Today I was reading about decimals and fractions during my commercial break and realized how ‘stale’ I had become mathematically. I’ve never been one gifted at numerals but I know how to count my money. I am actually so bad at numbers I can only count beyond 100 in my father tongue. Knowing my limitations, […]
About MKB
Mildred Kiconco Barya is a North Carolina-based writer, educator, and poet of East African descent. She teaches and lectures globally, and is the author of four full-length poetry collections, most recently "The Animals of My Earth School" released by Terrapin Books, 2023. Her prose, hybrids, and poems have appeared in Shenandoah, Joyland, The Cincinnati Review, Tin House, New England Review, and elsewhere. She’s now working on a collection of creative nonfiction, and her essay, “Being Here in This Body”, won the 2020 Linda Flowers Literary Award and was published in the North Carolina Literary Review. She serves on the boards of African Writers Trust, Story Parlor, and coordinates the Poetrio Reading events at Malaprop’s Independent Bookstore/Café. She blogs here: www.mildredbarya.comMy home sky ever so close.
I used to wonder why the sky appeared close when I was growing up. So close often I stretched my hand to touch it. Sometimes the swirl of white clouds in the blue sky looked like rolled up mats rested against the hills. I climbed one hill after another to go lie in those white […]
Something fresh
There is a writing revolution witnessed in new works making up African Literature today. The African Writing online magazine is a breeze of fresh air worth to inhale. It is doing an important task of gathering and saluting new writers on the scene, while continuing to gift the world from past reservoirs.
October Dawn.
In the Gregorian calendar, October is usually a dead month. Seasons come to an end. Even love affairs seem to end with the October heat, October cold. A lot of inactivity sets in. Before long October is hushed and swept under the carpet like it never happened. November is welcomed as it ushers in change, […]
Portugal
Words grow cold Time sits in the mirror And when you look Years stare What happened, you ask? When did I leave the race? A tear, a shiver, All from the cracking place.
One writer’s postcard (the Pan African Literary Forum in Ghana)
I’ve been wanting to write this for a very long time—a new post for my blog. Every time I’ve sat before my computer I’ve been overwhelmed by how much I have to sieve through. I am thinking I’ve been under a writer’s block of a different kind—finding myself with too much information and therefore not […]
Africa in the here and now: the fate of MDG’s & undemocratic states.
When I was young and impressionable I had this grand vision of saving the world. It was so easy to dream up a free and fair world where sanity, justice and good health prevailed. It was even easier to engage in activities that could quicken the coming into being of those dreams. Now that I […]
Memory Chirere’s cogent review of “Dreams, Miracles and Jazz”
A review has come out on the recently published short story anthology of new African writing: “Dreams, Miracles and Jazz“, in which my story, Land of my bones, is published.
Happy news & other news
Happy news: For the Pan African Literary Forum contest, I took first place in the Africana Fiction category. I am doubly honored as Junot Díaz, the Pulitzer Prize winning fiction writer and essayist, was the judge for that category. Other news: Two unpublished novels. One complete; one still in progress. Notes on both below.
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MKB: Dear Nyakisa, Good news! "The Animals of My Earth...
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Nyakisa Beth: Will it be available in Uganda?...
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Wm Epes: Dr. Barya: Hope you are well. Enj...
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