7venHills Media

16/05/2024

30/03/2024

In my other life, I run a literary magazine that will be 10 years old in the last quarter of this year.

We are still here.

New edition out in a bit.

15/02/2024

Pre-order How To Make A Space Masquerade here

How to Make a Space Masquerade artfully blends speculative fiction with Igbo cosmology, seamlessly merging the earthly realm with a dystopian world. It explores the complexities of the human spirit and the intersection of the two worlds. A girl facing erasure for carrying a virus defies the governme...

08/06/2022

Omenana, in partnership with SFFSA, is putting together a special issue that will focus on the over-50-year history and bright presence of South African Science fiction and fantasy writing. The issue with feature reprints of old stories, non-fiction essays and analyses and a crop of brand-new stories by established and new writers.

We are looking for speculative short stories that explore the themes of South African SF, Fantasy Horror, or cross-genre stories. A truly African take on these, whether it be the effect of “Tokoloshe” myth on a speculative plot or futuristic societies in a uniquely South African Diaspora.

07/03/2022

Omenana Speculative Fiction Magazine is partnering with the National Democratic Institute, a US-based NGO, for a special themed edition that explores positive visions of democracy.
We are looking for strong, character-driven stories that focus on future or other worlds where society’s bedrock is solid democratic institutions.
These future or other worlds can be dystopias, but they should be ones where an entrenchment of universal suffrage holds hope.
Think space operas that look at the intricate politics of people in ships hurtling towards distant galaxies.
Think stranded explorers trying to build a home on a planet light-years away & having to decide about leadership.
Think love! Think war! Think family! Think technology! Think gods and goddesses and what they could get up to if they ever decide to cleave to a system of democracy!
Note that some of the stories in this special edition will form part of a global anthology edited by Dr. Amy Johnson in late 2022.
Other magazines involved in this project are Asian based spec fic magazines and Brazilian magazines & who collaborated to birth the mash-up A Mafaverna.

Omenana Speculative Fiction Magazine is looking for speculative short stories and accompanying art that explores the theme “Positive Visions of Democracy”.

22/12/2020

Omenana Issue 16 Editorial – The Things We Do for Love A Magician - Rešoketšwe Manenzhe Drummer Boy in A World of Wise Men - Tobi Ogundiran Silhouettes of Souls - Precious C.K. The Game - Alvin L. Kathembe Where You Go - Somto O. Ihezue Fair Trade - Natalie Sifuma

Editorial – The Things We Do for Love A Magician – Rešoketšwe Manenzhe Drummer Boy in A World of Wise Men – Tobi Ogundiran Silhouettes of Souls – Precious C.K. The Game – Alvin L. Kathembe Where You Go – Somto O. Ihezue Fair Trade – Natalie Sifuma

22/12/2020

The sun is overhead indicating that the time is a little past noon. Suleiman’s forehead gleams, and a few salty drops invade his eyes while others take a detour to the greater part of his face, dripping into the ocean’s water where his feet are buried. The humid Ukunda air would otherwise choke a stranger, but not Suleiman; today he is determined to collect thrice as many cowrie shells....

They come to a large opening, presumably the centre of the cave. A dim light pours from a dying lantern. A black cat, slowly licking its fur at the feet of a man. The man sits on a stool staring at one of the walls. He seems unbothered by his guests, Suleiman thinks. His dreadlocks slip through a le...

22/12/2020

It follows me. Rain tapering against the window. In a bath, water trailing down my skin. I do not step into puddles. I cannot will myself to believe the still spread is nothing more than liquid over solid ground. When the last sandstorm left town, it took Athjar’s eyes with it. Hands thrown over my ears, I still heard them, his screams, I’ve never heard anything like it....

It is all here, its sky-liners, the overhead railroads, most in ruins, but here. And there’s the colour, like the rains of September came and never left. Algae like carpets of green crawl over the buildings in the most intentional manner. Vines, branches and foliage loop and weave through windows,...

22/12/2020

It is 3.30 on a Saturday afternoon and the sun is high in the sky. The boys are playing football in the estate playground. The ‘playground’ is really just a patch of grass a hundred meters long and maybe sixty meters wide, surrounded on three sides by blocks of apartments and on the fourth by the estate parking lot. The boys are nine or ten years old, and each team has three players....

Ndemi stares down at Kamau, at the soul struggling feebly to slough off its broken and leaking shell. He is crying for his mother, for help, for God. Ndemi, the only god he will ever know, reaches out and yanks the spirit free, roughly tearing it from its body. The boy howls in pain. Ndemi can see t...

22/12/2020

The first time I saw her I remember thinking for a second that she had fallen out of the sky. I was fifteen years old and the eldest child in my father’s house. My three sisters after me, Peace, Molly, and Amita, were at school but I was at home as it was the long vacation before the exam results, which would usher us into Senior Five, were released....

I shook my head and listened intently as I peeled. Did I remember the stories about the lake, she asked. Of course, I remembered. Who could forget the stories of the girls from long ago who were left there to die if they got pregnant outside of marriage?

22/12/2020

Dele stepped out of the house and into a world misted over. He groaned and rubbed his eyes, wishing he could have slept in a little more, at least long enough for the sun to rise and chase away the mists. He staggered to the side of the house, still half-asleep, tied several empty water kegs to the handlebars of his bicycle, then swung onto it, pedaling out....

The creatures screamed with rage, pressing themselves against the ball of light, and each time they touched the bubble Dele could hear them, smell them, feel them. And it took everything to keep on drumming, but he kept at it even as he tired, even as his lungs turned to air, even as the ball of lig...

22/12/2020

Have I been itching to write this Omenana editorial? Yes. Do I know what to say? Not really. If you know me you can probably hear my gurgle of a laugh burst out at this point. It has been great fun editing the last three issues of Omenana – getting sucked into the fantastic and sometimes mind-bending world of our unique stories, and having the singular honour of picking the minds of our stellar writers as, together, we knead their individual stories into the delightsome pieces you enjoy....

In this issue we bring you stories with a slice of the future, some sorcery and the metaphysical, some urban legend which science tries to explain away, an interesting showcase of gods at play where human destinies are the pawns on the chessboard of life, and the things we do for love.