The Shallow Tales Review
@ShallowTales
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Curating the finest writings in African and Black Literature, for the world. Editors: @NzubeNlebedim @ambivalentrants @BubeOrji @youceeanaekwe
Lagos, Nigeria
Joined May 2020
Issue 22 | June 2025 is live. This mid-year edition features writers from Nigeria, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Morocco, with a conversation with Ghanaian-American novelist, Nana Ekua Brew Hammond (@nanaekua). Read full issue on the website. A&P: David “Obiefuna” Obi (@davidobi_).
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Instructions for Surviving Your Blackness | Christian Emecheta. finally: remember that your existence/ is an act of rebellion,/ your joy is inbuilt,/ your success a middle finger/ to every system designed/ to erase you. Read full poem from link in bio.
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“The novel, then, becomes a vehicle I use not only to satisfy a number of personal questions, but also whether or not I’ve understood what I’ve learnt about the form.” — @mntshanga (Two Dollar Radio)
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The Blue Fighter | @S_S_Kundizeza . I wanted to stand with him, to protect his dreams as I had for years. But the truth pressed against my chest, demanding release. I looked down at my hands, betraying him with my silence. Read full story in bio.
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Five Weeks In Bwari | @lilbrowneyedfae . I keep wondering what being unblemished feels like./ I want to learn how to say/ I love God & not feel strings pulled/ taut on my arms. Read full poem in bio.
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The Spices Of Stone Town | @Wesleymax89 . Then she remembered she was on this island looking for a part of her – a piece of stone that if not filled… would create a disaster, a hollowing chasm she may never get to fill until it swallowed her whole. Read full story in bio.
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“Writing is a real labour of love. It’s time consuming and you don’t even know whether anyone will publish or even want to read the book.” — Njambi McGrath (via The Table Read Magazine).
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The Hunger That Remains | @earth2tomi . The wind stopped. His body was found the next morning in the river. Mouth full of ash. His shoes were gone, and his gaze was fixed, as though the river had refused to let him forget. Read full story in bio.
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Anti-Matter | @lanalovesbooks0 . There’s no grief on the hill./ Let’s bask in the sun./ Watch me terraform into a rainbow. See link to full poem in bio.
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Amen | @APOSTLEJOHNCHIN . “But here, in my own,/ I have been swimming in it/ without reaching the shore/ where at least I can breathe,/ to look at them from behind/ say; what a manner of man I am/ to have carried on.”. Read full poem in bio.
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The Aftermath | Abraham Kedong Ali. “January ends the fête. It extends the season’s dryness/ and gradually paves the way for the heat./ The streams cease to run. Water goes into hiding.”. Read full poem in bio.
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“I change my literary language with each book I write. It depends on the tale I want to tell, the era it belongs to, the style and who the characters are.” — @ondjaki (The White Review)
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The Universality of Relations: In Conversation with @nanaekua . "As a writer, families offer inexhaustive opportunity…to delve into the dramas of interpersonal dynamics, to play with language through dialogue, and to interrogate culture.". Read full interview in bio.
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RT @NzubeNlebedim: Thank you, @writingafrica_. Read @ShallowTales. Support African Digital Literature. It’s the future.
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RT @writingafrica_: Literary Magazines: Doek, Nalubaale Review, Journal of West Indian Literature, The Shallow Tales Review.#LiteraryJourna….
writingafrica.com
New editions of Doek, Nalubaale Review, Journal of West Indian Literature, and The Shallow Tales Review are available for your reading pleasure.
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Homecoming | @AishatYahkub . Let me in, I have come home to rest/ The house heaves & creaks in answer, a roused beast/ welcomes my travel-weary body with a hardened mouth &/ cold eyes carved by the stinging harmattan winds. Read full poem in bio.
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“I think that books themselves have their own time and they oblige you, as a writer, to write them in the time they need to be written.” — Hisham Matar (The Bookseller)
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Diaspora | Christian Emecheta. my mother dreams in yoruba, while i/ think in english,/ my daughter texts in abbreviations/ BRB, TTYL, OMG-/ the holy trinity of erasure. Read full poem in bio.
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The Black Ink | Mohamed Mahou. I rose sluggishly one day/ No desire for school./ On an empty stomach,/ I left home./ My tattered bag/ Dangling from my back. Read full poem in bio.
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The Blue Fighter | @S_S_Kundizeza . In the silence, I imagined I could hear the fish gasping at the surface, their mouths opening and closing in desperate search of oxygen. Read full story in bio.
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“Get used to the idea of rejection. It helps to build resilience. Even the highest profile poets have had their work rejected from magazines and journals many times.” — @DzifaBenson (Curtis Brown Creative)
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