Menu
The desk beyond the review
These are the essays, opinions, lists, debates, and the notes writers actually use. This is the room for argument, craft, and the long look at books, film, and the culture around them. Every card carries the piece's own image.
Takes
The short argument. Character alignments, reading parties, romance rules, and the habits critics refuse to apologize for. Our opinions are signed takes, not news.
October 30, 2026
Just as importantly, does the Brave New World film do justice to the Captain America comics that inspired it?
October 28, 2026
The forced proximity trope is a permanent resident in books, television shows, and films. It needs a serious conversation
October 27, 2026
Hollywood has endless sequels. Nollywood has inheritance disputes and suspiciously wicked relatives.
October 28, 2026
The MCU has spent years introducing gods, super-soldiers and villains. Here are ten things to expect from Dr. Doom in Avengers: Doomsday.
Longer rooms
Essays that stay with their subject: feminism, pan-Africanism, art explorations, ideologies, literacy. These are the pieces that need more than a take.
Counted shelves
Anthologies, characters, flash-fiction models, reading parties. Lists are the browseable map: a number, a name, and a reason to open the piece.
These five novels visit those moments in very different corners of history.
November 2, 2026
Is it too much to ask for fantasy films, historical epics, and experimental stories done right? I don’t think so.
November 3, 2026
These 8 apps that make it easier to discover African books, from contemporary novels and classics to audiobooks and children’s stories.
November 3, 2026
In the famous words of Mariah Carey… It’s Timeeeee.
November 3, 2026For the desk
Craft, not gossip. Point of view, literary devices made African, cartoon style, autofiction. The shelf a writer opens when the draft stalls.
October 30, 2026
Following a clear, tested, tried-and-true formula makes the writing process less daunting. Without further ado, the beat sheet.
October 25, 2026
A character can achieve everything they set out to do and still leave readers confused. This is where the A B story becomes valuable
October 22, 2026
This guide explores how to apply the rule of three in worldbuilding and provides a practical guideline for its corrrect us
Both sides, then a side
Round against flat, prose against poetry, literary fiction against genre, the internet against the book. Debates keep the argument in the open.
The round vs flat character debate becomes more interesting when “flatness” stops being treated as a synonym for poor writing.
An author can publish independently. This has made it difficult to define the relationship between the internet and reading.
Is literary fiction actually “better” than genre fiction, or has everyone simply agreed to act like it is?
Both Game of Thrones and The Wheel of Time completely reshaped the fantasy genre, but they did it in almost opposite ways.
Get our magazine for free!
