| The Hanged Man | I am writing to report that I am in a most uncomfortable position, immobilised as I am between the shutters and the wall of my fair apartment, hanging by a shoestring from my left hand foot. The blood has surged to my upturned head. I’ve heard an Algerian boy say it’s bad for your health. I didn’t believe him at the time but now I’m not so sure. I reflect on this as I hang in the cool night’s breezes. How? You may well ask, am I stuck like this and that is a most welcomed nuance of yours.... |
| My Tryst With Bapu | It was late in the night when I entered my room , extremely tired, unable to think anything, thus without changing I fell on my bed and the last words I heard before sleeping were from my friend Ritesh "Apurv, good night ......” But unlikely, it was a night that made me think the most, forced me from not thinking anything to ponder over everything, a night that triggered my mind and left me feeling relentless.......... After a long jejune schedule and my usual fight with Matko(Kamakshi), I was... |
| Moon Diamond | The moon was bright. Not quite full, it shone its silvery glow down on the fog misted yard, making each little bump in the uneven landscape a hill, each little blade of grass stand out on its own like a marble pillar. It distorted everyday objects and gave an eerie light to the small farm. A slammed screen door below broke the mystical silence like a gunshot. Two mist blurred figures emerged from the old farmhouse, one walking at a faster pace than the other. The moonlight reflected off... |
| Midnight | I would love to dress myself in midnight, It is my instant inspiration when it’s near Want to smell the air before I take a bite, Swallow it down to suffocate my fear. I would wear the stars along my neckline, Absorbing radiance into my pastel skin. Want to lose my insecurity; become divine, Want to cry raindrops of liquid porcelain. I would crumble the moon into tiny bits, And toss them up like glistening confetti. Want to laugh before the dull daylight hits, Want to hold the moving twilight... |
| Father's Man | I was about nine years old when my father started teaching me to be a man. He used to observe, with mute indifference, the silly, childish things I used to do: like cry on rainy mornings because I was being asked to go to school, or shriek when a rat or a cockroach (we had a lot of those in our home) ran across my leg, or refuse to eat the beans because Mama agreed she saw weevils while picking them. But sometime after my eighth birthday, my father started speaking and acting up. “Wipe those... |
| What Else | She is a goddess Rules the crimson river That flows in my vein Her reign is a constant torture Of sprawling homeless urges Seeking a path to rage Each time her cold touch Winds the erratic waves My flesh turns eroded Clatter, shiver, I plead To ease running heaviness From swollen tunnel, but No! My sac swallows The burning weight To languish the long paddling Wrecking my wooden cliff To the abyss of deafness Many a time, I fetched Sacrifice of hundred hearts Still her thought is stony Her... |
| The song behind The Masquerade | There are many among us, who may not know that the greatest Highlife Guitarist of all time is a guy called Bob Allen. Some may assume it's some obscure Irishman, with a penchant for Nigerian music- no sir. I am referring to a true... son of Owerri by the name of Raphael Amarabem- Bob Allen being his nickname. His CV is briefly as follows: a. Learnt his trade as a Guitarist in his teens in Accra, Ghana, whilst living with his itinerant trader Uncle in the early 50's. b. Returned to Nigeria in... |
| The extraordinary Twins Seven Seven | Twins Seven-Seven has come a long way from the 21-year-old dancer who gate-crashed a literary event organised by Ulli Beier in Osogbo in 1964. 46 years later, he has become a world renowned painter with a unique body of work that continues to fascinate art lovers and academics. Christened Olaniyi Osuntoki, he renamed himself Twins Seven-Seven because he is the lone survivor of seven sets of twins born to his mother – an ‘Abiku’ who ‘stayed’ the seventh time after he and his twin sister were... |
| Tunde Kelani’s cinematographic life | Tunde Kelani has been at the forefront of a production of cultural films using contemporary themes to paint on the canvas of indigenous myths and traditions. As a director of photography whose primary function area is the photography of the moving image, Kelani tells the story as much as the screenwriter. His passion is to use lights, both natural and contrived, to create images, organize his visual landscapes and to interpret the narrative in concrete terms. His answer to the regular question... |
| Blue Sun : Interview with Gerwine Bayo-Martins | An interview is with Gerwine Bayo-Martins , a connoisseur of the arts and herself , a quite dedicated painter, photographer and writer. Who is Gerwine Bayo Martins ? I don’t know how to answer this, I will try. I am a German from Hamburg, but live in Frankfurt now. I am the late Bayo Martins’ wife and lived with him and our family ten years in Lagos, that was in the seventies and early eighties. All my life literature, music, photography, and art where and still are my principal interests. I... |
| King of Sleeves : Interview with Ghariokwu Lemi | Wow! Goddammit!" Fela Anikulapo Kuti was reported to have shouted when he first saw his work.This online interview was with the Nigerian artist and illustrator Lemi Ghariokwu most renowned for the album covers and sleeves designs especially for the music legend Fela Kuti. Who is Ghariokwu Lemi ? How would you describe yourself ? Ghariokwu Lemi, is a a self taught Nigerian Fine Artist, Graphic Designer, Illustrator and Songwriter, world famous for his captivating and intricate record sleeves... |
| No category to fit my story.... | This interview was with Toli Almasi (aka Toli Nameless) from Brooklyn , USA . Toli leads an all female band known as Femme Nameless : playing jazz, Afro beat and pop music ; presently on a Paris tour (Dec 2010) - Rotimi Ogunjobi Toli , I remember saying to you, after watching your performance , that I had never heard better Afro Beat music outside Fela's shrine. how did you come in contact with Afro Beat ? What was your initial musical background ? Yes I remember, this was very kind of you. I... |
| Seduction of the Innocent | by Max Allan Collins Review In the early 1950s, America was literally on top of the world, having emerged from the Second World War as the dominant economic and political power on the planet. But at home, Americans were terrified (or, more accurately, manipulated into being afraid) of communists... |
| The Seventh Victim | by Mary Burton Review Bestselling author Mary Burton (BEFORE SHE DIES and MERCILESS) ratchets up the tension in Texas as a cold case thaws. Seven years ago, Lara Church was the Seattle Strangler’s seventh victim, but she survived. Barely. Recalling none of the events, she’s been on the run to... |
| The River Swimmer: Novellas | by Jim Harrison Review In contemporary fiction there is no writer who is more associated with the novella than Jim Harrison. Since 1979 he has produced five volumes of them, LEGENDS OF THE FALL being the most well-known. The two novellas that comprise his sixth collection, THE RIVER SWIMMER,... |
| The Trouble with Charlie | by Merry Jones Review After 10 years of marriage, the trouble with Charlie Harrison is he’s dead. How he died (inside his soon-to-be ex’s home) nails readers to the wall with Hitchcock-like suspense. On her first night out as a semi-single with “the Fantastic Four” gal pals, Elle Harrison nee... |
| The Sound of Broken Glass | by Deborah Crombie Review It is related historically that Deborah Crombie has never received the correspondence that authors dread most: a rejection slip. It is easy to believe. Crombie is a native Texan whose long-running Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series is set in London. THE SOUND OF BROKEN... |
| The Office of Mercy | by Ariel Djanikian Review It's 300 years after the Storm, a world-wide devastation masterminded by a few well-intentioned intellectuals, wiped out most of the global population in an attempt to alleviate suffering and start again. It seems that the Storm attained its goal, with most of the... |
| Nothing Gold Can Stay: Stories | by Ron Rash Review The title of this short story collection, NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY, immediately evokes the Robert Frost poem of the same name. It is hard to refrain from speculating that author Ron Rash intended the reader to compare the two works when he chose that title, although their subject... |
| Tenth of December: Stories | by George Saunders Review The problem with some works of dystopian fiction is that, in their eagerness to create an alternative universe that offers a cautionary tale to the modern world, authors often let cleverness nudge heart to the periphery. Not that a piece of fiction or drama has to have... |
| Back from the Dead | by Peter Leonard Review Peter Leonard should be on your must-read list if he is not there already. His novel, QUIVER, was one of the better debuts of 2008, and each of his books has been exponentially better with each successive release. BACK FROM THE DEAD, his fifth thriller, continues his upward... |
| The Power Trip | by Jackie Collins Review “Looks, money, power, fame.” New York Times bestselling author Jackie Collins has used these keys to everlasting stardom in Hollywood to catapult herself to a successful, international literary career. She is the reigning queen of using the power of words to transport,... |