Paper Prose

The other day Oma was peeing blood Crimson rivulets streaming Down the cement into the latrine I knew because she showed me She said, Mama, mama and she was quiet What is the essence of dying? Who gets to live off our suffering? Do not make room for an unwanted guest Lest he become an intruder Don’t let him stay the night Or he brings others- sickness, Pain, and Death And your house collapses And everything you have is gone Hunger is an angry thing It devours everything in its path My Oma left today I held her cold body to my thin chest Caressed the tufts of yellow hair on her swollen head I laid her near her brothers I twist the rope in my hands Obiageli! – a familiar voice I turn to the empty house- no one I walk ahead, lifting my eyes to see At last, a tall tree A relief

    The 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize is open for entries. The Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words) in English written by a citizen of a  Commonwealth country . All stories submitted must be unpublished, but both unpublished and published writers are eligible to apply. The competition is free to enter. The international judging panel comprises one judge from each of the five regions – Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Please note that while the entries will be judged regionally, all judges will read and deliberate on entries from all regions. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000. Short stories translated into English from all other languages are eligible. We also accept entries in the original Bengali, Kiswahili, Portuguese and Samoan. Download the entry and eligibility guidelines here , Submit your story via the online entry form, availab

Jalada Africa , a pan-African writers' collective, has partnered with Transition Magazine , a publication of the Hutchins Center at Harvard University to publish a collaborative issue on the theme of Fear. Materials selected for this issue will be available in print and digital editions of issue 123, forthcoming June 2017. From fear as weaponized terror, to the fear of the Other, the fear of love, the fear of death, the fear of failure, of success, of spiders, crowds, heights, closed spaces etc., fear is a diverse topic. Submissions of fiction, poetry, prose and visual art on all aspects of this dynamic force, covering themes as varied as recent global events to philosophical and fantastical treatments of the subject are welcome. 1. Each story has to be sent as a separate Microsoft Word attachment, in the .doc format (no PDFs) ad clearly labeled with the story title and the names of the writer and/or translator. 2. Make sure to include the word, “Fear” in

Hello Poets! The Brunel Prize for African Poetry (2017) is now open for entries! Prize: £3000 Deadline: December 1st, 2016 Requirements: It is open to poets who were born in Africa, or whose parents are African, or who are citizens of any African country. The poems may be published or unpublished. Poets who have self-published poetry books, chapbooks or pamphlets are allowed to submit. However poets who have already had a full-length book of poems published are not eligible. Only poems written in English will be accepted. Each entrant must submit 10 poems. No poem should exceed 40 lines. Submit your poems to BUAPP@brunel.ac.uk in a single word document attachment with a cover page that contains: Entrants' name Entrants' nationality Country of birth Full address Personal email address Telephone number The shortlist will be announced March 6th 2017. The winner would be announced on May 2nd 2017 Past winners of this prize are Warsan Shire in 2013,

Year : 2016 Director : J. Blakeson Producers : Tobey Maguire, Graham King, Matthew Plouffe, Lynn Harris  Screenwriter : Susannah Grant, Akiva Goldsman, Jeff Pinkner Cast: Chloe Grace Moretz, Nick Robinson, Alex Roe Genre : Science fiction, Thriller Based on the novel by Rick Yancey Aliens come to earth to occupy it while attacking its occupants.AWDS Cassie Sullivan, a teenager tries to reunite with her little brother, and with the aid of others, rescue the remainder of the human race. Rating: 2/5 s tars An alien ship arrives on earth, settling over Ohio, US. All is calm at first until they hit the humans with “waves” of destruction, drastically reducing the earth’s population. Their real agenda to appropriate the earth from the humans is eventually revealed, as they release the final and fifth “wave”-taking out the rest of the human race. Cassie Sullivan, on the lookout for her own life, tries to reunite with her little brother, Sam. She is assisted by Ben,

TWO FORTY-FIVE   It was undeniable that travelling was in Shile’s blood. His mother always said that even as an infant, he could scarcely always be found where he was placed, often wandering off  on hands and feet to the nearest exit. When he was barely twelve, he ran away from Ibadan to his uncle’s house in Lagos, his savings just enough for the fare. Shile had dreams of visiting every continent in the world before he was thirty. However it seemed the dream was about to be cut off, as he stared into the barrel of an armed robbers’ handgun. “You be deaf and dumb? I say bring out your money!” Typically Shile didn’t travel with cash. Even his luggage was light. He was travelling from Port Harcourt to Abuja for a wedding. “I no get money” “You say wetin? You think say we be mumu”, the masked robber pressed the gun to Shile’s temple. He felt the cold metal on his sweaty skin. The Journey had been going smoothly since they left Port Harcourt. He had decided to t