The Shallow Tales Review

Issue 24 | January 2026 is live! This edition features writers from South Africa 🇿🇦, Nigeria🇳🇬, Namibia 🇳🇦, Malawi 🇲🇼, and Zambia 🇿🇲. Headliner: vangile gantsho Guest editor (poetry): Obiageli Iloakasia A&P: Mariuscarl Ene (@Mariuscarl1) Read full issue from link in bio.

“I think my work is a continuing fascination with that process of communicating something in language but beyond language at the same time.” — Kayo Chingonyi (via @africa_dialogue)

a mango tree at the volta | @Vangi22 here is also something soft and something broken/ resembling a heart/ the soft inside-inside of the roots of the/ bark of/ a woman who is just a woman/ a man who is just a/ man Read full poem from link in bio.

Birdsongs | Ridwan Fasasi (@Ibn_Yushau44) You dance, despite your/ disappointment. As if the world will/ tend to your wound, sore with broken/ lyres. As if the world you/ wake up to will not try to snatch/ another boy into/ your grave. Read full poem from link in bio.

“I came to understand that culture is in conversation, and there’s always a circle. You see that a lot with music, when it bridges back to itself.” — Mai Sennaar (via SJP Lit)

poetry as re-membering: a conversation with vangile gantsho (@Vangi22) “i think play is important in crafting poetry. breaking. freedom. listening. and then i think editing is how craft (as a skill) is made truly visible.” Read full interview from link in bio.

Falling, Again | @Nyakapira1 “It is the other weights that come with love and being in love that scare me, like this pregnancy. Already I can feel it settling on us again. I wish love were enough to make the burden fall evenly between us.” Read full story from link in bio.

“A writer is, first and foremost, a writer. Her responsibility, as I see it, is to tell the story she has set about telling.” — @sindiwemagona (via Open Edition Journals)

Funsani | Mali Kambandu (@malingose) “Even this close, their eyes don’t meet and Funsani feels the loss of everything in his life, his confidence, his meaning, his aspiration. He grits his teeth, angry, knowing he can’t recover from this.” Read full story from link in bio.

Thrilling reads ahead! We’ve rounded up 5 must-read African books hitting stores in Q2 2026! 📚 Check them out, pre-order, and get ready to dive in! #AfricanLiterature #NewReleases #Q22026 #BookLovers #ReadAfrican

Refraction | Daniel Echezonachi when the men walk separate ways/ in the drizzle, i still watch them./ still imagine what they get to meet/ at home: bouquet or casket. Read full poem from link in bio.

“I love subverting language to my own diabolical purposes, making interesting things happen in the spaces between the words, in how something is said or in what's left unspoken.” — @LaurenBeukes (via Clarkesworld)

Another Letter Sunrise Won’t See | Jeremy Tiboth here, where the art of drowning is passed down/ from mother to daughter to son, like an heirloom./ in this town, sun rays loom, distorted like empty/ promises, promising to drain everybody. Read full poem from link in bio.

Sisyphus | Sosy Imafidon I want my lumbar to carry all the burdens in the world,/ want an arranged marriage with this body & sheol/ & you: a single inferno promising cinders./ My skin walks through you & I remain unburnt. Read full poem from link in bio.

“It was important for me to address all the ways people attempt to override the narratives of our own lives, and the ways we subjugate ourselves and second-guess our own sense of witness.” — Ladan Osman (via @parisreview)

Exciting reads ahead! We’ve rounded up 5 must-read African books hitting stores in Q1 2026! 📚 Check them out, pre-order, and get ready to dive in! #AfricanLiterature #NewReleases #Q12026 #BookLovers #ReadAfrican

the stain the fire and the girl who wears it | (@Vangi22) inside the girl's shoes is a story/ and a fire/ and the nail/ she stepped on when she ran up the mountain/ in search/ of a small piece of air/ to breathe/ to wrap around/ herself Read full poem from link in bio.

“I am devoted to the capacity of poetry to say many things at once, to open language to the saturated meanings of any utterance.” — Tsitsi Jaji (via @brittlepaper)

Self Portrait with Thornings and Hummingbirds | Ridwan Fasasi (@Ibn_Yushau44) I am silent, cold-blooded/ & forgiving of my wounds./ I did not choose to live like a coward. I did not choose to be quiet/ at my suffering. Read full poem from link in bio.

Dear fellow literary enthusiast, I am pleased to announce that the 6th edition of Reading The Shallow Tales will take place on Saturday, 14th March 2026. Be sure to register and attend

As we look forward to Saturday, we present the order of the reading/speakers’ schedules. Registrations for Reading Shallow Tales VI close on Friday the 13th. Register here: bit.ly/4kJxnFu