Captive: New Short Fiction from Africa

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.⁠

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.⁠

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.

N. A. Dawn writes essays, poetry and literary speculative fiction, chiefly concerned with ecological politics and the prickly problem of human flourishing. He holds a BA in English Literature and Environmental Science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and has been featured in New Contrast Literary Magazine and Short Story Day Africa. He is known for philosophical digressions, drumming on everything, producing improbably vivid sound effects with his mouth, and for someone who spends so much time at a desk, his roundhouse kicks are actually quite nimble.⁠ Follow Nick @nadawnauthor⁠.