Nalubaale Review Literary Magazine has unveiled its fifth issue, a powerful and wide-ranging collection that embraces the complexities of departure and the weight of survival. This latest issue is edited by Nakitto Irene, editor of The Nalubaale Review.

In the editor’s note, Irene encapsulates the essence of this issue: “This issue of Nalubaale Review dares to inhabit that liminal space: between what we leave and what we carry. It is filled with stories that do not flinch, voices that do not prettify suffering, and writers who reach for truth with both hands.” The collection holds stories of airports, hotels, beds and train stations, spanning from Lagos bridges to snowy London flats, visiting desert waiting zones and abandoned hospital wings.

On the other side of departure is survival. Whether you’re a survivor of systems or a seeker of reinvention, this issue offers testimony for the transit-weary. The writing sings, aches, protests, and escapes. All under a paradox of life: “departure is not always freeing, and survival is not always heroic.” This thematic thread of departure as a site of discovery, rupture, and resilience runs through every section of the issue’s short stories and poems.

The featured works include “stories that throb, stories that haunt, stories that don’t ask permission before unpacking their truths in your chest”. “A Year After Midnight” tells the story of a Nigerian doctor who survives a hospital mob, miscarriage, and professional exile. Other works including “Home as Laughter,” “Breaking Free,” “The Gates Are Closing,” and “The Need to Leave Things Behind” each convey a pulse of memory or dignity, expressing displacement, defiance, and the complex realities of migration. The three poems, “The First Draft of a Departure” by Edina Yawo Denoo, “When All I Have Seen Is Now A Sin” by Saadhatu Uzair and “A Letter to My Sister” by Saadhatu Uzair all carry such weight that can scarcely be put into words. 

The collection burns with honesty and cools with grace. These narratives navigate the emotional terrain of transition, identity, loss, and the unsettling power of displacement across borders and bureaucracies.

Founded as a platform for contemporary African and diaspora writing, Nalubaale Review continues to push the boundaries of narrative and geography. The magazine has emerged as a respected voice for migration narratives and stories of resilience.

Read the full issue here and explore the works that unravel departure and survival in all their complex forms.