Creative Writing Portfolio
a long and wanzy road is the hub for Jawanza Barial-Lumumba's creative works, storytelling, projects, and services. Pieces published across Substack and in other literary journals can be found here; You may also receive updates around larger projects, such as the novel-in-stories, by review this site and joining his mailing list!
recent creative work
Explore recent pieces from Jawanza
Rites of Rejections & Reframing Our Wins is a writing process reflection piece that dives into the role of rejection that writers face as they share and submit their work in competition; it concurrently explores what writers frame as "wins," allowing an expansion and reframing of our prospective claim more wins that we often allow ourselves as storytellers...!
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(short story)
"My eyes snap open.
"Where am I?"
A Writing Opportunity Update & Novel Writing Updates
(website blog)
"I was immediately surprised by how personalized their rejection email was... there was great praise for the first few pages of the novel and the work I am doing in my writing communities, that I instead was awarded...
Revisiting, Revising, Reviving
(prompt)
"...do the deep dive! Unearth your old writing nuggets, not just a story or two from a year ago, but go back as far as you can..."
Other Recent
Creative Works
More Creative Inspirations
Although Jawanza specializes in short story writing, he is currently exploring a novel-in-stories after completing his first short story collection in 2023. He continues to facilitate and participate in generative writing workshops and feedback-based workshop groups, while also refining and crafting new short stories, dabbling in different forms, and keeping his sights set on future, novel-length projects.
As a life-long learner and someone who loves storytelling across many mediums, authors like Octavia Butler, N. K. Jemisin, Nnedi Okorafor, Christopher Moore, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Mark Z. Danielewski, and many others have informed his learning, TV series like LOST, The Good Place, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel, The Leftovers, Lovecraft Country, Watchmen, and other series have informed substantial storytelling, alongside many movies, graphic novels, comedians, songwriters, and more.