For Girls Who Dare to Dream is an African work of fiction in the form of short stories. This collection interweaves multiple genres and themes namely: African folklore, African futurism, the Weird and the Eerie, the African gothic, Realism and Magical Realism. The female protagonists in this collection are complex and multidimensional women and girls navigating different urban and rural spaces. Some of the characters in this collection live in an Island only inhabited by women while other characters are trapped in a house where they must adhere to the demands of someone or something they cannot see or name. Although the stories in this collection are not all interconnected, For Girls Who Dare to Dream aims to circulate freely between genres to dismantle the perceptions and expectations of African literature and Culture in Western media. The collection is followed by an exegesis titled “Shedding Beliefs: Challenging Reductive, Stereotyped Readings of African Literature” which argues that African literature is only perceived to be ‘real’ and accurate to the non-African reader if it depicts countries filled with despair and hopelessness. The exegesis analyses the works of two writers Leila Aboulela, Nadifa Mohammed and filmmaker Mati Diop to illustrate the ways in which writers and filmmakers including myself are challenging the stereotypical and reductive expectation of African literature and culture.