A note about the work "Blue Skies, Birdsong" from Leyla Loued-Khenissi for the Michigan Quarterly Review's Winter 2025 Issue:

Blue Skies, Birdsong recounts a harrowing ordeal Leyla Loued-Khenissi and her family experienced during the 1997 Sierra Leone military coup. Over 24 hours, their home was attacked 16 times by armed rebels and civilians before they escaped to safety. This first-person narrative sheds light on a little-known event in Africa that predates social media. Loued-Khenissi wrote it all down to confront her memories and  ensure the story is remembered. By sharing the story, she can mirror it to others, claiming a sense of reality between her today and her memory to achieve some catharsis and understanding while preserving a page of history that might otherwise fade into obscurity