Africa Inside Out – an anthology of stories, tales and testimonies – challenges the global newscast, daily, nightly, of an Africa of dictatorships, starvation and disease. Writers inside and outside the continent were invited by Time of the Writer Festival instead to respond to an Africa of the now: an Africa inescapably part of contemporary world culture. In seeking to portray an Africa that goes against the stereotype, writers pushed boldly against literary expectation. Responses range from quirky interpretations of oral tradition, to explorations of digital possibility, to experiential testimony and humorous renditions of old – and new – conundrums. Africa Inside Out – as its title suggests – does not present the politicised version of Africa. It portrays an Africa in flux; still grappling with familiar problems, but caught up in the global drive towards reinvention and the possibilities of an unpredictable yet interconnected future. Edited and introduced by Michael Chapman, the selection presents a cross-section of Time of the Writer Festival participants.