Read

Owen had first seen her through glass, and from that angle she was distorted, belly distended as if in pregnancy, face and hips widened.

Durban, 1885 … MR KUMAR, a merchant from India, paced up and down behind the counter of his store on Water Street, blowing on a sheet of parchment and waving it in the air.

I feel as though I’ve been awake for hours or that I haven’t slept at all. But I must have. I was thinking of what you told me once about the solar plexus.

Ticker-Tape  by Rishi Dastidar reviewed by Dzifa Benson … On first encountering the idiosyncratic titles of poems on the index page of Ticker-tape (such as -  ‘Deconstructing an attempted date with Miss Pacific Standard Time’, ‘Joystick Valhalla’, ‘All the laurels in the world…

Ola Awonubi studied for an MA in Creative writing and Imaginative Practice at the University of East London and in 2008 her short story The Pink House, won first prize in the National words of colour competition.

The Cheekovit … The child is eavesdropping on her parents again. She’s seated cross-legged under the dining table, monitoring the situation in the kitchen. TUK-TUK-TUK. Tuk-tuhtuhtuh-Tuk. Tuk-te-Tuk-te-Tuk. That’s her father pounding onions and chillies for a sambal.

‘A story is active and a story changes the world. A story is changing the world as I write this.’ … An Interview with LeAnne Howe … LeAnne Howe is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, scholar, and writer of fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction and plays.

The clock says twenty five past one and the moon is full. The wind rustles the trees of our leafy suburban street and the Count in his dark cloak keeps staring lecherously at my neck from the binding of Stoker's Dracula. All we lack now is a wolf to howl.

In this convesation, Arifa Akbar speaks with Mervyn Morris, the outgoing Poet Laureate of Jamaica. They talk about his works, in particular the use of his 'Englishes'.

Rowyda Amin is the author of two pamphlets, We Go Wandering At Night And Are Consumed By Fire (Sidekick Books, 2017), and Desert Sunflowers (flipped eye, 2014).

Day in Cycle: 1 … Chance of Love: Medium … When I touch my girl’s face I could swear the bones beneath the skin aren’t the ones I gave her. ‘Lemme take your bag,’ she says, dragging it and me through the chaos of the place.

Sally St Clair's stories have been published in Stand and Panurge. Her poems have been published in various anthologies including Beautiful Dragons, and The Raving Beauties Hallelujah for 50ft Women (Bloodaxe). She has had a prize winning poem in the Arvon International Poetry Competition.

Camilla (a journalist) and Ablah (a cosmetic doctor specialising in facial rejuvenation) are having an interview chat in a spare room at Ablah’s clinic. Ablah: I’d estimate you’re thirty-three years old, from the depth of the fountain of lines between your eyebrows.

I keep trying to lose my body … I imagine the plates of food left uneaten, placed back on the counter … as soon as the kitchen had been emptied. She asked, ‘do you want to die?’ … I knew the right answer was ‘no’ … but my mouth was too dry.

Aria Aber was the joint-winner of the Wasafiri New Writing Prize for Poetry 2014. Her winning poem was 'First Generation Immigrant Child'. She lives in London. -- What are you reading right now? Muriel Rukeyser’s The Life of Poetry. Where do you write? Everywhere.

I doubt the incongruity was lost on him. The Langham in Portland Place and the BP Theatre in the British Museum are perhaps not the best places for a renowned commentator on the injustices of colonialism and its legacies in Africa to speak his mind.

Louis James was Walcott’s guest on his visit to Trinidad in 1973, discussing issues of Caribbean poetry, and watching the Little Carib Theatre group rehearse one of Walcott’s plays.

Jo Stones has lived in South London for thirty-four years, having been born and bred in Sheffield then New Zealand. She returned to study as an adult, graduated with a degree in film and works as an archivist for Film and TV.

Aurvi Sharma has been awarded the Gulf Coast Non-fiction Prize, the Prairie Schooner Essay Prize, the Wasafiri New Writing Prize in Life Writing, the AWP Emerging Writer Scholarship, and a Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award.

Twilight had come and passed over his shoulders and bent head, like a crow. *** … Ali stood on the promontory watching his house burn down, a terrestrial crown of flame within the dark blue heavens.

Anita Pati won the Wasafiri New Writing Prize (poetry) in 2013, has been a Jerwood/Arvon mentee and was one of 2015’s Aldeburgh Eight winners. Her poetry has been published in magazines and anthologies including Poetry London, The Rialto, Best British Poetry, Magma and The North.

On Memory and the Archives of Caribbean History … A Conversation with Lawrence Scott … Lawrence Scott is the acclaimed author of four novels—Witchbroom (1992), Aelred’s Sin (1998), Night Calypso (2004), and Light Falling on Bamboo (2012).

Mia Couto rarely comes to London. He is here for the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative.

Simon Van der Velde was born and educated in Newcastle upon Tyne where he trained and practiced as a lawyer, before leaving the legal profession to concentrate full time on his writing.  He now lives in Newcastle with his wife and two tyrannical children.