ZamaShort #14 ‘Descendants of Balance’ by Rafeeat Aliyu

 

Oronsen, daughter of the World and the Forest, brought into being when a hunter’s arrow met with a duiker’s heart, not quite human, not quite spirit. Newly married to a warrior and member of the royal council and his most favoured wife, she is ensconced in the royal household rife with political tensions and jealousy. But Oronsen is like no other there, and together with her sister Lakange, she becomes aware that something is drastically wrong in this new human world she finds herself in, something that could destroy all the beings of the Forest she knows and loves. ‘Descendants of Balance’ is the wonderful origin story to larger works and world rooted in Yoruba myth, legend, and wider Nigerian history, that Rafeeat has published and is working on further.

 

Rafeeat Aliyu was born and raised in Nigeria. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from North Carolina State University. Her work has been long listed for the Writivism Short Story Prize, Nommo Awards and the Island Prize for Debut Fiction. She received the Norwescon Scholarship to attend the Clarion West Workshop for science fiction and fantasy writers in 2018 and benefitted from the AKO Caine Prize Online with Vimbai mentorship program. Rafeeat is a 2023 Morland Writing Scholar. Her writing has been supported by La Napoule Art Foundation International Residency and La Maison Baldwin. Her works have been widely published in anthologies such as the Caine Prize: A Mind to Silence and Other Stories, Dominion, Africanfuturism, and AfroSF, and in the magazines Omenana, Fiyah, Lolwe, Strange Horizons, and Nightmare, to name a few.

 

“In 'Descendants of Balance' Rafeeat Aliyu tells us of a powerful spirit of the forest, taken human form out of love for a warrior king, the political and interpersonal conflicts that follow, and the betrayal that breaks things apart. It glows with the elemental force of myth and with the jealousies we find ourselves living whether or not we are gods, even when we don't know those stories that created us.”

— John Kessel, author of The Presidential Papers.

 

“‘Descendants of Balance’ is a perfect serving of Rafeeat Aliyu's unique storytelling alchemy. The heft of the Forest as a living thriving organism brought a folktale thrill to this tale about the equilibrium expected of those who live between worlds. It centres textured characters while never forgetting the cinema and magic of their fantastic worlds, lineages, and origins. This story draws on precolonial history and indigenous myth to reveal a world wholly new, yet familiar as childhood. We found ourselves caught up in the unfolding of Oronsen's survival, in Lakange's strength and love, in the mystery of the iwin.”

— Dare Segun Falowo, author of Caged Ocean Dub.

 

“‘Descendants of Balance’ is a beautiful short story that borrows from popular Yoruba mythology about women and reimagines it in ways that honor them. Rafeeat Aliyu paints a picture of how the children of the world, and the children of the forest were connected, and the cost of losing it, told through the lens of sisterhood and the supernatural walking quietly among men.”

— Emmanuella Omonigho, author of Stars in a Beautiful Night.

 

Find more from Rafeeat at her website: https://www.rafeeataliyu.com/  

And at her substack here: https://rafeeat.substack.com/ 

 

Release: 1^st June 2026.

 

Add to your Goodreads/StoryGraph to read list. 

 

Available Here:

 

Direct from ZamaShort at our shop in our Bundles or by Subscription at: zamashort.com

 

Pre-Orders here: 

 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2DY1PW3

(Also Amazon UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, IN)

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/descendants-of-balance/id6771348921 

Libby: https://share.libbyapp.com/title/13210542 

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/descendants-of-balance 

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/descendants-of-balance-rafeeat-aliyu/1150214314 

Google Play Books: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=-yLbEQAAQBAJ

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2033530 

Fable: https://fable.co/book/x-9789189984158 

Thalia: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1079917728 

Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9789189984158_9789189984158_10020/ 

 

The ZamaShort imprint series is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story. We give each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, ZamaShort continues to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.

 

ZamaShort #13 ‘Fly, Flightless’ by Chisom Umeh

On the run, alone, being hunted by a malevolent dark force, Nneka lives with a terrible secret that has irreversibly destroyed her life. It all started so innocently with Zoba, a girl unlike any she had met before. Zoba, whom she grew to love. Zoba, who taught her the most beautiful experience in all her fifteen years, how to fly.

 

Chisom Umeh is a Nigerian fiction writer and poet. When he's not watching movies or writing about fantastical things, he's tweeting about movies and fantastical things at izom_chisom. His short stories have been featured in Omenana, Apex, Clarkesworld, Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2023, African Ghosts anthology, Isele, Mythaxis, Scifi Shorts, and elsewhere. His short story, ‘Ancestor’s Gift’ won the 2024 Tractor Beam short story contest. He was a finalist for the Seattle Worldcon Short Story Contest and is winner of the 2025 Nommo Awards for Best African Speculative Fiction Short Story for ‘From Across Time’.

 

Release 1^st May 2026.

 

Available Here:

 

Add to your Goodreads/StoryGraph to read list.

 

Direct from ZamaShort at our shop in our Bundles or by Subscription: https://www.zamashort.com/p/shop.html

 

And Pre-Orders here: 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0GX2XPYC5

(Also Amazon UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, IN)

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/fly-flightless/id6762618582

Libby: https://share.libbyapp.com/title/13107200

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ebook/fly-flightless

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fly-flightless-chisom-umeh/1149939148

Google Play Books: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=_07SEQAAQBAJ

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2014841

Fable: https://fable.co/book/x-9789189984103

Thalia: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1079386029

Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9789189984103_9789189984103_10020/fly-flightless

 

The ZamaShort imprint series is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story. We give each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, ZamaShort continues to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.

 

ZamaShort #12 ‘Did You get Married to Her when I was in the Mental Hospital?’ by Abigail George

Award-winning poet Abigail George takes you on a vivid contemporary odyssey in the poetic form of a prose poetry collection through psychological landscapes of her inner and outer world. In living with a diagnosed bipolar condition, George burns star bright and black-hole dark, but her writing has always remained, sustained, and mattered, giving us this rare eloquent and vital insight.

 

Abigail George is a poet, essayist, novelist, blogger, editor, playwright, and short story writer. She was the awarded the 2023 Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Prize for her poem, ‘In a Lonely Search for Walt Whitman and Chris Abani’, nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and twice nominated for Best of the Net Award. Her latest book is Songs For Palestine: Struggle Poems. She blogs at African Renaissance and Mentally Sound.

 

“Oh, God, what amazing poetry this is! I love every single poem and every single word. Every poem walks you in a corridor that leads into the author’s subconscious spaces, revealing a shadowy world of bitterness, broken love and fragmented thoughts. With the influence of the author’s bipolar condition and a family plagued by cancer and lack of love and unity, Abigail is able to produce a narrative poetry that utilises raw and deep-cutting images, fragmented stories and half-asleep-and-half-awake musings and reflections to weave a body of poetry that leaves the reader dazed, mouth-gaping and gasping for more.”

— Dr Christopher Okemwa, Senior Lecturer, Kisii University, Kenya.

 

“A lyrical, stream-of-consciousness dive into the writer’s experience of love, loss, hope and despair. It is a dive that stretches from her bedroom, to her community, to Palestine. The self and the world, past and present, are in contest. But from that contest comes the beauty of the book's poetry. And that's what it really is - poetry.”

— Kevin Goddard.

 

“Abigail’s writing is a treat, rich in imagery and metaphor. She crafts the kind of sentences you wish to bookmark and return to. In this short story, the chapters are offered up in splinters that read like captivating prose poems, often mirroring the protagonist’s fractured psyche, while creating an authentic visceral experience of the complex emotional landscape unfolding within.”

— Adiela Akoo, South African Poet & Author.

 

“A raw, emotional journey through heartbreak and longing. With visceral imagery that explores the pain of lost love, weaving themes of memory, grief, and self-discovery. George writes unflinchingly on the effects of mental illness on family dynamics, and the fragility of the human psyche. Navigating breakdowns, relationships, and the struggle for self-love. Set against the backdrop of societal expectations and personal trauma, this is a testament to resilience and the healing power of creativity. A powerful work that will resonate with readers who have known darkness and the struggle to find light.”

— Thobeka Kenene.

 

“A brave, claustrophobic, and ultimately transcendent piece of literature. It is a “lullaby” for the broken and a manifesto for the power of the written word. Abigail George proves once again that for the marginalised and the “mad”, writing is not just a career—it is a holy act of reclamation.”

— Henry Lombard.

 

“A haunting and deeply confessional work, Abigail George’s poetry moves through memory, illness, and longing with lyrical intensity. What emerges is a fragile yet courageous portrait of a mind searching for love, meaning, and survival in the aftermath of emotional devastation.”

— Tuoyo Palmer, poet and educator.

 

“South African writer Abigail George discovers kinship with the griefs of the broader world while processing her life through streams of consciousness. Mental health and wellness become recurring themes in the work, rendered effectively through the raw, nonlinear poetry that echoes her thoughts.”

— Cristina Deptula.

  

“Writing about one’s life is challenging in the inevitable revelation of deep-seated secrets. Abigail George has no compunction in the sheer honesty with which she integrates her compassion for Gaza and Palestine with her own desperately yet joyously wretched experiences. [This] compliments her inspiring previously published, Songs for Palestine: Struggle Poems. Inspired by great literary figures who shared her condition, she moves between the state of the world as reflected in Gaza and her state as two-year old, teenager, young and midlife adult and her futile search for love and her forlorn fear of abandonment. She ultimately finds companionship in her readership, despite her assertion that she doesn’t write for the world but for herself. In this story, she achieves both as she exchanges a mental institution for the armchair from which she writes with fearless freedom in easy-going words, if in complex metaphors.”

— Doreen Musson, author and freelance social researcher.

 

“Abigail's voice cuts deep into the veins of memory and relapse. A razor-sharp confession from the Eastern Cape fog—addiction, madness, Gaza mirrored in one woman's shattered mirror. No pretty lies here; just the cold mineral water of truth served alone.” 

— Ayanda Billie.

“Abigail George takes the reader on the big dipper of her poetry, riding us through shocks and thrills in the carriage of her life with mental illness, a stigma she was branded with at age 16. En route, we become as Eve, but abandoned by Adam, teeth tearing apart the apple of knowledge alone; we become akin to Lady Macbeth, trying to wash the blood Netanyahu has spilled – nothing is separable from anything else, and the language relentlessly stirs the pot of our inescapable oneness. This is a writing-witch’s brew, cooked to nourish and forever transform your understanding of
mental illness, womanhood and writing.”
— Silke Heiss, Hiku Hike Harvest​.

 

Released 1^st April 2026.

 

Available Here:

 

Add to your Goodreads/StoryGraph to read list.

 

Direct from ZamaShort at our shop in our Bundles or by Subscription: https://www.zamashort.com/p/shop.html

 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GT9H1FNR 

(Also Amazon UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, IN)

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/did-you-get-married-to-her-when-i-was-in-the-mental-hospital/id6760898190

Libby: https://share.libbyapp.com/title/13013140

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/za/en/ebook/did-you-get-married-to-her-when-i-was-in-the-mental-hospital? 

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/1149726055

Google Play Books: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=IYXKEQAAQBAJ 

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1993352 

Fable: https://fable.co/book/x-9789189984097 

Thalia: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1078748565  

Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9789189984097_9789189984097_10020/did-you-get-married-to-her-when-i-was-in-the-mental-hospitalij 

 

The ZamaShort imprint series is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story. We give each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, ZamaShort continues to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.

ZamaShort #11 ‘Gold-Plated Boy’ by Hussani Abdulrahim

Mama Blessing, a struggling buka road-side restaurant owner, is promised riches by the diviner Mallam Idi if she acquires a gold-plated android boy. This—a seemingly impossible task given the fortune it will cost—sets Mama Blessing down a path that will irrevocably change her, and her family’s, life.

“Abdulrahim is a writer of rare imaginative force. In ‘Gold-Plated Boy’, he unites technology, ambition, envy, oppression, and human frailty into a tale as dazzling as it is unsettling. His storytelling is original. He reminds us that the most astonishing machinery is still the human imagination, and in his hands, it is limitless.” — Nana Sule, author of Not So Terrible People.

Hussani Abdulrahim is a Nigerian writer. He has a degree in Pure Chemistry from Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. Hussani’s short story ‘Arewa Boys’, which won the Toyin Falola Prize (2022), was shortlisted for the 2024 ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award. He won the 2023 Writivism Short Story Prize, Ibua Journal’s 2023 Bold Call, and the 2016 Green Author Prize. He has been longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Afritondo Prize, Boston Review’s Aura Estrada Short Fiction Contest, and the BWR Summer Fiction Contest. He was a participant in the Flame Tree Writers’ Workshop co-facilitated by award-winning writers Abubakar Adam Ibrahim and Chika Unigwe in 2024. He also participated in the 2025 Kokonut Head Media Virtual Residency Programme. Hussani’s work has appeared in Boston Review, Wilted Pages, Ubwali Literary Magazine, Tasteful: A Literary Cannibal Anthology, Brave New Weird Anthology (Tenebrous Press), Brittle Paper, Evergreen Review, Solarpunk, Ibua Journal, The Flametree Project, and Afritondo Prize anthologies. He lives in Kano, Nigeria, and is working on both a novel and a short story collection.

Released 1st March 2026.

‘Gold-Plated Boy’ is Available Here:

Direct from ZamaShort at our shop here in our Bundles or by Subscription.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GPDRSQG2
(Also Amazon UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, IN)
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/gold-plated-boy/id6759450359
Libby: https://share.libbyapp.com/title/12918702
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/gold-plated-boy
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gold-plated-boy-hussani-abdulrahim/1149520551
Google Play Books: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=r1zCEQAAQBAJ
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1972415
Fable: https://fable.co/book/x-9789189984042
Thalia: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1078314258
Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9789189984042_9789189984042_10020/gold-plated-boy

The ZamaShort imprint series is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story. We give each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, ZamaShort continues to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.

 

 

ZamaShort #10 ‘Vibrating Particles’ by Daniel Joe

When a writer is dragged out of self-imposed isolation by his boisterous friend a chance encounter with a great lost love explodes his whole world. Memories and suppressed hurts well up but also a new fragile flame is ignited. Can they settle the past, reforge a path, and re-write their future together?

Daniel Joe is an emerging African writer based in Lagos, Nigeria. He is an English Lit. undergraduate at the Iconic Open University, and once a fellow at the SprinNG literary fellowship. His work has been published in several literary magazines and anthologies, including The Poetry Journal's Her Father's Daughter, Brittle Paper, Afritondo, The Rising Phoenix and more. When he isn't writing or reading, he spends his time playing, or watching football, or scouring Lagos on foot searching for inspiration.

Released 1st February 2026.

‘Vibrating Particles’ is Available Here: 

Direct from ZamaShort at our shop here in our Bundles or by Subscription:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GHS58BSB 
(Also Amazon UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, IN)
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/vibrating-particles/id6758050347 
Libby: https://share.libbyapp.com/title/12808236 
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/se/sv/ebook/vibrating-particles 
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/vibrating-particles-daniel-joe/1149248867 
Google Play Books: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=VtGzEQAAQBAJ 
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1949068 
Fable: https://fable.co/book/x-9789189984035 
Thalia: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1078016223 
Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9789189984035_9789189984035_10020/vibrating-particles 

The ZamaShort imprint series is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story. We give each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, ZamaShort continues to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.

 

Massive congrats to Carmelo Rafalà on the British Science Fiction Association Awards 2026 nomination for 'The Clarity of ICE' ZamaShort #4.

ZamaShort #4 'The Clarity of Ice' by Carmelo Rafalà

In a remote solar system, a routine planet human-seeding run has gone terribly wrong. Racing against the clock, before their mothership leaves the system and strands them, two bio-farmers Karlyn and Cruz must solve their dilemmas. They are not only battling with incomprehensible system errors and time, but also with unresolved personal issues and the long shadow of their inequitable upbringing. Failure is not an option.

“Carmelo is a real talent. Here, he brings us a bleeding-edge story of biotech in a gripping thriller of far-future planetary colonization. But, even more than that, he explores the nature of society and what drives us. An excellent story.” — Gustavo Bondoni.

“Intriguing and original, this tale features a surprising amount of detail and world-building. Despite being a short story, the window through which we glimpse the world of the story is well realised. The prose is excellent, the characters feel real and the challenges they face have modern day parallels that make the story relatable and compelling. This is science fiction that is heavy on the science but the details come across as informed and believable. Overall, a very enjoyable read.” — Tej Turner.

Carmelo Rafalà, a child of Sicilian immigrants, travelled the world and somehow managed to finish his MA in Comparative English Literature at the University of South Africa. His stories have been published in various anthologies and cross genres, from science fiction to gothic horror. His fiction has been praised by such outlets as The LA Review of Books, SF Revu, and BlackNerdProblems. He is a 2024 SFFSA Nova Award winner for his story, ‘The Stars Must Wait’.  A collection of his fiction will be released later in 2025. His novella, The Madness of Pursuit, was published by Guardbridge Books. He currently resides on the south coast of England.

Released: 1st August 2025.

Get it here:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FJFJHQK4
(Also available at Amazon: UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, IN)
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-clarity-of-ice/id6748969893
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/se/en/ebook/the-clarity-of-ice
Libby: https://share.libbyapp.com/title/12126068 
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-clarity-of-ice-carmelo-rafala/1147877616
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1815804
Fable: https://fable.co/book/x-9789198291377
Thalia: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1076305078 
Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9789198291377_9789198291377_10020/the-clarity-of-ice

The ZamaShort imprint series is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story. We give each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, ZamaShort continues to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.

 

 

ZamaShort #9 ‘Everyone is a Robot until Proven Otherwise’ by Bongani Sibanda

By the year 2099 robots had become an intractable part of South African society until a dire warning of a robots’ rebellion is issued by AndroidsWatch. In the resulting mad scramble, Operation Shanela, headed by General Dube, is tasked with finding and removing all robots. Until the fateful day when Dube himself somehow tests positive for being a robot. On the run, doubting his own humanity, seeing conspiracies everywhere, Dube must try and save the world and himself.

Bongani Sibanda is a novelist and short story writer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the author of the collection of short stories, Grace and Other Stories (Weaver Press, 2016), and the children’s fantasy novels, Jimmy and the Giant Insects and The Goat that Refused to be Slaughtered. He has published short stories in magazines and literary journals such as Munyori, Lolwe, Kalahari Review, and many others. In 2018, he attended the Caine Prize workshop held in Gisenyi Rwanda, where he wrote the story ‘Ngozi’, which was published in the Caine Prize anthology, Redemption Song and Other Stories. In 2015, he was longlisted for the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize for his story ‘Musoke’, a fictionalised account of the Ugandan rebel, Dominic Ongwen.

Released 1st Jan 2026.

Available Here:

Direct from ZamaShort in our Bundle or by Subscription: https://selfany.com/s/ZamaShort

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G9SH46ZK

(Also Amazon UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, IN)

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/everyone-is-a-robot-until-proven-otherwise/id6756815058

Libby: https://share.libbyapp.com/title/12694704

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/se/en/ebook/everyone-is-a-robot-until-proven-otherwise

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/1148998507

Google Play Books: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=9F6iEQAAQBAJ

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1928040

Fable: https://fable.co/book/x-9789189984028

Thalia: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1077780320

Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9789189984028_9789189984028_10020/

The ZamaShort imprint series is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story. We give each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, ZamaShort continues to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.

 

It has been a great start for the ZamaShort imprint with eight excellent works published this year. It was an honour and privilege to partner with these fantastic authors who made this year so amazing.

For your consideration:

ZamaShort #1 'Piss Corpse' by Muthi Nhlema
1st May 2025
Contemporary Fiction
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F1VC85R6

ZamaShort #2 'Summer' by Nerine Dorman
1st June 2025
Science Fiction 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F9LCNRKV

ZamaShort #3 'The Last and Final Battle' by Zainab Omaki 
1st July 2025
Fantasy
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FDQZGCBZ

ZamaShort #4 'The Clarity of Ice' by Carmelo Rafalà
1st August 2025
Science Fiction
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FJFJHQK4

ZamaShort #5 'The Smell of Rain' by Libby Young
1st September 2025
Science Fiction
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FN4LY7D2

ZamaShort #6 'Sindi Fair' by Dare Segun Falowo 
1st October 2025
Fantasy
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FRY5H31R

ZamaShort #7 'When Two Sorcerers Collide' by T.L. Huchu
31st October 2025
Fantasy
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FX2KBC5Z

ZamaShort #8 'The Offertory' by Tabitha Wanja Mwangi
1st Dec 2025
Contemporary Fiction
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G35VGX5V

And that's a wrap for this year! Next year is on the brew with more excellent works lined up and more developments in the pipeline.

 

 

ZamaShort #8 ‘The Offertory’ by Tabitha Wanja Mwangi

A strange offering is discovered in the church of the United Resurrection Savior’s much-revered offertory basket. Devoted parishioner and amateur sleuth Selina Kumi decides to get to the bottom of this mystery. In the process of her investigation Selina will uncover some humorous and uncomfortable truths about her fellow members, her church, and herself. But will she find the culprit?

Tabitha Wanja Mwangi is a mother of three lovely people that give her joy and strength to keep going. She has spent most of her life in a university setting, learning, teaching, and now as an administrator. Her first published works were scientific journal articles, and she later became a freelance science journalist, writing pieces that make health research accessible to general audiences while highlighting the contributions of local researchers. She has written for the Daily Nation (Kenya’s leading newspaper), Msafiri (Kenya Airways flight magazine), and The Conversation, as well as her blog, Tabitha on Health. Her first book, 12 Remarkable African Life Scientists, profiles scientists from Sub-Sahara Africa, with the aim of inspiring young people across the continent to consider careers in the life sciences. Tabitha has also published fiction, contributing short stories to the African Roar anthology, Spark anthology and The Matatu Journal. 

Preorder up, Release 1st Dec 2025.
Available here:

Direct from ZamaShort in our Bundle or by Subscription: https://selfany.com/s/ZamaShort 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G35VGX5V 
(Also Amazon UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, IN)
Apple: https://books.apple.com/se/book/the-offertory/id6755540568 
Libby: https://share.libbyapp.com/title/12605313
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/se/en/ebook/the-offertory 
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-offertory-tabitha-wanja-mwangi/1148780366 
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1907113 
Fable: https://fable.co/book/x-9789189984011 
Thalia: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1077498911 
Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9789189984011_9789189984011_10020/the-offertory 

The ZamaShort imprint series is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story. We give each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, ZamaShort continues to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.

 

🎃The ZamaShort Halloween Special: ZamaShort #7 ‘When Two Sorcerers Collide’ by T.L. Huchu (An Edinburgh Nights prequel story) Bwahahaha!🎃

On a sweltering Halloween night in Harare two legends of the Edinburgh Nights series will meet for the very first time. Before Ropa Moyo, before the catastrophe, there was Melsie Mhondoro and Ian Callander. Together they will face an ancient evil in a land with roots deep as magic itself. Together their actions will resound down the decades. And it all starts right here, right now, tonight.

T.L. Huchu’s work has appeared in Lightspeed, Interzone, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly, The Year’s Best Crime and Mystery Stories 2016, and elsewhere. He is the winner of a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (2023), Alex Award (2022), the Children’s Africana Book Award (2021), a Nommo Award for African SFF (2022, 2017), and has been shortlisted for the Caine Prize (2014) and the Grand prix de l'Imaginaire (2019). The fifth and final instalment of his Edinburgh Nights fantasy series is titled Secrets of the First School. Find him @TendaiHuchu.

Get ‘When Two Sorcerers Collide’ here:

Direct from ZamaShort in our Bundle or by Subscription: https://selfany.com/s/ZamaShort

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FX2KBC5Z

(Also Amazon UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, IN)

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/when-two-sorcerers-collide/id6754262846

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Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/se/en/ebook/when-two-sorcerers-collide

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-two-sorcerers-collide-tl-huchu/1148568278

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1883806

Fable: https://fable.co/book/x-9789189984004

Thalia: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1077190797

Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9789189984004_9789189984004_10020/when-two-sorcerers-collide

The ZamaShort imprint series is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story. We give each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, ZamaShort continues to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.

 

In the mythical African Kingdom of Uju, tragedy strikes down a renown herbalist Janu with a sleeping sickness. Janu’s husband Chief Len—a Hand of the god, Gbew—and his son Fren must undertake a journey to the god's ibudo to find a cure. But there will be a price to be paid for this cure, and Fren will be the one to pay it. What ensues is a tale of magic, hardship, achillean romance, redemption, and finding one’s true self. Direct from the incredibly inventive mind of Dare Segun Falowo, author of Caged Ocean Dub, this new story takes you into the fantastically imagined, layered, and nuanced, world of Uju.

Dare Segun Falowo is a writer in the Nigerian Weird. Their work draws on cinema, indigenous cosmologies, pulp fiction & a lived surreality. Their words have appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Dark, Baffling, Omenana, and more. In 2018, they were longlisted for the Miles Morland Scholarship for African Writing. They have contributed to the essential anthologies of black speculative fiction: Dominion and Africa Risen. Their slipstream epic, ‘Convergence in Chorus Architecture’, was shortlisted for the Subjective Chaos Kind Of Awards and longlisted for the BSFA for Short Fiction. It was also translated into Italian by Zona42 (Convergenza nell’architettura del coro/Convergence in the Architecture of God), and Bengali by Joydhak Prakashan (Aagami Ratrir Upakhyant/Tales From The Other Night: Contemporary African Speculative Fiction). Their work appears in The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, Vol. 2, and also in Horror Library 7 and the Were Tales Anthology, where they wrote as Baba Jide Low. Their debut collection of stories, Caged Ocean Dub released in 2023, and is published in the US, the UK, and Nigeria. They currently live in Lagos, Nigeria.

Get ‘Sindi Fair’ here:

Direct from ZamaShort in our Bundle or by Subscription: https://selfany.com/s/ZamaShort 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FRY5H31R 
(Also Amazon UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, IN)
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/sindi-fair/id6752811338 
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Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/se/en/ebook/sindi-fair 
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Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9789198291391_9789198291391_10020/sindi-fair 

The ZamaShort imprint series is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story. We give each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, ZamaShort continues to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.

 

ZamaShort #5 ‘The Smell of Rain’ by Libby Young

 

In the near future the Climate Crisis rages on relentlessly. On a farm, in the all but abandoned Cape Province in South Africa it has not rained for years, and yet Tilda and her dog Alfie somehow survive. Tilda’s life has shrunk down to a series of lonely routines in an echo of a life long gone. Until the day a desperate young boy breaks her isolation and everything changes.

 

Born in Zambia, Libby Young lived in various parts of southern Africa before settling in Cape Town. With a background in journalism that segued into web development, she now teaches English as a second language to adults from all over the world at the University of Cape Town, where she is also working towards a doctorate that combines environmental and cultural geography with literary studies.

 

Released 1^st September 2025.

 

Available here:

 

Direct from ZamaShort at our shop in our Bundles or by Subscription: https://www.zamashort.com/p/shop.html

 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FN4LY7D2
 (Also Amazon UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, IN)

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-smell-of-rain/id6751289360

Kobo: www.kobo.com/ebook/the-smell-of-rain-5

Libby: https://share.libbyapp.com/title/12223047

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-smell-of-rain-libby-young/1148080805

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1837096

Fable: https://fable.co/book/x-9789198291384

Thalia: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1076613719

Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9789198291384_9789198291384_10020/the-smell-of-rain

 

The ZamaShort imprint series is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story. We give each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, ZamaShort continues to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.

 

In a remote solar system, a routine planet human-seeding run has gone terribly wrong. Racing against the clock, before their mothership leaves the system and strands them, two bio-farmers Karlyn and Cruz must solve their dilemmas. They are not only battling with incomprehensible system errors and time, but also with unresolved personal issues and the long shadow of their inequitable upbringing. Failure is not an option.

“Carmelo is a real talent. Here, he brings us a bleeding-edge story of biotech in a gripping thriller of far-future planetary colonization. But, even more than that, he explores the nature of society and what drives us. An excellent story.” — Gustavo Bondoni.

“Intriguing and original, this tale features a surprising amount of detail and world-building. Despite being a short story, the window through which we glimpse the world of the story is well realised. The prose is excellent, the characters feel real and the challenges they face have modern day parallels that make the story relatable and compelling. This is science fiction that is heavy on the science but the details come across as informed and believable. Overall, a very enjoyable read.” — Tej Turner.

Carmelo Rafalà, a child of Sicilian immigrants, travelled the world and somehow managed to finish his MA in Comparative English Literature at the University of South Africa. His stories have been published in various anthologies and cross genres, from science fiction to gothic horror. His fiction has been praised by such outlets as The LA Review of Books, SF Revu, and BlackNerdProblems. He is a 2024 SFFSA Nova Award winner for his story, ‘The Stars Must Wait’.  A collection of his fiction will be released later in 2025. His novella, The Madness of Pursuit, was published by Guardbridge Books. He currently resides on the south coast of England.

Released: 1st August 2025.

Get it here:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FJFJHQK4
(Also available at Amazon: UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, IN)
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-clarity-of-ice/id6748969893
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/se/en/ebook/the-clarity-of-ice
Libby: https://share.libbyapp.com/title/12126068 
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-clarity-of-ice-carmelo-rafala/1147877616
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1815804
Fable: https://fable.co/book/x-9789198291377
Thalia: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1076305078 
Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9789198291377_9789198291377_10020/the-clarity-of-ice

The ZamaShort imprint series is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story. We give each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, ZamaShort continues to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.

 

ZamaShort #3 ‘The Last and Final Battle’ by Zainab Omaki

 

The world is in chaos, climate crisis, wars, extinctions, inequality, poverty, and pandemics, and one Yoruba god has just had enough. Abandoning centuries of non-interference the Great God Sango; Orisha of Orishas; God of Thunder, Fire, and Lightning; God of Justice and Leadership, returns to Earth, and he’s not alone.

 

Zainab Omaki is a Nigerian writer currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She holds a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, where she was awarded the Miles Morland African Writers Scholarship. Her essays, fiction, and literary criticism have appeared in Five Points, The Los Angeles Review, Passages North, Transition Magazine, The Rumpus, and other publications. Her novel-in-progress has received support from the University of Bayreuth in Germany, the Jan Michalski Foundation in Switzerland, and the Nebraska Arts Council. She currently serves as Assistant Nonfiction Editor at Prairie Schooner.

 

The ZamaShort imprint series is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story. We give each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, ZamaShort continues to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.

 

Released 1^st July 2025.

 

Available here:

 

Direct from ZamaShort at our shop in our Bundles or by Subscription: https://www.zamashort.com/p/shop.html

 

Amazon US (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F1VDP63L)
 (Also: UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, IN)
Apple: (https://books.apple.com/us/book-series/zamashort/id1802930815)
Kobo: (https://www.kobo.com/se/en/ebook/the-last-and-final-battle)
Google Play: (https://play.google.com/store/books/series?id=ZEt5HAAAABAcVM)
Libby: (https://share.libbyapp.com/title/12038423)
B&N: (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/ZamaShort)
Smashwords: (https://www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/129158)
Thalia: (https://www.thalia.de/suche?sq=ZamaShort)
Vivlio: (https://shop.vivlio.com/serie/storytime-zamashort/261261)
Fable: (https://fable.co/book/x-9789198291360)
Angus and Robertson: (https://www.angusrobertson.com.au/ebooks/the-last-and-final-battle-zainab-omaki/p/9789198291360)

ZamaShort #2 ‘Summer’ by Nerine Dorman 

In the far future on the outer reaches of the great human space diaspora Hannali and her husband Mika toil daily under alien skies on their farm. On a break into town Hannali spots Summer, a childhood friend, on a scaffold waiting to be hanged. What ensues is a touching tale of choices made, different paths taken, bonds formed and broken, what makes us who we are, and how we travel through life.

Nerine Dorman is a South African author and editor of science fiction and fantasy currently living in Cape Town, with short fiction published in numerous anthologies. Her novel Sing down the Stars won Gold for the Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature in 2019 and The Percy Fitzpatrick Award for Children's and Youth Literature in 2021. Her YA fantasy novella Dragon Forged was a finalist in the Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature in 2017. Her short story ‘On the Other Side of the Sea’ (Omenana, 2017) was shortlisted for a 2018 Nommo award. Her novella The Firebird won a Nommo for “Best Novella” in 2019. In addition, she is a founding member of the SFF authors’ co-operative Skolion, and the curator of the South African Horrorfest Bloody Parchment event and short story competition.

The ZamaShort imprint series is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story. We give each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, ZamaShort continues to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.

Released: 1st June 2025.

Get it here:

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F9LCNRKV 
(Also: UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, IN)
Libby: https://share.libbyapp.com/title/11958242 
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/summer/id6746262119 
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/summer-nerine-dorman/1147460895
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/se/en/ebook/summer-247 
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1775172 
Fable: https://fable.co/book/x-9789198291353 
Thalia: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1075458736
Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9789198291353_9789198291353_10020/summer
Angus and Robertson: https://www.angusrobertson.com.au/ebooks/summer-nerine-dorman/p/9789198291353 

ZamaShort #1 ‘Piss Corpse’ by Muthi Nhlema

 

Meet Charlotte, Peace Corps volunteer fresh off the plane from Iowa to Malawi and teaching English at a local school. Loaded with hilarious preconceptions as an American, feminist, and agnostic, she expected an adventure — just not one where trousers mean pants and white privilege feels like the punchline of a bad joke. With the help of her spirited chaperone, Malawian Mbumba, Charlotte is ushered into a culture clash more like a train smash and has never felt more alive.

 

“‘Piss Corpse’ is a marvellous debut in the ZamaShort series. The very best elements of short stories – characters immediately brought to life, a setting both familiar and defamiliarized, a tight narrative arc with a perfectly paced ending, and, best of all, the type of satire that makes African humour so brilliant.”

— Tsitsi Ella Jaji.

 

“Nhlema's prose is electric and fizzy, accentuating the absurd in this delightful comedy of cross-cultural confusion. You will laugh your head off and be wowed by this tale.”

— Tendai Huchu.

 

“Nhlema writes with wit and irony. I enjoyed this humorous take on culture-clashes.”

— Brian Chikwava.

 

 “‘Piss Corpse’ is a story with an attitude. It might even be the right attitude. In its ferocity, revulsion at male oppression and corporate cultural garbage, and its weird and coruscating wit, it reads like a mixture of Celine and early Ngugi. Paraffin for wine drinkers.”

— Imraan Coovadia.

 

“With biting satire and irreverent humour, “Piss Corpse” dives headfirst into the messiness of cultural collisions, linguistic blunders, the pitfalls of performative wokeness, and the unexpected grace of getting everything wrong.”

— Ekari Mbvundula Chirombo.

 

When Muthi Nhlema isn't managing a non-profit or trying to understand his 12-year-old son’s obsession with anime. He is a Malawian writer best known for his adventures (and misadventures) in African speculative fiction. This story was written during his stay in the International Writing Program at the Universty of Iowa.

 

‘Piss Corpse’ was selected to be the debut short story of the ZamaShort imprint series of single short stories. ZamaShort is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story, giving each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed and savoured fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, with ZamaShort will continue to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.

 

Released 1^st May 2015

 

Available here:

 

Direct from ZamaShort at our shop here in our Bundles or by Subscription: https://www.zamashort.com/p/shop.html

 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0F1VC85R6

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/piss-corpse/id6743448042

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/se/en/ebook/piss-corpse

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1731412

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/piss-corpse-muthi-nhlema/1147154581

Thalia: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1074806214

Angus and Robertson: https://www.angusrobertson.com.au/ebooks/piss-corpse-muthi-nhlema/p/9789198291346

Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9789198291346_9789198291346_10020/piss-corpse