Martyrs of the Chalice | Immaculate Halla
(cover photograph direction: Victor Akhere) My sister was pregnant. For four months now. I’m the one who sleeps with Makrina in the same bed, but I didn’t know it…
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the shallow tales review
415 posts
When the Dead Return Home | Ndakotsu Abubakar
(cover photograph direction: Victor Akhere) When Edati’s husband rises from his grave, Edati welcomes him with a sullen face. She is displeased that he rises late. From the information Iya…
Three Poems | Ber Anena
(cover photograph direction: Victor Akhere) The Wall When we saw skyscrapers gleaming in the distance, we dug our heels harder into the ground; cheered our bodies to conquer the…
The Making of a Messiah | Salama Wainaina
(cover photograph direction: Victor Akhere) Salama Wainaina is a Kenyan writer and poet who explores human connections by weaving personal reflections and the nuances of everyday life. Her work has…
Majd | Dacious Kasoka
(cover photograph direction: Tobi Amida) Dacious Kasoka is an economist, poet, and machine learning engineer. A 2023 Best of the Net nominee, his poems have been published and are forthcoming…
Archive ‘24 | Star Zahra
(cover photograph direction: Tobi Amida) Today, it rains somewhere in Africa. A light bulb flashes weakly on and off. A door opens into tomorrow, But no one enters. …
Rebirth | Marvellous Mmesomachi Igwe
(cover photograph direction: Victor Akhere) These waters could cure anything, I swear. Forget the world and its insistence to conquer. Forget all those teeth. Forget the rejection that had…
The Chapel Choir | Olobo Ejile
(cover photograph direction: Tobi Amida) for Muyiwa In this solemn melody of the chapel choir, that carries the ghostly silhouette of his lover, who long passed on — his tears…
Dead Meat | Michael Inioluwa Oladele
(cover photograph direction: Victor Akhere) Three hours after I cross the Atlantic, my sixty-year-old mother falls to her feet. A Good Samaritan dials the last number she called, but I…
The Poetics of Silence | Wash-Anigboro Harry
(cover photograph direction: Victor Akhere) Beneath the tongue of silence. The heart’s attic collects dust of unsaid things, And forgotten stars—light bleeding Into the margins of darkness. Poetry blooms…