Editor’s Note

Dear Brittle Paperians,

Our fourth Festive Anthology is here just in time for the holiday season! Over the past three years, we celebrated festive stories in HomeGrown Joy, recipes and food in Table Setting, and preparation and anticipation in Counting Down the Holidays. This year’s anthology, Seasonal Migration: Diasporic Festive Tales, is a collection of poems and stories that share what it’s like to be away from home and loved ones during special moments.

Brittle Paper prides itself on sharing the stories of both writers from the continent and the African diaspora. So, with great joy, we dedicate this anthology to our diasporic community. Over the years, we have celebrated the stories of festive traditions, but this year, we are sharing the stories of what happens when one is away from the familiar, and how longing, settling in, and forging new paths lead to new, emotional and interesting experiences.

This anthology is only made possible because of our amazing contributing writers from Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi, Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, DRC, Ghana, and Botswana. Seasonal Migration is split into three parts, each representing a phase of the transitioning process. In the first section, Baggage Check, Phodiso Modirwa and Seyram Klu De-Souza, with their fellow writers, explore the difficult side of growing pains and longing. Next, with Nomalisa Dube and Marjorie Namara Ruganda, Borderline conveys the discomfort of being settled but still unsure of the new environment. And finally, Grounded looks at the new experiences, relationships, and joy that can come from being out of one’s comfort zone, through the stories of Tonye George and Nyachiro Lydia Kasese.

Wherever you are this holiday season, we hope you are making memories along the way and celebrating yourself for making it through 2025! Brittle Paper hopes you have a joyous festive period and a New Year of happiness!

 

Happy Reading!
– Tahzeeb Akram

Download for Free: Seasonal Migration