midnight & indigo - Issue 16

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PUB DATE: APRIL 20th

In Issue 16, nine Black women writers from across the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe share unforgettable short stories and essays that span four continents and nearly a century of Black women's lives.

You'll meet a character with a new license, a big Jamaican family, and the whole night ahead of her. A woman at a village burial who travels back through every version of herself she has ever been. A Sudanese-American couple learning to grieve together what they never quite learned to love together. And a dinner party with friends in which one secret changes everything.⁠
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You'll ride through Lagos days before the world closed, sit in a car with an unexpectedly funny passenger, run with a young girl in rural South Carolina at play while her mother watches, follow oysters from a great-grandmother's kitchen in Maryland to a wine bar in Paris, and stand with a Black American student in Cape Town as she discovers that the mirror Africa holds up to her is not the one she packed.⁠

From 1940s South Carolina to Lagos in 2020, from a Nigerian village to a Cape Town classroom, a Paris market to a Toronto bungalow on a Friday night, this is a collection about characters with somewhere to be.

ISBN: 978-1-972798-00-3
Pages: 147
Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 inches

**Please note: Since issues are printed upon purchase, items are not returnable/refundable.

Chantelle Chiwetalu, Alisha Jana Dundy, Shinelle L. Espaillat, Christian Herald, Nihal Mubarak, C.S. Odili, Sabrina Stuart Smith, Chisomaga Umenyi, and Marie Winfield.

Short Stories

"Drive" by Sabrina Stuart Smith
Sixteen-year-old Desiree Wright has just gotten her license and has plans: a road trip to Niagara Falls with her boyfriend. First she has to get through her father's surprise birthday party, crammed inside their Toronto bungalow with her big Jamaican family and all the provocations that come with them.

"Gone, But Not" by Alisha Jana Dundy
Set in rural Chesterfield, South Carolina in the 1940s, the story follows a young girl at play, chasing the memory of her recently lost younger brother while her pregnant mother watches. Moving between childhood games, the weight of mourning, and brief, involuntary joy, it examines how love persists.

"Expectations" by Nihal Mubarak
A Sudanese-American couple navigates the distance between what was expected and what is real. The story moves from past to present as Salma struggles to love her husband after a life changing event. It is loosely inspired by Jhumpa Lahiri's short story, "A Temporary Matter."

"The Republic is Still Under Construction" by Chisomaga Umenyi
A woman returns to her village for her mother-in-law’s burial, navigating the ache of children grown and dispersed across continents. Through memories of motherhood, first love, and marriage, she confronts a life lived.

"You Must Leave Me at Home" by C.S. Odili
It's 2020. Pamela is days away from San Francisco, an exciting career shift, and meeting with her long-distance boyfriend. As she navigates a world reshaped by the pandemic, she is forced to confront her present and the ghosts of her past.

"I Don't Know How to Wink" by Chantelle Chiwetalu
A jaded collection officer transports a recovering mental health patient to a rehabilitation center. A story about two women defined by institutions that thought they understood them.

"Onyx" by Shinelle L. Espaillat
Opens during a dinner party with friends who have known each other long enough to stop paying close attention. A secret surfaces, but arriving does not mean the room is ready for it.

Essays

"The World, My Oyster" by Marie Winfield
From Paris to New York City's history, a Black American woman traces the oyster as inheritance: from her great-grandmother's Maryland kitchen to a Parisian wine bar where something familiar finds her when she least expects it.

"Being a Black American in South Africa: So Far From Home, Yet So Close" by Christian Herald
A young Black American woman studies at the University of Cape Town and discovers that the mirror Africa holds up to her is not the one she packed. An essay about identity, privilege, and what it means to be a foreigner in your place of origin.
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I.

A sixteen-year-old navigates her father's birthday party, big family, and the open road ahead. A mother at a gravesite in rural South Carolina where her daughter is running and laughing in the tall grass. A Sudanese woman prepares her best dress and her best news for her husband.

II.

A woman pounds yam at a village burial and remembers every version of herself she has ever been. Another in Lagos is days away from San Francisco and a life she has not yet had the chance to inhabit, when the world closes. A collection officer picks up a recovering mental health patient named Rose. Rose has opinions.

III.

A dinner party with friends who have known each other long enough to stop paying close attention. A secret surfaces. A Black American woman abroad traces the oyster as inheritance, from her great-grandmother's kitchen in Maryland to a Parisian wine bar. A young Black American woman studies in Cape Town and discovers that the mirror Africa holds up to her is not the one she packed.