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Brit Bennett: The Vanishing Half

January 8, 2021January 8, 2021cheekynativesLeave a Comment

Cheeky Natives · Brit Bennett: The Vanishing Half “The only difference between lying and acting was whether your audience was in on it, but it was all a performance just the same.” Born and raised in Southern California, Brit Bennett graduated from Stanford University and later earned her MFA in fiction at the University of […]

Brandon Taylor and Paul Mendez: Real Life and Rainbow Milk

November 20, 2020November 20, 2020cheekynativesLeave a Comment

Cheeky Natives · Brandon Taylor and Paul Mendez: Real Life and Rainbow Milk “It was a cool evening in late summer when Wallace, his father dead for several weeks, decided that he would meet his friends at the pier after all.” – Brandon Taylor “Jesse’s alarm went off at seven, but he’d barely slept. He […]

Phumlani Pikoli: The Fatuous State of Severity

November 7, 2020November 7, 2020cheekynativesLeave a Comment

Cheeky Natives · Phumlani Pikoli: The Fatuous State of Severity “The Fatuous State of Severity – a mouthful for most – was a state of mind I had learned to occupy while recuperating from a depressive episode at a psychiatric clinic.” – Phumlani Pikoli The Fatuous State of Severity is a debut collection of short […]

QnA with Keletso Mopai

October 18, 2020October 18, 2020cheekynativesLeave a Comment

Writer Keletso Mopai, tackles mental health, queerness and the undeniable power of the Balobedu Rain Queen, in her short story collection. Keletso Mopai hails from Lenyenye, a township located 20km from Tzaneen, Limpopo. The township is well known as a place where Mamphela Ramphele was banished by the apartheid regime from 1977–1984. It is also […]

Lockdown Edition with Angela Makholwa: The Blessed Girl

September 28, 2020September 28, 2020cheekynativesLeave a Comment

Cheeky Natives · Lockdown Edition with Angela Makholwa: The Blessed Girl (Part 1) Cheeky Natives · Lockdown Edition with Angela Makholwa: The Blessed Girl (Part 2) Even as a young child, Angela Makholwa wanted to be a storyteller. Her first story was published at 13 and from then on a lifetime relationship with words was […]

Lockdown Edition with Abi Daré: The Girl with the Louding Voice

September 13, 2020September 13, 2020cheekynativesLeave a Comment

Cheeky Natives · Lockdown Edition with Abi Daré: The Girl with the Louding Voice (Part 1) Cheeky Natives · Lockdown Edition with Abi Daré: The Girl with the Louding Voice (Part 2) Abi Daré grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and has lived in the UK for eighteen years. She studied law at the University of […]