Changming Yuan, Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé

A flavour of the Far East in the seventh match of the Poetry World Cup.

Read More
Alone in Babel, Arts & Culture

Poetry World Cup 2014

By Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé, TMS Staff

A full overview of The Missing Slate’s 2014 Poetry World Cup along with links to live matches.

Read More
Poetry

gǎn qíng yòng shì :: impulsive and impetuous

By Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé

Poem of the Week (April 9), by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé

Read More
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 [email protected].

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