Dawn

This episode celebrates the release of our new anthology, Africanfuturism Short Stories and offers a sneak peek into our African Myths & Tales collection as well. One story imagines the beginning of life, while the other imagines life beginning again after environmental collapse. In a way, this episode, Dawn, shows that endings and beginnings are often part of the same story.

Featuring 

‘Like Stars Daring to Shine’ by Somto Ihezue, read by Cornelia Colman (02.50). This is a hopeful take on the post-apocalyptic genre. While it imagines a future shaped by climate catastrophe, it's ultimately a story about resilience and the possibility of rebuilding. You can find the print version in Africanfuturism Short Stories. 

‘The Creation of the Universe and Humankind’ from the Yoruba people of West Africa, read by Essay Kidane (26.38).  It tells the story of the gods creating the sky, the land and humanity itself, celebrating beginnings, hope and our responsibility to care for one another. Found in our African Myths & Tales Collection. 

Biographies

Somto Ihezue is a writer and filmmaker. He is an MFA fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Maryland. His writing begins at the intersection of boyhood, land, disruption and joy in Igbo communities. His work has been a finalist for the Nebula Award, the British Fantasy Award, the ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award and has appeared in Clarkesworld, POETRY, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Sauúti and others.

‘The Creation of the Universe and Humankind’ was sourced from the Yoruba people in West Africa. The stories in African Myths and Tales come from a range of sources, mostly contemporaneous with colonial times, written by Europeans but often based on their first-hand accounts of tales narrated to them by natives. More details can be found inside African Myths and Tales.

Cornelia Colman is a Voice Actor, Hand Model and Actor with a background in Food Science. Although her resting accent is RP, her range includes several African and Caribbean accents, other foreign accents, and various English dialects. When narrating, she aims to bring diverse, multicultural characters to life. Hopefully, via using these accents, to enhance the experience and increase the enjoyment listeners have when listening to her audiobook narrations.

This episode was hosted by OIivia. 

‘Like Stars Daring to Shine’ is ©2022 Somto Ihezue and was originally published in Fireside Magazine, but more recently appears in Africanfuturism Short Stories (Flame Tree Publishing, 2026)

‘The Creation of the Universe and Humankind’ appeared in African Myths and Tales (Flame Tree Publishing, 2019). 

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Music is an extract of Sunbeams by Allen Stroud, from his Fractal Series album, licensed courtesy of fpl-digital 2025.

This podcast is hosted and sometimes narrated by Beatrix Ambery (also audio editor), Olivia Jackson (also podcast coordinator), Shilpa Varma and Nick Wells (also producer). 

Chosen from hundreds of wonderful tales, short stories such as these are selected by our short window open submission process, giving opportunities to writers of all levels of experience, culture and location. Look out for our submission announcements, and see the full list here:  flametreepublishing.com/gothic-fantasy-book-series-list.html

Our full range of thematic short stories, epic tales, mythology and folklore titles are available at all good bookstores, online and in retail, and at flametreepublishing.com 

Flame Tree Publishing, Best Indie Press 2024 & 2025 (British Fantasy Society). Beautiful Books, Timeless Storytelling, Fresh Perspectives.

The Flame Tree Myth and Fiction podcast is created and © copyright 2025 Flame Tree Publishing Ltd.