poetry

PoetryJanuary 31, 2013

Portraits in Vermillion

By Dure Khan

by Dure Khan

PoetryJanuary 28, 2013

Threshold

By Gale Acuff

by Gale Acuff

PoetryJanuary 25, 2013

Invisible Ink

By Deonte Osayande

“I ask her if she knows how to love/ a woman with scars?” By Deonte Osayande.

PoetryJanuary 22, 2013

Poem from the Japanese

By George Freek

by George Freek

PoetryJanuary 19, 2013

Cool Water

By Reem Rashash-Shaaban

by Reem Rashash-Shaaban

Alone in BabelJanuary 18, 2013

Ruined Language, Damaged Tongues

By Ottilie Mulzet

Ottilie Mulzet on MiklÃ³s RadnÃ³ti and ‘the legacy of damaged language’

PoetryJanuary 15, 2013

Y: An Alphabetic Allusion

By Changming Yuan

A poem by Changming Yuan

PoetryJanuary 11, 2013

a ribcage drenched in dust

By Tegan Watson

by Tegan Watson

PoetryJanuary 7, 2013

Fledgling

By Nina Bennett

by Nina Bennett

PoetryJanuary 4, 2013

The Gift

By Bill Wolak

by Bill Wolak

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 womanâ€™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 dayâ€”any dayâ€”any one of us could be picked out for any reason, and we would be... Weâ€™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 couldnâ€™t be sure yet..." By Hawa Jande Golakai.