Publication: Debut Story Coming 2020

* bows *

What an awesome and humbling honour to be included in such a vibrant selection, 2020's upcoming 'Disruption' from Short Story Day Africa.

My sincerest thanks to everyone at SSDA for adjudicating and organising this annual event - and to the Johannesburg Review of Books for promoting it - especially in the face of pandemic duress.

To many literary returns, all.

Curiously & Quietly

I started writing seriously at 12, and a quarter of a million words later, I made my first submissions at age 24: a poem to New Contrast Literary Journal and a story to SSDA.

Sublimely, both were accepted.

I screamed, then wept, then cackled. Once each.

Lesson 1: We must be humble enough to learn through doing, quietly and curiously, for as long as it takes - for years and more.

Lesson 2: We must believe in ourselves enough to share our creations with gentle devotion to whatever path has chosen us.

Show up to practice. Show your work.

And keep writing.

N. A. Dawn

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