12 Opportunities for African Writers
Up to $500, Digital Publication, Print Publication, Free Workshop, Jobs etc
This newsletter is published every Wednesday at 5pm WAT.
1. Creative Writing Workshop for Nigerians
Damilola Omotoyinbo is a Nigerian poet, a fellow of the Ebedi International Writers' Residency with work published on Brittle paper, Agbowó, Pepper Coast Lit, Afritondo, Better Than Starbucks. In this workshop, she invites writers like Roseline Mgbodichimma and Abu Bakr Sadiq to share about their writing process.
Deadline: 15th January 2024. | Prize: Free workshop
Things to note:
To enter, submit one piece of fiction or poetry
A brief description of your writing journey
The link to one of your published works
And your full name/pen name to thecr8tivewritingworkshop@gmail.com
Open to Nigerian writers (living anywhere in the world) with less than 5 online publication credits.
10 applicants will be selected.
2. Submit to The Shallow Tales Review’s 21st Edition
The Shallow Tales Review accepts fiction, creative non-fiction, book reviews, poems, one-act plays, cultural and social essays, and translations that touch on the sensibilities of the African.
Literary criticisms must concern texts that are of modern and African temperament. For essays, they expect themes to be tackled logically and as clearly as possible. By “modern,” they refer to books published at most 5 years before.
Deadline: 20th January 2025 | Compensation: Award nominations
Things to note:
Only previously unpublished works would be reviewed and considered.
Files should be saved with the title of the work, and in the case of a body of poems, with the first poem in the file.
Only one submission per writer is allowed.
Entries must be sent single-spaced in 12 point, Times New Roman font.
In the body of the mail, include a short cover letter describing the genre of the work, word count (for prose), number of poems included (for poetry), short author bio, and any other relevant information relating to the piece.
Do not add any identifying information in the document with the entry.
Note that selected pieces rarely get published the way they come, so please be ready to work through the revisions recommended by the assigned editors towards publication. They are free, and your piece would be better for it.
They DO NOT publish horror, sci-fi, travellogues or any sociological piece without the slightest literary tilt. However, rules may be broken for exceptionally great pieces that reflect the African/human condition.
Entries should be sent in by mail to:
poetry.tstr@gmail.com (poetry)
essays.tstr@gmail.com (Essays & Creative Nonfiction)
theshallowtalesreview@gmail.com (Fiction/Plays)
3. Submit Fiction to Shenandoah
Their editorial fellow, Anes Ahmed, is considering fiction for our December 2025 issue. Here's what he's looking for:
“I seek all types of fascinations, panoramas, and menageries. But, if it is of any value, I find myself chronically obsessed and drawn toward subversion, lingual and historical experimentations, as well as certain archetypes within prose—the destructive despot, the vanishing artist, the beautiful revolutionary, the anti-flaneur employee, the lost citizen, the consequential progenitor, the animate insentience, & the brief lover. Additionally, stories whose settings, characters, and telling exists outside the mythological container that is America are particularly welcome.”
Deadline: Until cap reached (usually 800) | Pay: Unstated
Things to note:
Short stories should generally be under 8,000 word
Novel excerpts will be considered with great enthusiasm. Th editors will publish at least one novel excerpt from a novel-in-progress in each issue of Shenandoah.
No multiple submissions but simultaneous submissions are welcome
Click here to submit.
4. Fahmidan Journal: Open for Submissions
Fahmidan comes out four times a year online. “Send your thought-provoking existentialism, your phobias, your darkest moments. Entrance with your whimsical fantasy. Move to tears with your truth in a world of suffering.”—Fahmidan
Deadline: Rolling basis | Pay: $25 per piece
How to submit:
This is an English language journal. However, submissions partially containing other languages are very much welcome but they do not publish translations.
Send only accept unpublished work that has not appeared in any publicly-accessible forum or otherwise.
Please only submit once per submission category at a time.
No AI generated work.
Poetry: Submit up to 3 Poems.
Poems should be no longer than 3 A4 pages but they’re open to diverse formats as.
Poems should be single-spaced and each begin on a new page. Please clearly indicate when a poem goes beyond one page.
Short Fiction and Non-Fiction: Submit one piece of between 1000 and 2500 words.
Flash Fiction and Non-Fiction: Submit up to two pieces of no more than 800 words.
Click here to submit.
5. Jacana Media is Hiring
Jacana Media is looking for freelance copy editors, proofreaders, indexers and typesetters interested in working with us on our books. If you are a professionally experienced in any of these roles within the book publishing industry, and are available to work freelance, they want to hear from you.
Deadline: 31st January 2025 | Pay: Depends on role
Things to note:
Send CV, with the subject line 'Freelance call-out', to lara@jacana.co.za
Please include a paragraph about yourself in the email, along with details of five
published books you have worked on in the last three years, as well the genres
you are most keen working on.
Please also give your express written consent for them to retain your CV, email and contact details on their freelance database for the purpose of contacting you
about possible future opportunities.
6. Submit to Creative Non-Fiction to Ubwali
Ubwali is a literary magazine from Zambia on a mission to publish stories that nourish. They are currently accepting short stories, essays, visual art (including photography) and poems.
Deadline: Until cap reached | Pay: $10
Things to note:
Up to 3000words
Submissions should come as Word document (not PDF) typed in a legible, plain font such as Arial, Book Antiqua, Georgia, Garamond, or Times New Roman. Please keep font size to 12pt and 1.5 spaced.
Please ensure that your work is free from obvious grammatical errors prior to submission. They do not allow revision while your work is under consideration.
Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Translations, however, are not.
7. Akpata Magazine: Call for Submissions
Akpata Magazine is a Nigerian literary magazine published by students of the Department of English and Literature, University of Benin. For this issue, they invite submissions that delve into the complexities of human emotions. We’re interested in exploring the full spectrum of feelings: love, loss, joy, grief, anger, fear, and everything in between. We welcome fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction that captures the raw and often messy reality of human experience.
Deadline: 31st January 2025 | Pay: Unstated
Things to note:
Fiction: Maximum 6,000 words
Creative Nonfiction: Maximum 4,000 words
Poetry: Up to 4 poems
Submit your document as a .docx file only.
Double-spaced, Times New Roman 12 pt.
Brief cover letter stating your name, contact information, and title piece. Do not write the premise of your piece, why you wrote it, or a bio.
No previously published submissions.
Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please notify them if your work is accepted elsewhere.
Original work only. Submissions containing plagiarism or derivative content will not be considered. AI-generated submissions will not be accepted.
All pages should be numbered.
Include the title of the piece and word count in the first page.
Send your entry as an attached MS-Word document to akpatamag@gmail.com
The subject line should follow this format – “Genre -Title” e.g Nonfiction- The Sun Smiles.
They do not require a bio, but you can add one if you want.
Expect a response within two weeks of the submission deadline.
8. Call for Submissions: Empty House Press
Empty House Press looks for writing that addresses the way narrative and presence adhere to place and the way they vanish. They encourage broad interpretations of what the idea or image of an empty house might evoke. This includes but is not limited to writing about home, landscape, place, memory, and of course, the atmosphere of previously inhabited spaces.
Date: 31st January 2025 | Prize: Unstated amount
Things to note:
Fiction and Nonfiction: up to 2000 words per prose piece, preference is 500-1500 word range. Please submit pieces longer than 1000 words one at a time. If you would like to submit a suite of up to 3 pieces shorter than 1000 words, please submit these in a single document.
Poetry: Feel free to send us 1-3 poems per submission in a single document.
Formatting Guidelines: Please send your work in a single .docx or .pdf file, double-spaced for prose, single-spaced for poetry, using Times New Roman or another standard font.
Simultaneous submissions are okay but please contact them immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere. They do not accept multiple submissions; please only send one submission per reading period.
To submit, click here.
9. Submit to Spellbinder
Spellbinder is a quarterly literary magazine. They are currently seeking poetry, drama, fiction and creative non fiction for their next issue.
Deadline: 1st February 2025 | Honorarium: £3
Things to note:
Poetry:
Maximum of 40 lines per poem.
Maximum of 2 poems, all submitted in the same document.
Note: Free verse, formal verse and anything in between is welcome.
Note: Be aware that our magazine is published in A5 size and therefore is not the best place for poetry with very long lines.
Fiction:
Short Stories
Maximum of 3000 words.
Flash Fiction
Minimum of 100 words.
Maximum of 1000 words.
Nonfiction:
Creative Nonfiction
Maximum of 3000 words.
Flash Creative Nonfiction
Minimum of 100 words.
Maximum of 1000 words.
Note: Creative nonfiction is based on or touches on true events that happened to the author. It is usually written in a narrative style, e.g., may have a plot structure similar to a fictional story, with a crescendo before a resolution.
Drama:
Stage plays
Maximum of 5 A4 pages.
Screen plays
Maximum of 5 A4 pages.
Formatting should be as close to Final Draft as possible.
Only one submission per quarter is accepted. No AI work whatsoever.
All works should be typed in 12 point font and single-spacing.
Centre your title and number the pages of your document.
Submit all written work as a singular .doc/.docx/.odf attachment. Please name your file names as the title of your work, regardless of the file extension.
Submit in English, translations are acceptable and should be accompanied by a copy of the original text.
The sole criteria is literary quality. To this end, they welcome work that is original in its vision, is written in an engaging voice, uses evocative language, experiments with form, and that is confident in its craft regardless of subject matter.
Please submit work that is refined, polished, and that reflects your truest potential as a writer.
10, Small Harbor Publishing: The Laureate Prize
Small Harbor Publishing seeks unique and diverse voices. They are a feminist press, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion. The Laureate Prize is a print publication contest for poetry.
Deadline: February 1st 2025 | Prize: $500, Publication + 20 author copies
Things to note:
Full length books should be between 50-80 pages. Include a title page, table of contents, and a list of acknowledgments for previously published poems. Books centered around a unifying theme will be given preference.
Individual poems from the manuscript may have been published previously in magazines or chapbooks but not full length books. The collection as a whole must be unpublished.
Simultaneous submissions are permitted. Please indicate if your manuscript is accepted by another publisher while under consideration. No translations.
People of ‘colour’ are exempt from the $25 submission fee.
Include in a cover letter your name, contact information, and a brief bio.
Attach your manuscript as a word or pdf attachment. Please use the title of your book as your document name. Do not include your name or identifying information on your manuscript.
Harbor Editions will publish 1 book from the contest. Finalists may be considered for publication.
All rights revert to the author after publication.
11. Apply: Sprinng Writing Fellowship 2025
The Sprinng Writing Fellowship (SWF) is an intensive 6-week online mentorship program for developing Nigerian, Ghanaian, Liberian, and South African writers (residing within these countries) and currently between the ages 18 and 25, who have not published a book before (eBook/hardcopy). This fellowship focuses on 4 genres of literature: Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, and Book Review. Each mentee will be in contact with their assigned mentor, sending them works for feedback.
Deadline: 15th April 2025 | Pay: Free mentorship
Things to note:
June 1 – July 15: Fellowship Period
Criteria: Applicants must have basic writing skills and show the potential to develop.
Applicants must demonstrate the will to receive constructive feedback.
Applicants must show passion and interest in developing their writing.
12. Call for Afrofuturism Short Stories
Flame Tree is publishing an Afrofuturism anthology to offer a dialogue that explores tradition and influence, and fresh insights both about our past, and visions of our future. They accept the definition of Afrofuturism as located in "the African point of view, experience, culture, themes, and history with technology based in Africa, not the diaspora".—This is Kenya
Deadline: Unstated | Pay: Up to $240
Things to note:
Multiple submissions are fine but must be in separate emails.
They accept reprints.
The subject line of the email must be the story title.
The file with the story must be attached to the email (.docx, .doc or .rtf format).
The file name of the submission must be the story name only.
If submitting more than one story, please submit one story per email.
Please just use spaces between words in the title (not _ or - ).
If the story name starts with A or The, please use it at the beginning of the file name.
Story length is most likely to be successful at 2000–4000 words, but they will still read stories slightly outside this range.
If submitting a story that has recently been submitted to them for consideration to another anthology, please state this in the submission email.
Submit to afrofuturism@flametreepublishing.com
Prose of the Week
Photo by Ifeoluwa A. on Unsplash
They Bought a House | Osahon Ize-Iyamu
An unseen cat scratched on the wall every night. Outside of the windowless windows, owls hooted and sang. When Esie and Paul got up for work the first daybreak after moving in, they found ghosts hanging upside down from their curtains. They didn’t get out of bed. Eventually, they realized that the longer they stayed in, the less likely they would make rent, and so they rose…
Poetry of the Week
Photo by James Paul on Unsplash
We Don’t Begin with The Ache | Chinweite Onyekwelu
Although I’m certain that’s why she phoned,
I’m in my room,
bent over a table littered with pills. When she asks
How are you…
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Ndikukufunirani zabwino zonse (I wish you well —Chewa, Malawi)