When Water Wants to

Neil Coppen is an award-winning playwright who lives between the cities of Durban and Johannesburg where he works as a writer, director and designer. He won the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Drama in 2011 and was nominated on the 2011 Mail & Guardian's 200 most influential Young South Africans. His play Abnormal Loads won the 2012 Naledi Award for Best South African Script. Other works include Tree Boy, Sugar Daddies and Animal Farm. Jacqui Aires is an English teacher and has degrees in English and psychology, an MA in writing, and additional qualifications spanning her varied interests. She cofounded Write Jozi and lives in Johannesburg with her partner. Megan Choritz is a writer, theatre maker, actor and improviser, living in Cape Town. She won praise for her debut novel Lost Property (2023). Dyondzo Kwinika writes from South Africa's historically segregated communities, exploring identity, mental health and generational trauma. His work examines how history and culture shape the ways we love, grieve and change. Sebabatso Madibu is a Johannesburg-based writer whose work explores the South African experience through new and imaginative forms. Her storytelling bridges past and present to imagine futures that interrogate what we inherit and how it moulds who we become. Lerato Mahlangu is short story writer from eMalahleni, Mpumalanga. Her works have appeared in anthologies including One Life (2025), edited by Joanne Hitchens and Karina Szczurek, and Mandla's Mark and Other Stories (2025). She was the winner of the 2024 My World, My Words children's story writing competition. Kamva Majo is a South African writer whose story We Cannot Afford To Be Silent was included in the Power: Short.Sharp.Stories (2025) anthology, edited by Joanne Hitchens. Her writing explores mental health, death and unsettling social realities. Lethukukhanya Mzulwini grew up in and has been inspired by Esikhawini, a small township in KwaZulu-Natal. His work explores the intricate threads of lineage and heritage, seeking answers to timeless questions and sparking new perspectives. Princess Unarine Rabada is a writer of stories and songs and a theatre practitioner from Limpopo. Her work is deeply inspired by her Venda roots, weaving themes of ancestral memory, womanhood and African spirituality into lyrical, emotionally rich narratives. Rosieda Shabodien is an executive coach, gender and development specialist, and writer whose creative nonfiction draws from her experiences growing up under apartheid. Her stories explore resistance and are steeped in history, longing, humour and the urgent act of remembering. Dashalia Singaram is an engineer and a writer.

Preface - Neil Coppen Mr. Duiker Sang the Blues - Dyondzo Kwinika Zombie - Lerato Mahlangu The Watermelon Caretaker - Rosieda Shanodien Murmur Becomes a Wave - Megan Choritz The Woman Who Buried Rain - Princess Unarine Rabada No Good Deed - Jacqui Aires A Mortician's Instinct - Kamva Majo Man of the House: An Eldest Daughter's Story - Dashalia Singaram African Death, Western Medicine - Lethukukhanya Mzulwini Letters of Remembrance - Sebabatso Madibu Contributors