9 Paying Gigs for African Writers
Up to £15,000, Publication, Fellowship, Workshop etc
This newsletter is published every Wednesday at 5pm WAT.
1. Submit to Last Syllable Magazine
Last Syllable is a literary journal that publishes long-form poetry, prose, and multi-modal works. They publish electronic issues biannually.
Deadline: 15th of October | Payment: from $20
Things to note:
Please send only one submission per genre during our reading period.
Send previously unpublished work. They are open to reprints, especially if your piece hasn't been published in its full form before.
Simultaneous submissions are okay, but if your work gets accepted elsewhere, please email them right away.
If you are submitting an excerpt of a longer work it should be an entire story that can stand on its own. Please inform them if the piece you are submitting is an excerpt.
Please do not have your name on the document you are submitting.
If you are submitting prose, please include the word-count in the body of your email.
Please include a maximum 50-word bio written in the third person within the body of your email, not on your submission document.
Please only submit using a Word Document. Include the genre you are submitting and LastSyllable in the title of your document. For example, Fiction.LastSyllable.
Fiction and Nonfiction: Please use 1.5 spacing, font size 12 serif, and include page numbers.
Word count: 5,000-25,000.
Poetry: Please use 1.5 spacing, font size 12 serif, and include page numbers.
For specially formatted poems, please provide a brief description of those formatting choices in the body of your submission email, below your bio.
Start each poem on a new page with the title bolded.
Please only submit 1-3 poems or grouping of poems at a time.
Each poem or grouping of poems should be a minimum of two pages long.
2. Submit to Moonflake Press
Moonflake Press is seeking scary submissions under the theme: The Visitor. “Unwanted guests? Shadowy intruders? Something knocking on your door?...Or are you the one who won't leave? The one who has invaded and is swallowing your host?...Scare us.”—MP
Deadline: 15th October 2024 | Pay: $20
Guidelines:
Please use 12 pt font such as Garamond, Times New Roman, Baskerville Old Face.
POETRY
Your editor is Fran Fernández Arce
Maximum 5 poems per writer.
No longer than 10 pages total.
Fiction
Your editor is Cyrine Sinti
100-1500 words
Any use of non-English words is fine, just pop the English meaning in a footnote for us.
Creative Nonfiction:they accept micro-essays, personal essays, memoirs, travel writing, diary entries, anecdotes and your own literary take on true, factual stories!
Your editor is Shayal Kaur
Minimum 1000-1500 words
Any use of non-English words is fine, just pop the English meaning in a footnote for us.
Send submissions to submissions@moonflakepress.com. In your email, please send your submission in a word doc (.docx file) and use the following layout in the subject line: [ISSUE NAME] - Genre - Title.
For example: ESCAPISM - Poetry - Goblin MarketNo need for a cover letter.
Send only unpublished work. Simultaneous submissions are okay but require a notification if accepted elsewhere.
3. 2025 Rajat Neogy Editorial Fellowship at A Long House
A Long House encourages Africans who love literature and the art and discipline of editing to apply for the 2025 Fellowship. The fellowship is a commitment to foster editorial talent in Africa in honour of Rajat Neogy, founding editor of Transition—early publishers of Chinua Achebe, Es’kia Mphalele, Wole Soyinka, Bessie Head, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o etc
Deadline: 30th October 2024 | Stipend: $1000
Guidelines:
Applicants must be 18 – 40 years old African residing in Africa, and must demonstrate a deep interest in African literature and the ecosystems that nurture it.
To apply, please upload a motivation letter of not more than 500 words along with your CV as a single pdf in this form.
Applicants must be ready to work with founding editors on editing works of contributors.
Manage communication with contributors.
Oversee publication schedule and curate a monthly newsletter.
Suggest and reach out to new contributors.
Work with founding editors on themed issues.
Work with A Long House team on the Long Talk and A Short Talk series.
4. Call for Submissions: The Air We Breathe
For this quarterly issue of Isele Magazine, they are seeking submissions that revolve around air pollution. “In a world where air pollution increasingly ruins our lives, health, and climate, this issue seeks to explore the multifaceted narratives surrounding this existential threat. We welcome fiction, nonfiction, poetry, photography, visual art, and hybrid works that explore this theme. Tell us about your personal experiences with air pollution, the resilience of life forms living in polluted environments, and your visions of a pollution-free world. Send us your hopepunk fantasies, biopunk horrors, cli-fi dystopias, and everything in between.”—Isele
Deadline: 31st October 2024 | Compensation: Unstated
How to submit:
All submissions for the quarterly issue should be submitted to quarterly@iselemagazine.com. The email subject line should read Genre: Lastname (e.g. Poetry: Angelou).
They DO NOT accept multiple submissions. Please submit to one genre only.
For fiction and nonfiction, submit max. 5000 words of prose.
For poetry, submit max. 3 poems in a single document.
They DO NOT publish previously published works (by this, they mean any piece that has appeared on the web or in print, including your personal blog). However, they will consider a translated version of the work if the original language wasn’t English.
They accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify them as soon as your work is accepted elsewhere so that they can withdraw it from consideration.
5. Submit to The Paris Review
The Paris Review is a literary magazine, founded in 1953, featuring original writing, art, and in-depth interviews with famous writers.
Deadline: 31st October 2024 | Pay: Unstated
How to submit:
All submissions must be in English and must be previously unpublished.
Translations are welcome and should be accompanied by a copy of the original.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed, as long as they are notified immediately if the manuscript is accepted for publication elsewhere.
Please submit no more than six poems or one piece of prose at a time, and please do not submit more than once per submission period.
During the month of October, you may submit in the categories of both poetry and prose, but we ask that you submit only once per genre.
They suggest to all who plan to submit that they read the most recent issues of The Paris Review to acquaint themselves with material the magazine has published.
Submit your work here.
6. Submit to Brick
Brick is an international literary journal published twice a year out of Toronto. They publish publishes Nonfiction, Review, Interview, Translation. “Brick prides itself on publishing the best literary non-fiction in the world, and we are eager to read your impeccable and compelling non-fiction submissions. We crave pieces with formal integrity that take creative approaches to rich ideas.”—B
Deadline: 31st October | Pay: Up to CA$720
Things to note:
They routinely reach our Submittable-imposed cap of free submissions well before the submission period ends. Please submit early.
They consider only finished, polished literary non-fiction submissions.
Submissions must be previously unpublished.
They will read simultaneous submissions, but please let them know and withdraw your piece if your manuscript is accepted for publication elsewhere.
Please only submit one piece at a time. Please wait for a response before sending them other work to consider. Multiple submissions will be automatically rejected.
While Brick does not set a word limit, they tend toward a range of 1,000–5,000 words. Whatever the length, the piece must be exemplary.
Response time is slow and they ask you allow up to a year for them to respond to your submission.
To submit, click here.
7. 2024 Abebi Award for Creative Nonfiction
This award shines a much needed light on creative nonfiction, especially personal narrative written by Nigerian and African Women. For the second edition, they are inviting Nigerian women, 18 and above who were born in, grew up in, or have significant lived experience within and proximity to the country to submit their most powerful story.
Deadline: 1st November 2024, 6pm WAT | Prize: Up to N200,000
Things to note:
The award is open to writers who have not published a complete body of work (such as a memoir or a novel through a publishing house), and will not have done so by December 2024.
All entries should be creative nonfiction: i.e. real life stories derived from true events from the writer’s life. They are not looking for academic, scholarly or purely journalistic pieces of work. They believe in the revolutionary power of personal narrative and so we would love to read essays that delve deep into emotional interiorities, family relations, gendered expectations, patriarchal conditioning and triumph. This does not mean essays must be sad, or political but that they depict the complexities of what it is to move as a woman in this country/continent. You can see last year's winning entries for model examples of the kind of work they're looking for
All entries should be within the range of 1,500–3,000 words in length.
The winner, runner up and three notable entries will be invited to a two-day all expense paid writer’s residency in Lagos, in December.
A winner will be announced in the second week of December 2024, along with a runner up and three notable entries.
8. Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2025
The Commonwealth Foundation is an intergovernmental organisation mandated by its Member States to advance the interests of Commonwealth civil society. This annual prize is awarded to the best piece of unpublished short fiction by a commonwealth writer.
Deadline: 1st November 2024. | Compensation: Total of £15,000
Things to note:
The prize covers the Commonwealth regions of 1. Africa, 2. Asia, 3. Canada and Europe, 4. Caribbean and 5. Pacific.
Entrants must be aged 18 years or over on 1 November 2024.
Only one entry per writer each year may be submitted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
The story must be original work and should not have been published anywhere, in full orin part, in any language, before 1 May 2025. Published work is taken to mean published in any printed, publicly accessible form, e.g. anthology, magazine, newspaper. It is also taken to mean published online, exceptfor personal blogs, personal websites and personal Facebook pages.
Simultaneous submissions are eligible as long as the entrant informs the organisers (via creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com) immediately should the story be accepted for publication elsewhere or be selected for a prize.
Entries must be 2,000 words minimum, 5,000 words maximum (not including title).
Entries in English should be submitted in Arial 12-point font and double line spacing. For entries in other languages, the appropriate font should be used. All pages should be numbered.
For more guidelines please see here.
9. Submit to The Weganda Review
The Weganda Review is a literary journal produced in Uganda.Founded in 2023 as a project of the cultural nonprofit Weganda Foundation, it is a platform for writers, researchers, academics, artists and others whose thinking is worth sharing. TWR publishes short fiction, poetry, art portfolios, photography, diaries, reviews and, especially, essays as cultural criticism.
Deadline: Rolling basis | Pay: Unstated
Things to note:
They are not interested in work that’s already been published by others, and they don’t publish polemics or other contributions presenting extreme opinions.
All submitted material should be double-spaced and proofread to remove the most egregious clerical errors.
Essays: personal essays are especially welcome.
Maximum of 4000 words
Fiction and Poetry: They especially like verse that stretches in unexpected ways, that explores the fluidity of everyday life. If the poem doesn’t give pleasure, at least it should provoke thought or command attention for its style. The same applies for fiction submissions, which must have literary merit. Writers must ensure that their prose is lucid before they submit. Poets and fiction writers work with genre editors who collaboratively shape their work until it is ready for publication.
Fiction should be a maximum of 3000 words
Please submit only one story for consideration at any time.
To submit, fill this form.
Prose of the Week
Recipe for a Gifted Child | Kamsy Anyachebelu
On the day I contemplated dropping out of Cornell, I stood at the edge of a bridge and pondered all the overdue papers I would never have to complete and the burden of student debt I would be free from if I ceased to exist. I peered at the jagged rocks below, dusted with snow. If I jumped, I wouldn't die. I’d be caught by the nets surrounding the bridge, and within minutes, campus police would rush to the scene, forcing me to return to a life I needed rescuing from. I knew this, yet my evening walk had led me here…
If you’d like your prose featured in ‘Prose of The Week’ send an email to editor.afww@gmail.com.
Poetry of the Week
A Sestina | Urhuru
Don't despise us,
Our stomachs longed for a slice of bread,
We also sought to hide from death
So we changed our clothes and we dyed our tongues.
If you’d like your poetry featured in ‘Poetry of The Week’ send an email to editor.afww@gmail.com.
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Libaku malamu (Good luck—Lingala, Northern Congo)