Shingai

Fantasy Magazine - issue 98 | Psychopomp Fantasy Magazine Issue 98 features work by: Eleanor Ball, Christian Emecheta, Sunwoo Jeong, Mateo Perez Lara, Tracie McBride, Eleanna Castroianni

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ISSUE 98

out NOW in full for subscribers

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Excerpt from Strange Horizons Review of Will This Be A Problem? The Anthology: Issue V. Design is set on a teal background with curved orange and teal circular accents, the WTBAP logo at the top and the website's URL at the bottom. Text reads: Colonisation and racism are also recurring themes. In “Dinosaurs Once Lived Here,” a story chronicling the many ways the planet Earth might have ended, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu writes, “Empathy only blooms for faces the colour of snow mushrooms, so the world blinks and continues about their day, sipping mimosas at overpriced brunch spots with grass walls.” In “The Clans” by Tonny Ogwa, meanwhile, a priest is “governing” over a group of clans, the white man granting “[t]he Clans and other African clans the rights to be people, albeit to lesser degrees of ‘peopleness.’”

An excerpt graphic from “If Memory Serves” by Kevin Rigathi, published in Issue V of Will This Be A Problem? The Anthology. Design is displayed on a teal background with orange and teal accents, the WTBAP logo at the top, and the story title and stylised quote marks at the bottom. Main text reads: Shingai Kagunda’s “The Language We Have Learned to Carry in Our Skin” reimagines Desmond Tutu’s famous line as something more insidious. “When the missionaries came to Africa,” Tutu reflected, “they had the Bible, and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.” In Kagunda’s world, the colonial project doesn’t end with the land being taken; it continues in the mind. The white man lures the empire’s subjects into backroom deals, offers them a taste of power, and spits down vita—a parasitic creature of war, ukatili, brutality, violence, whichever you want to call it—between the lips of the new national leaders. Once inside, the vita speaks through you, bends your thoughts to its will. The newly minted national leaders, the empire’s chosen successors, find themselves repeating the coloniser’s violence back to their people, their agency already eaten away from within.

“Dinosaurs Once Lived Here,” by @yvettel.bsky.social
“The Clans” by Tonny Ogwa
“The Language We Have Learned to Carry in Our Skin” by Shingai Kagunda @shingai-be-like.bsky.social

Excerpt from Shingai Kagunda's “The Language We Have Learned to Carry in Our Skin”, published in Will This Be A Problem? The Anthology: Issue V. Displayed on a reddish background with abstract circular accents and the WTBAP logo. The excerpt reads: “Actually, your Baba is right to some degree; it started when they left. Remember what I said, ehh? That independence does not equate to freedom. So now, that will be useful to understand this story. When Uhuru’s father took the seat for presidency, you know there are all these photos of him smiling and shaking the hand of the British Prime Minister. Like almost every other president that chased the wazungu out of their countries during those last days, the wazungu were still here. After they had packed all their suitcases and cried about leaving their big farms and their workers who they had grown to love, their governors made a promise that they would always have something to come back to in the colonies.”

Introduction by Olivia Kidula for "The Language We Have Learned to Carry in Our Skin” by Shingai Kagunda published in Will This Be A Problem? The Anthology: Issue V. Displayed on a red background with teal and grey accents, the WTBAP logo and stylised quote marks. Main text reads: In Shingai Kagunda’s “The Language We Have Learned to Carry in Our Skin”, a story where many things happen behind closed doors, a character probes the significance of seeing and understanding the world as it is. Shingai shows us the battle between colonial narratives and African traditions and how one of the scars left behind is a sense of limited agency in shaping one’s temporal destiny. We see how language, through both its use and omissions, can be used to distort lived realities, the contours shaped and reshaped amid the dance of punctuation.

In “The Language we have learned to Carry in Our Skin,” @shingai-be-like.bsky.social exposes how colonialism left behind a language of violence embedded in leaders, institutions and everyday life.

Full story in Issue V of WTBAP? The Anthology: willthisbeaproblem.co.ke/2025/04/25/t...

#africansff

COMING SOON 🤩 My poem “All of Our Mothers Are Dead,” a Gothic story of necromancy, grief, and mothers & daughters, will be out soon with Fantasy Magazine! I could not be more excited!

The cover for Fantasy Issue 98! A brown-haired, light-skinned figure kneels next to a giant white bird, tending to an arrow wound. The cover is awash in autumnal shades of orange, cream, and brown.

And now for our Issue 98 COVER 🎉 🎉 🎉

Wound, by Zi Xu

😂😂😂 I would pay money to see that!

A pika sits on a mossy rock.

Tighter crop of the same pika, focusing on its head.

An even tighter crop, focusing more on the pika's eye.

An extremely tight crop of the pika's eye, emphasizing their reflection of an early morning mountain scene.

"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?"

Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.

And you can read it here:
psychopomp.com/we-who-will-...

Check out our episode as our amazing co host @jennahanchey.bsky.social talks writing, her career in academia and check out her book “The Center Cannot Hold.” @sameemwrites.com @shingai-be-like.bsky.social @bright-inks.bsky.social @marshallcarrjr.bsky.social @lpkindred.bsky.social

🩵🩵🩵

🤝

psychopomp.com/we-who-will-...

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Major congratulations to all the Nommo award nominees for 2025! It was an honor to be able to make the announcement virtually at Seattle worldcon. I've read almost all the nominated stories and they represent some of the best of African speculative fiction. You should definitely check them out!

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That said. I'm a little bit stunned that Shingai Njeri Kagunda's "We Who Will Not Die" didnt make the shortlist. I think its one of the best stories published anywhere last year and has been damn near criminally underappreciated so far.

FICTION Quote "Obee Carter. The man who ends the world, and the man who saves it. He wears the name on his uniform, though no one reads it. There’s a badge on his uniform, at the place that once held his heart. Like a rib bone rolled, flattened into metal. A shield for the hole in his chest, polished into mirrored glass. Reflecting empty eyes, they stare." The Black Refinery by Nadia Amatullah King 30 June 2025 Strange Horizons

POETRY by Praise Osawaru parallels  Quote "I breathe out & time & space explodes. I rocket into a star, its light blinding & gentle." 30 June 2025 Strange Horizons

The Afrosurrealist Special Issue is here!

The Black Refinery
by Nadia Amatullah King @nadiaaking.bsky.social

parallels
by Praise Osawaru

Read these two at the link to the latest issue in our bio!

shoutout to @shingai-be-like.bsky.social and @arleysorg.bsky.social and the entire Fantasy team ✨🦄

thank you @mariahaskins.com for the reviews!! ✨

WHAT YOU MEAN THROW HIM A DONUT?? DON'T YOU SEE HOW POLITE HE IS??!

The Dead Withheld Check out The Dead Withheld - <strong>MEET DIZZY CARTER: </strong></p><strong>Private investigator. </strong></p><strong>Blues enthusiast. </strong></p><strong>Deadwalker witch. </strong></p><p></p><p...

Obligatory "it's my birthday; buy my book" post
bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

It's officially out! The anthology Storyteller, including my new story "Like It's Golden," publishes today! essentialdreams.press/books/storyt...

Strange Horizons A Magazine of Speculative Fiction

It’s here!!!!! Me & @shingai-be-like.bsky.social are so excited to share the @strangehorizons.bsky.social AfroSurreal Special Issue. We had such a tough time selecting the final ToC, so many brilliant pieces! Will be sharing my favorites throughout the week

strangehorizons.com/wordpress/

Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction

Locus Award trophy

Congrats to all winners and finalists! @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social, @aniyonsenga.bsky.social, @dilmandila.com.web.brid.gy, @nerinedorman.bsky.social, @shingai-be-like.bsky.social, @stephenembleton.bsky.social, @suyidavies.com, @tobiogundiran.com, @xanwriter.bsky.social
locusmag.com/2025/06/2025...

It’s such an honor to be on this ballot with @tananarivedue.bsky.social @foxesandroses.bsky.social @olivasthewriter.bsky.social and @shingai-be-like.bsky.social !!

Also congrats to all the other nominees!! I’m looking forward to reading & re-reading all the awesome works highlighted here. 💜

There are no words to express how honored I am to be on the same ballot as these amazing writers!
@tananarivedue.bsky.social @awprihandita.bsky.social @olivasthewriter.bsky.social @shingai-be-like.bsky.social big big congratulations!!! 🙏💜💜💜

support - The Ignyte Awards The 2025 awards are fully funded! No additional support is needed at this time. You can also support the awards and the nominated authors by buying finalist titles where available or on Bookshop.org. ...

Our Support page now lists the small publishers who put out this year's finalists and who rely on a donation, subscription, or crowdfunding model. Please consider supporting their efforts in bringing more amazing stories into the world:
ignyteawards.fiyahlitmag.com/support/
#IgnyteAwards

congratulations @shingai-be-like.bsky.social!! 🔥🔥

congrats to all finalists but EXTRA SPECIAL congrats to Psychopomp authors @foxesandroses.bsky.social & @shingai-be-like.bsky.social for being recognized!

you can read both stories for free on our site:

psychopomp.com/joannas-bodi...

psychopomp.com/we-who-will-...

Absolutely thrilled to see @foxesandroses.bsky.social and @shingai-be-like.bsky.social on this list. Thank you for honoring Psychopomp's work. 🖤💀🖤

Fantasy Magazine Subscription

GRATITUDE to

Jen Santos @jphamlott.bsky.social

Love! & Gratitude! to Shingai Njeri Kagunda @shingai-be-like.bsky.social

IMMENSE gratitude to ALL contributors & interviewees!

This is an extra-sized, Fantastic issue!🧚🏽

SUBSCRIBE y'all! Only $5 a quarter!💖

-Arley

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