Here’s to us, one more toast! Another year has come and is about to go as we briefly close our doors on the 20th of December 2023. No worries, we will reopen on the 10th of January to continue doing what we do best, tell stories. Next year is remarkably special to us as it will be our seventh year and we are very excited. There are going to be strong changes with our submissions in line...
Hello! This is the fourth issue of the pencilmarks anthology series and this time, we are bringing you short stories. An anthology of meaning. We hope you enjoy and support us as you have always done. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
RESONANCE: A SHORT STORY ANTHOLOGY, DEC 2023
Struggles of motherhood, Agonizing, however fulfilling. I toiled day and night, So I may reap what I sow. Bodies grinding with sweats, With no pleasure on sight. Despair had been my abode, With no child to call my own. Then you happened, The joy that cometh by morning. Only that I was jinxed, For I bore an Abiku! With a razor, you were scarred Never to return to my dwelling...
CHETA: You spend weekends tasting bliss off each other’s bodies. But this weekend, like the last, you are alone, surrounded by an eerie silence. Davido’s Ekuro is blasting on your boom box: Eh when I look into your eyes. You are a blessing in disguise. You make me wanna do the ring around the roses… Forlorn, you log in to your Instagram. In the reels you watch, the Nigerian couples are...
Sisters by chance, friends by choice. I was two years old when my sister was born, I don’t remember it. I haven’t really thought about it, until now. I imagine it being a sunny Friday, I imagine the sky being the prettiest shade of blue because her spirit is so bright and my sister is the most beautiful being to grace this heavy world. I imagine the birds singing beautiful songs as our...
“Do you remember the feeling of walking under water?” “Yes.” “It’s hard right? But it’s possible. Deep breaths. “Now have you ever gotten stuck in quicksand?” “No.” “It’s impossible, isn’t it? It feels as though you’re trapped with no way out.” Eyes closed. Hands trembling. “That’s how I feel most of the time.” It took a lot to get here. Two months precisely. Two months of staring at each other...
Okadabooks sent a wave of shock through the Nigerian literary space on Monday the 20th of November 2023 that they would be shutting down. This impacted the community especially writers who published their first piece with them. Here at Pencilmarks, the news hit us harder because the founder got published for the first time on okadabooks and okadabooks remains a fervent isnspiration to the house...
today my mother calls me, even though we spoke the night before. i am not ready for any of it, so i still, until i can, until i am alone, and am charged enough to hear it whatever it is. in her first syllables, i hear that she is worried about me, and perplexed, i ask her why, wondering if this is about the fact that i poke needles through my flesh to relieve pressure but she...
The music wells, caresses my ears and tickles my brain. I look up to the sky, blue with hope, optimism… Adorned elegantly in clouds, white, pure, ever changing. The foliage whisks by, luscious, green, making an otherwise bland landscape vivid and interesting. Faces, they move past me, different and unique, each wearing different emotions. Sad, happy, concerned, surprised...
Dearest gentle reader, For this message, I must assume the persona of “Lady Whistledown,” addressing the whole nation of England. Today we shall discuss a very delicate subject: love. As it is today amongst members of the ton (the youth), it almost seems as though it doesn’t exist as it did in our parents’ time. The notion of love now seems like a false one that was sold...
