Ivor W. Hartmann is a Zimbabwean writer, editor, publisher, and visual artist. Awarded The Golden Baobab Prize (2009), finalist for the Yvonne Vera Award (2011), selected for The 20 in Twenty: The Best Short Stories of South Africa’s Democracy (2014), awarded third in the Jalada Prize for Literature (2015), and Nommo Awards nomination (2017). His works have appeared in many publications. He also runs the StoryTime micro-press, publisher of the African Roar and AfroSF series of anthologies.

02 October 2014

African Roar 2014 Released!

African Roar 2014 released!

From the introduction to African Roar 2014:

Writers have a long tradition of breaking new ground, and African writers are no exception to this tradition. We don’t wait for publishers who wait for markets to become established, no, we jump into the deep end and form those markets ourselves. Whether it’s a publishing collective, micro-press, small press, blogs, tweets, magazines, spoken word events, or even handing out photocopies on street corners, we find a way to make ourselves heard. We do this not for some ethereal ideology, but because for us, writing and being read is an imperative no less strong than the act of breathing. It haunts our lives, driving us forward into acts of creativity we couldn’t have dreamed possible had we stopped and instead questioned ourselves into muteness.
Certainly, there is always a place for discussion and constructive criticism, always, but it should never lessen our imperative, our blind impulse. Creativity is an unknown quantity, a wild card in the human story without which we would have bored ourselves into extinction. As writers we understand this intuitively perhaps, we also understand that creativity is a communal experience; it cannot exist in a vacuum.
This is why in a continent as vast as Africa, literature initiatives no matter how small are so needed. In this age there is no longer any excuse to sit back and complain about, no, for every complaint there is an opportunity to go and do something about it—we all have that power as individuals and communally. And indeed this is exactly what many of us are doing across the continent as this is truly a new age for African literature. Gone are the gatekeepers, gone is the time of anyone picking and choosing what our narratives shall be, and gone is the single story. What is left now is for us to but realise it and go forth and get on with it. We have the readers, we have the audience. Africa, despite what anyone may say, is a continent of avid readers in many mediums, and we have a continent of storytellers to match their thirst word for word in all genres conceivable.

It gives me great pleasure to bring to you the fifth African Roar, indeed how time has flown. For five years now Emmanuel Sigauke and I have edited and published some of the most exciting new fiction from African writers—mostly upcoming writers, many of whom now have thriving, even lauded, writing careers. Indeed this was always the idea of StoryTime, to provide an independent Pan-African publishing platform for new voices and explorations, and in this I feel we have succeeded and surpassed our original expectations. - Ed. Ivor W. Hartmann

African Roar 2014 at Amazon
African Roar 2014 at Amazon UK
African Roar 2014 at Amazon India
African Roar 2014 at Amazon Germany
African Roar 2014 at Amazon France
African Roar 2014 at Amazon Spain
African Roar 2014 at Amazon Italy
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African Roar 2014 is volume five of the African Roar annual anthology dedicated to publishing excellent new and original short fiction by emerging and established African writers. Selected from submissions open to all African writers on the continent and abroad. Edited by Ivor W. Hartmann.

Table of Contents:
Introduction - Ivor W. Hartmann
'Flight' Jayne Bauling
'My Wedding Day' Obinna Ozoigbo
'The Side Dish' Edwin P. Magezi
'Beth's Aid' Tabitha Wanja Mwangi
'Talking to a Lizard' Obinna Udenwe
'Coming Home in a Box' Olorunfunmi Demilade Temitope
'The Bell Not Touched' Nonso Uzozie
'Spinoza's Monad' Ezeiyoke Chukwunonso
'A Salute to Safety Sam' Tendai Machingaidze

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