Review: Ogadinma Or, Everything Will Be All Right by Ukamaka Olisakwe

January 20, 2021 | Zoë Wells

(published 18/01/2021)

There’s something unnerving about historical fiction that feels like it could have played out just the same today. Though set in a tumultuous Nigeria in the 1980s, Ogadinma’s themes are sadly, infuriatingly, entirely too relevant today. After a rape turns into an unwanted pregnancy, which in turn is resolved with a dangerous and illegal abortion, seventeen-year-old Ogadinma is forced to leave her home in Kano to live with her aunt and uncle in Lagos. This is the preferable outcome, as opposed to some hurried marriage to bury the shame of the situation – because, of course, it is Ogadinma’s shame to carry, not that of her rapist. Lagos in turn represents new ground and opportunities, and a chance to fall in love; but this veneer is rapidly shattered as the many ways men can control women in this society are put on display.

[Read full review on Bandit Fiction]

Zoë Wells on Kate Noakes and Anna Lewis

May 8, 2020May 8, 2020 | Zoë Wells

(published May 2020)
Review of The Filthy Quiet by Kate Noakes and In Passing by Anna Lewis in Poetry Wales.

A Non-Zero Chance of Pickles

February 10, 2020 | Zoë Wells

[Published 10/02/2020 by STORGY]

Gerald O’Flynn Connoway was not a very complicated man, and certainly not one capable of killing someone.

Kamena Magazine

January 29, 2020January 29, 2020 | Zoë Wells

Zoë Wells was the Head Editor of Kamena Magazine from 2018-2019, during which time it was shortlisted for a STACK Student Magazine of the Year Award. The following are archived versions of the editions she compiled, designed and typeset:

To Build a Home

June 20, 2019June 20, 2019 | Zoë Wells

(published in White Wall Review, 11/05/19)

Merethe’s not back,” Colton says as he walks into the room.

It’s 10:10pm. At 10:15pm, the automatic lockdown system would start. At 10:17pm, Sarah Hamilton, our long-suffering houseparent, would unwedge a strategic wellie from between the doors and let the lockdown system finish. I throw a coat over my pyjamas, grab my flip flops, and head out into the snow.

Write What You Don’t Know

May 1, 2019May 1, 2019 | Zoë Wells

[published in Kamena Magazine, 16/04/19]

Writers are creatures of comfort, rituals and rhythms that we are loathe to break. There’s a fair logic behind many of these: getting stuck with writers’ block is a nightmarish hell, akin to having all your sinuses block up simultaneously while also being creatively constipated. These little tricks are our last defence against the dark. Continue reading →

The Day Before

May 1, 2019 | Zoë Wells

[extract published in Kamena Magazine, 20/04/19]

My brother died on a Saturday. That morning we’d left him and my sister to mind the shop while Mutti took me on her errands. In the summer of 1939 she’d only just started working as a seamstress of sorts. Letting out waistbands, taking in waistbands, changing the neckline of a dress to make it look entirely new – odd jobs that were quick but required an experienced hand to get those neat, parallel stitches. It was all the fault of the church coffee ladies. Mutti had taken over the social club at the start of the year, and the minute those crow-eyed omas got their claws on her embroidered napkins, her fate was sealed.

Read more.

Warwick Dodgeball Freshers’ Week Ad

February 23, 2019 | Zoë Wells

Filmed and edited by Zoe Wells

The Glass Woman – Review

February 21, 2019 | Zoë Wells

[originally published in Kamena Magazine]

With the polar vortex in full swing stateside and temperatures in the UK looking not dissimilar to my current bank balance, the release of Caroline Lea’s Icelandic ghost story/murder mystery, The Glass Woman, could not have come at a better time.

Continue reading →