I've pulled together 40ish questions - some bookish, some silly - and have asked authors to limit themselves to answering only 10 of them. That way, it keeps the interviews fresh and connectable for all of us!
Today we are joined by Cheryl S. Ntumy. Cheryl is a Ghanaian writer of speculative fiction, romance and YA. She is part of the Sauútiverse Collective, which created a shared universe for Afrocentric speculative fiction, and Petlo Literary Arts, a creative writing organisation in Botswana. Her Sauútiverse novella Songs for the Shadows was published in 2024 by Atthis Arts and her short story collection Black Friday and Other Stories from Africa was published in 2025 by Flame Tree Press. Along with Eugen Bacon and Stephen Embleton, she co-edited the second Sauútiverse anthology, Sauúti Terrors, to be published in January 2026 by Flame Tree Press.
Why do you write?
I write because I can’t not. I
think of writing as alchemy. It’s how I make sense of the world, process my
thoughts and emotions and transmute them into something else. Stories translate
the weirdness of existence into a universal language. They allow us to use
words to communicate what is beyond words. If that’s not magic, I don’t know
what is. Writing is also a kind of compulsion for me; my imagination doesn’t
let up and some stories will torment me until I write them!
How do you celebrate when you finish writing a new book?
I catch up on sleep, go outside, hang
out with other humans – all the things I couldn’t do while possessed by the
muses.
Describe your book in three words.
Unsettling. Unexpected. Unique.
(Sorry. I couldn’t resist!)
Describe your book poorly.
So there are these five planets
that orbit two suns, sometime in the future, but also sometime in the past, and
one of them is dead (or alive, depending) and has kind of been replaced by its
moon. A bunch of different people wrote a bunch of scary stories set on these
planets, except some aren’t really scary, they’re more like that funny feeling
you get when you think someone is watching you. And there are also poems; cool,
creepy poems, not like the ones we had to read in school. The peoples and
cultures of these planets are African-ish. The humans, that is. If you like
good things, you’ll like this book!
What is your favorite book from childhood?
Alice in Wonderland and Through
the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. I have a beautiful unabridged edition
with both stories and the original illustrations by John Tenniel. It’s one of
my most beloved possessions.
Some honourable mentions, all of
which I’ve read as an adult: Minnie by Annie M. Schmidt. Collections of
folktales, myths and fairytales from around the world, e.g. One Thousand and
One Nights. Dan Yaro, Double Agent by Dorothy Wimbush. Watership
Down by Richard Adams. And the usual suspects: Nancy Drew, Malory Towers,
anything by Judy Blume.
What genres won’t you read?
I can tolerate any genre, but
dislike excessive violence/cruelty, gore, and fiction with no actual plot.
Do you read the reviews of your books or do you stay far
far away from them, and why?
I read reviews. I want to know
what people liked and what they didn’t, what came across the way I hoped it
would and what didn’t land. It’s fascinating to see how people interpret
things. I also find that reading reviews helps me get over myself!
Do you think you’d live long in a zombie apocalypse?
I would die, hopefully, before
the zombies get anywhere near me. Apart from the gross factor, zombies bug me
on a conceptual level. Why do they need to eat if they’re (un)dead? Why are
they never vegetarian? Why don’t they eat themselves or each other? How do they
digest food (or do anything at all) when their bodies are falling apart? Nope;
I’m not sticking around to be devoured or turned by a decaying meatsack with
superhuman strength!
Are you a book hoarder or a book unhauler?
Unhauler, definitely. I love
books, but not as much as I love space. I don’t want to keep books unless I’ll
happily re-read them for the rest of my life, or they have sentimental value.
Libraries are a wonderful thing…
If you were on death row, what would your last meal be?
Fried rice with tofu, salad (no
rocket), fried plantain and fresh pepper. Vanilla ice cream with caramel syrup
and chocolate pieces. Sobolo (a drink made with bissap, cloves and ginger).
Dairy Milk Cashew and Coconut. Hot water with lemon and honey.
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Flame Tree Publishing | Book Page
Sauúti Terrors
Edited by Eugen Bacon, Stephen Embleton and Cheryl S. Ntumy
This powerful and haunting collection of short stories from
the groundbreaking Sauútiverse follows the success of Mothersound: The
Sauútiverse Anthology. Sauúti Terrors tells of the doomed, the damned, the
shunned, the cunning, the destroyers, the noxious, and more.
Featuring works by African and African diaspora writers:
Linda D. Addison, T.L. Huchu, Xan van Rooyen, Jamal Hodge, Ishola Abdulwasiu
Ayodele, Wole Talabi, Mazi Nwonwu, Kofi Nyameye, D.S. Falowo, Shingai Njeri
Kagunda, J. Umeh, Moustapha Mbacké Diop, Miguel O. Mitchell, DaVaun Sanders and
Nerine Dorman.
Flame Tree Beyond & Within collections present a wide
range of voices, often with myth-inflected short fiction, and an emphasis on
the supernatural, science fiction, the mysterious and the speculative.
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