Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa - (Paperback)

About the Book

Dissent, disease, disaster: introducing Disruption, a short story collection from new and emerging African writers, many for the first time on North American shelves. Spanning genres, eras, and the African continent, from Libya, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, South Africa, Zambia, Uganda and beyond, these 21 futuristic, evocative stories on the theme of disruption bring a distinctive African flavor to the global issues haunting our newsfeeds and harassing our dreams: climate change, pandemics, social upheaval, surveillance, and more.

Book Synopsis

Dissent, disease, disaster: introducing Disruption, a short story collection from new and emerging African writers, many for the first time on North American shelves. Spanning genres, eras, and the African continent, from Libya, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, South Africa, Zambia, Uganda and beyond, these 21 futuristic, evocative stories on the theme of disruption bring a distinctive African flavor to the global issues haunting our newsfeeds and harassing our dreams: climate change, pandemics, social upheaval, surveillance, and more.

Review Quotes

"[A] wonderful and diverse cross-section of stories from a variety of African countries... all bristling with energy and providing novel ways of seeing and learning to confront our global challenges." - Nick Wood, on Shepherd

"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 stories [in Disruption] showcase that the Africans are not helpless, passive individuals. They are adapting to this changing world. They are coming up with solutions to make their world even better." --Mphuthumi Ntabeni on FiveBooks, "The Best African Contemporary Writing"

"Profound in so many aspects - touching on fear and obsession, sexualities and desire, cycles, times, seers and ancestral callings, the natural and artificial, how appearance and realities impact the environment and extractive relationships in the postcolony - it explores in a subtle way how the choices we make matter." -Africa in Words review of Idza Luhumyo's "Five Years Next Sunday", featured in Disruption

"The anthology is built around the theme of disruption, and more specifically around the ideas of shortage, disaster, and crisis. These recur again and again through the lens of each new story, building into a wonderfully diverse, often grim portrait of a world moving toward ruin or rebirth. [...] [A] wonderful project." -Locus Magazine

"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 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 Literatures in English, Cornell University

"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

"50 Notable African Books of 2021″-Brittle Paper

"60 Best Books of 2021″--Open Country Magazine

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