Captive: New Short Fiction from Africa
Report an issue
Tell us what's wrong and we'll take a look.
Thanks – we got it. We'll review and follow up if needed.
Brittle Paper's "Anticipated African Books of 2024"
From Short Story Day Africa, eleven writers from Africa and the African diaspora explore the identities that connect us, the obsessions that bewitch us, and the self-delusions that drive us apart.
Passion and apathy, creation and destruction, honesty and deception—the blurred lines between these powerful forces are fundamental to the human condition. In three parts, the writers of Captive investigate these liminal spaces and rail against the boxes in which others seek to confine them, as writers, as Africans, and as humans.
Journey from the fantastical Heaven’s Mouth where time stands still, to a London bus where a neurodiverse woman steals love to the songs of Tom Jones . . . flip the page to Ghana to examine a fertility fetish, or a post-apocalyptic Lesotho where sentient AI uses our emotions against us . . . visit the deceptively beautiful islands off the Tanzanian coast, where the ocean is always hungry, and women pay the price. Captive is a riot of imagination, a collision of worlds, and a testament to the shape-shifting nature of the soul.
Moso Sematlane
Moso Sematlane is a writer and filmmaker living in Maseru, Lesotho. His works have been published in Nat. Brut, The Kalahari Review, and adda, the online literary magazine of the Commonwealth Foundation. His story "Tetra Hydro Cannabinol" was shortlisted for the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and his film "The Season Hyssops" won best unproduced script at the Writer's Guild of South Africa Muse. He is an assistant editor at Lolwe. Follow Moso @mososematlane.
More by Moso Sematlane
Aba Amissah Asibon
Aba Amissah Asibon is a Ghanaian writer, and is an SSDA Inkubator Fellow 2022. Her poetry and short fiction have been published in Guernica, adda, The Kalahari Review, The University of Chester's Flash Magazine, African Roar and The Johannesburg Review of Books. She has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the Miles Morland African Writing Scholarship. Aba was also long listed for the 2016 Short Story Day Africa Prize and featured in the prize's anthology, Migrations. She is a recent nominee of The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Aba's work focuses primarily on contemporary African narratives through prose, and she aims to use her writing as a platform to challenge perceptions and push boundaries. She has had her work discussed and highlighted on online magazines such as LitNet and Africa in Dialogue.
More by Aba Amissah Asibon
Zanta Nkumane
Zanta Nkumane is a writer, journalist and ex-scientist from Eswatini. His work has appeared on Okay Africa, ThisIsAfrica, Mail & Guardian, Racebaitr, Kalahari Review, City Press, Arts 24, New Frame, Amaka Studio, Doek, Lolwe, Olongo Africa, The Republic & The New York Times. He contributed essays to queer anthologies We're F**king Here (2021) and Touch: Sex, Sexuality and Sensuality (2021). Zanta is the non-fiction editor at Doek! Follow Zanta @Zanta_Nk.
More by Zanta Nkumane
Why Readwise Books?
Readwise Books is an ebook & audiobook platform that automatically logs how much you and your friends read, making it fun and easy to read more. Learn more →