Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa
Dissent, disease, disaster.
This genre-spanning anthology explores the many ways that we grow, adapt, and survive in the face of our ever-changing global realities. These evocative, often prescient, stories showcase new and emerging writers from across Africa to investigate many of the pressing issues of our time: climate change, pandemics, social upheaval, surveillance, and more.
In Disruption, authors from across Africa use their stories to explore the concept of change—environmental, political, and physical—and the power or impotence of the human race to innovate our way through it. From a post-apocalyptic African village in Innocent Ilo’s “Before We Die Unwritten,” to space colonization in Alithnayn Abdulkareem’s “Static,” to a mother’s attempt to save her infant from a dust storm in Mbozi Haimbe’s “Shelter,” Disruption illuminates change around and within, and our infallible capacity for hope amidst disaster.
Facing our shared anxieties head on, these authors scrutinize assumptions and invent worlds that combine the fantastical with the probable, the colonial with the dystopian, and the intrepid with the powerless, in stories recognizing our collective future and our disparate present. Disruption is the newest anthology from Short Story Day Africa, a non-profit organization established to develop and share the diversity of Africa’s voices through publishing and writing workshops.
Contributors include:
MacSmart Ojiludu is a writer and freelance content creator living in Nigeria. He has a Bachelors in Technology from the Federal University of Technology Owerri. His fiction deals with themes of surrealism and oddity.
Kanyinsola Olorunnisola is a poet, essayist and writer of fiction. His work interrogates anxiety, broken lineage, [in]sanity, grief and the black body as a warfront. His debut collection, In My Country, We’re All Crossdressers was published as a chapbook by Praxis. He is the founder of the SPRINNG Literary Movement.
Najwa Binshatwan is a Libyan academic and novelist. She is the author of three novels: The Slave Yards (2016), Orange Content (2008), and The Horses’ Hair (2005) in addition to collections of short stories and plays.
Nadia Ahidjo is a Pan-African feminist writer and development professional based in Dakar, Senegal. She uses her experience in the development sector to weave together fiction and non-fiction stories. Her other work has been published by Afreada and African Feminisms, and is available online.
Innocent Chizaram Ilo is Igbo. Their works interrogate gender, class, politics and sexuality. They were awarded the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa Region. A finalist for the Gerald Kraak Award and Short Story Day Africa Prize, their work has been published in Fireside Magazine, Overland, adda, Strange Horizons, Granta and has won the Africa YMCA and Oxford Festival of the Arts short story contests. –This text refers to the paperback edition
Editorial Reviews
‘’The stories here are telling us disruption is and can be a catalyst for change. And that there is beauty in the many disruptions we face. This anthology runs ahead of us and we need, now more than ever, to catch up with the writers.”
—Mukoma Wa Ngugi, Author and Associate Professor of’
‘’A “brilliant and diverse collection of stories”…. [Disruption] carries so much soul. Many of the stories are so visceral they played like a movie, a testament to the writers’ adroit understanding of how worldbuilding works.”
—Isele Magazine.’’
‘’Every year I look forward to the release Short Story Day Africa’s newest anthology, which brings together the newest writing from some of the most exhilarating and talented writers on the continent. The themed collections are exquisite, expansive, and this year, eerily prescient, featuring stories on climate change, pandemics, social change, surveillance, and space travel.”
—Kelsey McFaul, Center for the Art of Translation
“The beautiful and the ugly, grief and hope, warnings from our past and for our future—Disruption captures all of this. […] The stories in this collection are a call to continue hoping. As long as we move forward and continue to survive on this earth, there is still time for healing, both for the earth and ourselves.”
— Shelf Unbound’’
“The stories sprinkled throughout this collection demonstrate how people adapt to disruption in their lives, even when change seems dire. It’s a perfect anthology for readers who like a little of the fantastical in their literature, but recognize how fiction often hits very close to home.”
— Sisters
Book was reviewed by Arley Sorg
Published on
Includes audio book
