A Cicada In The Shimmer by Christopher Mlalazi
It was trapped inside his mind, which was a world falling away into a darkish-greyish, shimmering soot. He opened his eyes. Pale light shafted into the room through a rent in the curtain, but, groggily, he knew that it was a moon beam, and it was still night. He turned inside the blankets on to his left and removed the heels of his palms digging into his ears. The trill was still there, incessant, and now outside his head. He ground his palms over his ears again, tightly. The sound pierced on, now inside his head again...
This story has been selected for the StoryTime anthology African Roar, please go to the African Roar site for more info on the book.
A Cicada In The Shimmer was written by Christopher Mlalazi.
Copyright Christopher Mlalazi 2009.
Christopher Mlalazi writes prose, poetry, drama (TV and stage), and also children's fiction.
In 2004 he received the HIGHLY RECOMMENDED citation in the Sable Lit Mag/Arvon (UK) Short Story Contest. In 2007 he was shortlisted for the HSBC PEN SOUTH AFRICA SHORT STORY CONTEST, and in 2008 he was awarded the OXFAM NOVIB/PEN FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AWARD.
He has published short stories in Zimbabwe, Europe, as well as on the web, and was also published in the 2005 Cain Prize Anthology (Orbituray Tango),the 2006 Edinburgh Review, and the 2007 AFRICA PENS. In winter of 2009 he is publishing his debut short story in The Literary Review (USA).
Currently he is working on a novel he hopes to finish by mid 2009, if not earlier, and has a stage play under rehearsal.
On the 14th of Feb 2009, Christopher was awarded the NAMA in the Outstanding First Creative Published Work category for his debut book, a collection of short stories called Dancing with Life.
1 comments:
So good Chris! in what is certainly you very own style I now know. I read a comment you wrote about rather not being like/compared anyone else but yourself as a writer, and is not that the real truth. Even if a writer were to try (though the why escapes me) to write like another writer, they would fail. I reckon we are all unique writers whether we like it or not. But I digress. Well Done! on this story it was a riveting read, and good luck with the Launch of your second book Many Rivers on the 19th of June.
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