The Arts-Muse Fair

Writers approach the writing process differently. What works for Writer A might not work for Writer B, therefore, it is important for the aspiring writer to understand that what defines a writer is style, what is often referred to as the writer’s voice. However, style in writing is influenced by certain factors such as genre or subgenre preferences and the kind of books a writer reads. Those who love crime fiction are certainly going to be better at writing crime fiction, those who read poetry are already setting themselves up to becoming poets and those who love to read essays about criticism are already defining their paths of becoming critics and book reviewers albeit subconsciously. What the beginning writer needs to do primarily is to know which of the genre he or she wants to be known for, this identification creates a sense of focus and direction in the writer who then sets about learning the rudiments of the selected genre. Of course, after attaining some level of profi...

Pic: Aminu S Muhammad Your head was really heavy when you opened your eyes, everything was abnormal, upside down. You couldn't help but wonder if you were in the devil's land or in the human world. You decided to lay still for few moment," it will help me regain my sanity." You thought. It took a little while before your sanity was regained. "Oh no!" You shouted like you just saw yourself drowning but you just remembered that your grandmother fell off the cliff and drowned in the water beneath when you screamed out of the joy of seeing Asabe, your best friend whom you thought wouldn't make it to the hangout with your grandma. That scream startled your grandma who moved too fast forgetting that she was standing really close to the edge of the cliff. It happened so fast. "Where is Asabe?" You wondered. You were trying to stand when you heard footsteps from behind. You looked back and saw Asabe, your parents and some men, the men wen...

Book Title : The Opposite Kingdoms Author : Kwaghsende Jimin Publisher : Kwaghsende Ventures, Minna Pages : 72 Year of publication : 2017 Price : Not stated Reviewer : Paul Liam Kwaghsende Jimin has published notable works including The Pensioner (2006), The Benchmarks (2004), You Can Be Happy (2008) and Life Line (2004). A seasoned administrator with the National Examinations Council (NECO), Jimin’s works are known for their penchant for re-engineering the moral psyche of the people towards the ideals of a utopian society. This ideological dimension to his works is evident in The Pensioner and in his latest offering, The Opposite Kingdoms . Clearly his first published work of prose, Jimin uses a Reconstructionist prism in reassessing the relationship between Africa and the West, and the attendant effects of post-colonialism, through the use of a simple parable. The question of why Africa continues to grapple with underdevelopment in spite of her huge p...

Pic: Aminu S Muhammad BY MARYAM S. MOHAMMED  Suddenly, there was an inexplicable loud and ominous crash! It more than startled Iman who had until then been sleeping like most women do in their third trimester.   She had just concluded her nightly ritual of speaking to her husband over the phone and telling him how much she loved him and hated having the master bedroom to herself five nights a week, when she drifted to sleep.   The crash sounded so much like a gunshot, but who had a gun on the premises? Or was it the transformer that had exploded again? Anytime the transformer exploded like that, NEPA officials would give the same lame excuse to the individuals affected- “overload”. Iman had never heard the blowing of the transformer sound this close. She was so anxious, she found herself sitting upright in the middle of the bed. She didn’t have much time to wonder as within the next few seconds, there was another crash – louder this time around, as the door to her...

Pic: Aminu S Muhammad Come here You child Of Adigun the thieving husband Lekan Get away from the lake Its pebbles' won't save you How dare you steal from Our sacred cooking pot Eating the sacrificial meat Leaving little lying in the near bottom That meat was Meant for the spiritual king Lekan You lied that the pot bellied thief Stole the meat Because the world Has been exposed to his stealing He wears worn out rags You evil child You think because your father is a chief Who steals so high You can't be given the title of a thief Just because you wear an expensive life Come here You child of lost sanity You evil being of corrupt high hierarchy Today I will lash you And your might of wealth Won't catch you away It won't dare come near ***** HANEEFAH ABDULRAHMAN is currently a 300 level student of English and Literary studies at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. She is the 2020 Editor 1 of T...

Pic: Aminu S Muhammad ...A Dance at Naira-Night... All I see are the miscalculated feet In processional mourning of the eerie beats from a native drum The hands of the elders are masterpieces Full of the rhythmic sounds that play at the tomb Of the village youths. II Let it not be put under the tongues of the cowards The elders of our age had traded the cult of decency for a youthful lust. Beyond this gloom of loss, I will announce the reign of reasoning to halt the culture of hypocrisy Beyond this tirade of anguish, I will declare the revolution of thought Towards a regeneration of clannish love Beyond this era of dirge, May these gods miss their path to alter the fate of our promising 'morrow. A Watch Upon the Night's Stars And when the virtuous grin transmuted to a sham is greeted with a loud ecstasy By my puerile clans, I took a chance, towards the dawn of our nights, to stride along the confluence ...

Pic: Aminu S Muhammad Home Blues  The storms that captured our homeland announced no preface  From every cloud Only torn narratives we gain   Now There are no gravities for postscripts Stranger  Stranger, The Past should not be a portal  She is a pariah Take my sins to the cemetery There they should abide  Pose them to the world  And unleash every Blue That lived That is living  That will be living  State of the Heart I am a cloud  Death is my fruit  The grin I grin hides the earth of the grief And only in the heart you can see the grief  You can't voyeur at the heart Don't zoom my earth to your heart  I know my earth is walking through shards I know there are dungeon hiding the heights of its gaits It is the nakedness of time at the earth square  Time lives no storm alive They say the night loves my tears They say tomorrow is in throe...

Pic: Aminu S Muhammad The essentiality of any literary piece is in its accessibility to readers, for the writer anticipates that there are readers for his work. However, poetry is often considered to be one genre of literature enjoyed by a cerebral few, who often than not are armed with the mechanical requisite for its appreciation. This supposition is drawn upon the assertion that poetry is esoteric in nature and as such can only be enjoyed by a limited group of readers who are sometimes fellow poets. Although, there are others who believe that since poetry reflects and represents emotion and reality of human societies, it is only rational that those who constitute the influences of such representation should be able to partake in the appreciation of the poeticization of their lives rendered in poems. It is lieu of this assertion that Niyi Osundare in his meta-poem “Poetry Is” avers that a poem should be accessible to the layman on the street, the laborer, market woman and farme...