Closure
Page 28
Of the two of them, Tommy went first. His congested lungs were weak anyway. Lawani sat still, conserving himself in case someone broke through and air – clean, crisp, salty, invigorating sea air – rushed in to save them.
*
Epilogue
Frankie, as he was known, grew up in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. In the village and surrounding areas everyone knew him as the son of the African who had been buried in one of the worst mine disasters of the 1880s. About his father, his mother told him little. He’d once been a seaman. He’d come from foreign. Look at this dagger, Frankie. I don’t have no photographs.
When the boy was teased by the other children, his mother reassured him. Don’t listen to them, Frankie. You’re the same as everyone else. Nay, you’re better you are. You’re special.
He wanted to believe her.
Morwenna remained a bal maiden until the day she died at the age of thirty-five. She was a known drinker and brawler.
A year after her death, young Frankie went to the city of Exeter in search of a job that did not involve burying himself alive down a mine or coughing up blood all day until he died before his time. In Exeter, he was mistaken for a Neapolitan or one of the Portuguese seamen who came up the canal into town. He passed and married a grocer’s daughter, Emily. They had five sons, who looked as pale as their mother.
He never spoke of the father he had never known and he died before his own children were old enough to be curious enough to ask.
His sons fought in the First World War, except the youngest, Walter, who came of age in the interwar years and was posted as an administrator in the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. He was stationed in the city of Lagos, as a representative of his people, the British.
He died at home in the town of Exmouth in 1979, surrounded by his children and grandchildren.
Among his possessions was the family heirloom displayed in a cabinet in his living room: a dagger with a horn handle studded with coins.
Origins unknown.
CONTRIBUTORS
Monica Ali is the author of four books, Brick Lane, Alentejo Blue, In the Kitchen, and Untold Story.
Dinesh Angelo Allirajah (6.05.1967-9.12.2014) described his writing as “narratives of the unnoticed moment”, giving airplay to what happens “on the edge of the crowd”, where characters have to suddenly reassess who and what they are. He worked tirelessly as a believer in the liberating and educating power of the arts. The loss of his voice humorous, witty and deeply moving leaves a silence. He is survived by his mother, Evelyn, and older brother Duleep, his fiancée Vic, two sons Bruno and Rufus, and their mother, his ex-partner Jo.
Muli Amaye teaches creative writing at Soran University. She has short stories published in Moving Worlds Journal (2009, 2012). Her MA novel was long listed for the SI Leeds Prize 2014. She’s currently editing her PhD novel for publication.
Lynne E. Blackwood’s poetry, short stories and plays are inspired by a life rich in emotions, events and stories from people around the world she has met, influenced by her Anglo-Indian heritage sensitivities.
Judith Bryan’s work includes Bernard and the Cloth Monkey (Saga Prize 1997), and A Cold Snap/ Keeping Mum (second, Alfred Fagon Award 2008; Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, 2011). She lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Roehampton.
Nana-Essi Casely-Hayford is a storyteller and writer who works as a part-time Visiting Lecturer at one of the Leeds City Colleges, where she facilitates Positive Wellbeing & Expressive Visualisation Through the Arts.
Jacqueline Clarke was born in Bristol to parents of Jamaican heritage. She has a short story in Voice, Memory, Ashes (Mango Tree Press). She has written a novel, a play and is currently working on a film script.
Jacqueline Crooks is a Jamaican-born writer. She writes about Caribbean migration and subcultures. She has been published by Granta, Virago and MsLexia.
Fred D’Aguiar has published loads of books. His latest poetry collection is The Rose of Toulouse (Carcanet, 2013). His most recent novel is Children of Paradise (Granta, 2014).
Sylvia Dickinson’s stories are influenced by her multi-cultural community of Cape Town. She lives near Chichester University, where she achieved an MA in Creative Writing. Her ambition is to publish a novel.
Bernardine Evaristo is an editor, critic, dramatist and the award-winning author of seven books of fiction and verse fiction including Mr Loverman (Penguin, 2013). She was awarded an MBE in 2009. www.bevaristo.com
Gaylene Gould’s short stories have been published in various anthologies and she is completing her first novel which won the 2012 Commonword Diversity Prize. She is an artist coach and a broadcaster presenting regularly on BBC Radio 4.
Michelle Inniss was born in Liverpool to Trinidadian parents. She is studying for an MA in Creative Writing at Brunel University. She was a runner-up for The Decibel Prize and was shortlisted for The Fish Short Story Prize. Her first play, She Called Me Mother, was produced by Pitch Lake Productions.
Valda Jackson is an accomplished visual artist who writes fiction and non-fiction that expands the breadth of her narrative. Shortlisted for BBC Opening Lines 2015, Jamaican born, Jackson’s public sculptures and paintings are exhibited internationally. www.valdajackson.com
Pete Kalu is a novelist. He has sung opera in German, been detained in Calabar, Nigeria, busked near Islamabad, Pakistan and felled trees in Canada. Some of this is untrue.
Patrice Lawrence is of Italian-Trinidadian heritage. She writes for adults and children and has been published by A & C Black, Scholastic, Pearsons and Hamish Hamilton. Her young adult novel, Orangeboy, is forthcoming (Hodder, 2016). http://patricelawrence.wordpress.com/.
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is an Associate Lecturer at Lancaster University. Jennifer’s novel, Kintu, won the Kwani Manuscript Project in 2013, published in 2014. “Let’s Tell This Story Properly” won the Commonwealth Short Prize 2014.
Tariq Mehmood’s novels include Hand On The Sun, While There Is Light and You’re Not Proper. He co-directed the award-winning documentary Injustice. He teaches at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.
Raman Mundair is the author of Lovers, Liars, Conjurers and Thieves, A Choreographer’s Cartography, both poetry, and The Algebra of Freedom (a play). She edited Incoming: Some Shetland Voices. Raman was awarded a Leverhulme Artists Residency, a Robert Louis Stevenson award and is a nominee for the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. shetlandamenity.org/the-artist
Sai Murray is a writer, spoken word artist, arts facilitator and graphic designer. His poetry collection Ad-liberation and the first part of his novel Kill Myself Now are published by Peepal Tree Press.
Chantal Oakes is a multimedia artist, an MA graduate in Fine Art, a regular contributor to academic, community and fictional publications, and is currently writing her first historical novel.
Karen Onojaife’s work has been published in Mslexia, Sable LitMag and Callaloo. Her novel won second place and the Reader’s Choice Award in the SI Leeds Literary Prize 2012. She is a VONA/Voices Fellow.
Koye Oyedeji is a writer and critic. His work has appeared in the anthologies, IC3 and The Fire People and featured in Wasafiri and Brand magazines. He is a contributing editor for SABLE Litmag.
Louisa Adjoa Parker is of Ghanaian/English heritage. Her poetry collection, Salt-sweat and Tears, was published in 2007. Her work has appeared in Wasafiri, The Forward Prize Collection, Envoi and Out of Bounds.
Desiree Reynolds started her writing career as a freelance journalist for the Jamaican Gleaner in London. She is a broadcaster and creative writing workshop facilitator. Her debut novel is Seduce published by Peepal Tree Press.
Hana Riaz is the director of The Body Narratives, an organisation committed to the healing, reclamation and resilience found in Women of Colour’s stories and work. She believes in the transformatory power of love.
Akila Richards is of German and Liberian heritage. Her poetry and fiction has been anthol
ogised in Red, and True Tales of Mixed Heritage Experience: The Map of Me, and she co-edited Ink On My Lips by Waterloo Press.
Leone Ross is the author of critically-acclaimed novels All The Blood Is Red and Orange Laughter. Her speculative fiction and erotica has been widely anthologised. Ross is a senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Roehampton University, London. www.leoneross.com
Seni Seneviratne is a writer and creative artist of English/Sri Lankan heritage, who is widely published. Her latest collection is The Heart of It (Peepal Tree Press, 2012) www.seniseneviratne.com
Ayesha Siddiqi is based in London. She writes short stories and plays. She is also a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at UCL.
Mahsuda Snaith is a writer of short stories, novels and plays. She was selected as a finalist for the Mslexia Novel Competition 2013 and won the Bristol Short Story Prize and the SI Leeds Literary Prize in 2014. www.mahsudasnaith.com.
ALSO FROM INSCRIBE/PEEPAL TREE
RED
Edited by Kwame Dawes
ISBN: 9781845231293; pp. 252; pub. 2010; price: £9.99
“Perhaps the most significant thing to be said about Red is that the poets in this volume burst through any constraining label with writing that throbs and pulses and seeps and flows.”
— Margaret Busby
Featuring:
John Agard, Patience Agbabi, Maya Chowdhry, Fred D’Aguiar, Bernardine Evaristo, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jackie Kay, Roi Kwabena, John Lyons, Jack Mapanje, Raman Mundair, Daljit Nagra, Grace Nichols, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Lemn Sissay, Dorothea Smartt, Gemma Weekes, Wangui Wa Goro and many more…
Red collects poems that engage “red”, poems by Black British poets writing with the word “red” in mind – as a kind of leap-off point, a context, a germ – the way something small, minor, or grand might spur a poem. It offers the reader the freedom to come to whatever conclusions they want to about what writing as a poet who is also Black and British might mean.
The result is a book of poets ranging from well-established and published writers to first-time published poets. Red does find its usual associations with blood, violence, passion, and anger. Sometimes it is linked with sensuality and sexuality. But there are surprises, when red defines a memory or mood, the quality of light in a sky, the colour of skin, the sound of a song, and much, much more. The anthology, therefore, succeeds in producing poems that seem to be first about image, and only then about whatever else fascinates the poet.
In this sense, Red is a different kind of anthology of Black British writing, and the richness of the entries, the moods, the humour, the passion, the reflection, the confessional all confirm that Black British poetry is a lively and defining force in Britain today.
____________________
Find over 300 Caribbean and Black British titles on www.peepaltreepress.com