Short stories and poems put together in a collection provide a reader with the opportunity to sample different writing styles, traditions, tastes, themes and topics told from an array of perspectives.

Moonscapes: Short Stories and Poetry, published by the African Writers Trust, was written by 11 East African writers and a poet. The themes cover love, hate, deception, birth, poverty, family, marriage, crime and death. The collection was edited by James Woodhouse.

One of the outstanding stories for me was The Stone Baby, by Tanzanian Adelina Mbekomize. It tackles the clash between Christianity, Islam and traditional beliefs.

She presents a Lutheran Church with a Pentecostal soul — loud music, exorcism and numerous collection baskets, yet the paint on the church building is peeling and the congregation have to sit through the service while being rained on by pigeons’ droppings.

The congregation are not deterred by the amount of offering expected from them and flock to church every Sunday because they find solace in the music — the drums and tambourines — and the reassurance that bad things happen to those who do not go to church. But the main attraction is Pastor Maastai.

People travel from faraway towns to seek prayers from the man of God. Barren women, jobless men with degrees and young girls tormented by evil spirits all testify on Sundays.

The other short stories are Legal Alien, by Crystal Rutangye (Uganda), about a young girl who is struggling to settle back home in Uganda after living in Australia for a while; Here Are The Children, by Sophie Alal (Uganda); The Search, by Regina Asinde (Uganda); Date Night, by Millicent Muthoni (Kenya); Pain, by Barbara Oketta (Uganda); Tanu the Invisible, by Stella Riunga (Kenya); At The Nile, by Nakisanze Segawa (Uganda); and Forty-Two Steps Up, Forty-Two Steps Down, by Muthoni wa Gichuru (Kenya).

Tanzanian poet Zuhura Seng’enge has narrative poetry titled Lesedi, with eight different subtitles.

African Writers Trust launched an editorial and publishing programme in 2012 to help writers and editors who wish to pursue a career in the publishing industry. This collection contains stories written by the training workshop alumni between 2012 and 2015.