[Open] 10 Opportunities for African Writers
From $200, Print Publication, Digital Publication, Internship etc
This newsletter is published every Wednesday at 5pm WAT.
1. Ake Review 2024: Call for Submissions
The Ake Arts and Book Festival, is thrilled to announce a call for entries for the 2024 edition of our annual journal, Ake Review. The theme for the 12th Edition of the Ake Arts and Book Festival is Finding Freedom.
Deadline: 12th September 2024. | Compensation: Unstated amount + 2 magazines
Submission guidelines:
Poetry - a maximum of three poems
Fiction/Reflections - a maximum of 800 words
Entries must be original and unpublished
All entries must be submitted via email to editor@akefestival.org
Entries should be sent as attachments with 'AR24 Submission' in the subject line.
Attach a bio of no longer than 70 words
Only one submission per person
2. The Passionfruit Review Issue 12: Open for Submissions
Passionfruit seeks work which engages with love in the broadest possible sense: writing which seeks love out or runs screaming from it; which delights in, is bored of, resents, yearns for, abhors, or denies love. They accept poetry and prose on the theme of love.
Deadline: 27th September 2024, 11:59 PM GMT | Compensation: unstated
Guidelines:
Poetry: Submit no more than three poems at a time. There are no set restrictions on length for poetry submissions, but we will be looking for writing which shows meticulousness in its use of language, whether across 2 lines or 200.
Poems that use formatting to effect are welcome – just note that these may occasionally be published in PDF form (check out our previous issue for examples)
They consider prose submissions (prose poetry, flash fiction, creative non-fiction are all welcome) of up to 1000 words.
Submissions are welcome from anywhere in the world, from writers over age 18.
Simultaneous submissions are welcome – just let them know promptly via the submissions manager if any of your pieces are accepted elsewhere.
No multiple submissions.
Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Authors retain all rights, they simply ask that you allow Passionfruit first publication and credit this in any later iterations of your piece.
Strong language is fine – abusive or discriminatory language is not.
Response time will not usually exceed two months.
Send only complete work. No revisions will be considered once a piece has been accepted.
If you don’t see anything that looks like your work in a previous issue, don’t be discouraged – it might be exactly what we’ve been waiting for!
Submit here.
3. Livina Press: Midnight Ink (First Issue)
Midnight Ink is a new Livina Press venture dedicated solely to all things spooky, haunting, gothic, and everything in between. With one issue a year, it aims to capture every feeling autumn (or spooky szn) has to offer. They are looking for works centered around the spooky and haunting. Shadows that follow you. The slow descent into madness. The monsters under your bed and in your closet etc.
Deadline: 30th September 2024 | Compensation: unstated
How to submit:
Please email editor@livinapress.com with the subject line:
Midnight Ink - [Your category] - Your name
Poetry (1-5 poems). Fiction and creative non-fiction(500-10,000 words).
You can submit multiple types of work. Please send them in the same email but make sure to say what document/title goes with what category.
Simultaneous submissions are accepted and encouraged, but please let them know ASAP if it has been accepted elsewhere!
Document Format: .doc/.docx (if submitting an experimental form of poetry, please submit a PDF as well).
No requirements for font or document format, but when in doubt: Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1-inch margins, stories = double-spaced.
In the body of your email, please include your short (75-words or less), third-person author bio (please include the name you would like to be known as/have your name appear in the magazine!).
If there is anything you would like them to consider while reading your work (like the background for why you wrote something), but please keep it brief (100 words or less)—and this is not required!
Response time may vary (They aim for 3-5 weeks).
4. Editorial Internship: Narrative Landscape Press
Narrative Landscape Press Limited was founded in 2016 by Anwuli Ojogwu and Eghosa Imasuen. The founders want to create a firm that could distil the essence of the publishing process and provide a service to other publishing houses and self-publishing authors within the Nigerian space. They are currently seeking interns interested in editorial work.
Deadline: 30th September 2024| Type: Remote | Pay: Unstated
Things to note:
This position is for a period of eight weeks. 1st of October to 30th of November.
Interested applicants should send their applications to editorial@narrativelandscape.com
5. Jet Fuel Review: Open for Submissions
The Jet Fuel Review is award-winning biannual literary journal that publishes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. They are currently seeking submissions in each category.
Deadline: 15th October 2024| Pay: unstated
Guidelines:
Fiction: 3000 words or less. These can be short stories or flash fiction. Submit entry as a .doc or .docx file.
Creative Nonfiction: 3000 words or less. They welcome the many permutations of creative nonfiction from lyrical essays to personal narratives to hybridized works. Please adhere to word limits and submit your entry as a .doc or .docx file.
Poetry: We ask that you submit 3 - 5 unpublished poems (as a single file) that are less than 100 lines each. Submit your entry as a .doc or .docx file.
Please submit only one piece per category for each reading period along with a cover letter.
Only previously unpublished work is considered.
To submit, click here.
6. Abode Press: Chapbook Publication
An intersectional, anti-racist nonprofit publishing press dedicated to uplifting underrepresented voices. They want work that discusses identity, origin, and culture. “Every abode is unique to the person who lives there”. They are seeking poetry, fiction and hybrid chapbook manuscripts for publication.
Deadline: 30th November 2024 | Pay: From $200 + royalties
Things to note:
Fee waivers are available for people of colour who cannot afford the reading fee. Please email diamond@abodepress.com for a fee waiver, no questions asked.
Only writers based in the US are invited to submit.
Poetry = up to 30 pages | Hybrid and Fiction = up to 60 pages
Times New Roman or Garamond font. 12 pt. Double spaced.
If your chapbook is selected for publication, you will receive the following package:
100 book print run
10 author copies
200.00 USD advance
Professional book cover design done in house or with a freelance artist
Professional book design and layout
Marketing on all our social platforms
Author contract
Events, virtual and in person if able to travel to Houston, San Antonio, or Austin
Book will be submitted to national prizes, awards, and magazines for reviews and publicity
25% of royalties, paid each quarter, or until all books sold
To submit, click here
7. Submit to The Journal
The Journal, founded in 1973, is literary magazine of the MFA program of The Ohio State University. They are interested in original quality fiction, poetry, nonfiction, photo essays, author interviews, and reviews of new books of poetry and prose. They impose no restrictions on category or type of submission for fiction, poetry, and nonfiction.
Deadline: 2nd December 2024/until cap reached | Pay: unstated
Guidelines:
Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but they ask that you notify them of this at the time of submission.
They do not publish previously published work. Multiple submissions are not accepted.
Poetry: poems with heart (emotional clarity and complication) and brains (theoretical engagement, logic and metaphors that stand up to further contemplation, mastery of syntax and diction).
3 – 5 poems (up to 10 pages) grouped in a single .doc or .pdf document
Essays: drawn to essays that are personal, lyric, and/or blended with cultural criticism. Hybridity and formal experimentation are encouraged.
3000-5000 words. Flash pieces are welcome.
Fiction: prefer speculative work and frequently publish non-realist fiction.
Double-spaced, Garamond
Submit up to three 1000-word stories in a single .doc or .pdf document.
Works beyond 5000 words are not usually published.
To submit, click here.
8. Nine Muses Magazines: Accepting Submissions
Nine Muses Review accepts general submissions of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and art for our quarterly publication. They are open to all genres and themes, and ask for creative and inspired works!
Deadline: 31st October 2024| Pay: unstated
How to submit:
Please send all submissions to our email, editors@ninemusesreview.com.
For poetry submissions, include up to five pieces in the body of the email or as one singular attachment.
For fiction and creative non-fiction, please include up to two pieces, each under 3000 words, in either the body of the email or as one singular attachment.
If you’re submitting micro-flash works, feel free to submit up to five pieces, as long as the total word count is below 3000.
A cover letter is not required, and will not impact the status of your submission, although a short one is appreciated.
There's no need to address the editors by name: "dear editors" or even "hello, here's my submission" work fine!
9. Call for essays: “Migration and the Writer” – The Lagos Review
The Lagos Review is seeking insightful, poignant, detailed, and well-written essays in which the writer expresses his/her/their motive for relocation or migration and the effect of that movement on their craft. “What does migration mean for us as writers, many of whom have made the journey across the seas to acquire knowledge, escape oppression, flee conflict or seek a better life?”
Deadline: Unstated | Compensation: $250
Guidelines:
They are looking for essays of 2,500 words maximum.
Please send your submissions to submissions@thelagosreview.ng
with the subject line - Migration and the Writer + Title of your piece.
Essays will be published monthly and the author, upon acceptance
of his/her/their work for publication, invests in thelagosreview.ng
the right to publish same in a book if and where the quality of writing
demands.
10. Prarire Schnooner is Accepting Submissions
Prairie Schooner is published in cooperation with the University of Nebraska Press and the Creative Writing Program of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln English Department. They are seeking short stories, poems, imaginative essays of general interest, and reviews of current books of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
Deadline: 1st May 2025 | Compensation: Publication + Magazine copies
Things to note:
Use standard fonts and formatting, including margins of at least one inch, and include your name on each page of the manuscript.
They do not consider work that has been previously published anywhere, including online publications, and they do NOT consider simultaneous submissions.
They do not consider work that has been previously published anywhere, including online publications.
Essays and Fiction: Send one at a time. Text should be double-spaced.
Poetry: Send a single document containing a selection of 5-7 poems. Poems may be single-spaced but should use a standard font.
Reviews:
Engaging reviews that articulate in a clear voice ideas of craft but also of literary context and/or place the work in our sociopolitical present.
No longer than 1,000 words, double-spaced, and formatted using a standard font.
Please include the following information at the top of the review:
[Writer's Name]. [Title of book being reviewed]. [Press Name].
Reviewed by [Reviewer's Name]
Prose of the Week
Lucky Were The Bodies | Ifeanyichukwu Eze
I want to remember. No. I don’t want to keep remembering. But shouldn’t I? His face keeps popping up here and there, in my dreams, in my wakefulness, inciting me with his smile to come and play, as if he were here.
I want to ask him if he is fine, as we were when dawn fed us chants of cockerels, muezzins, and preachers. When our shadows grew shorter, like dots under our feet as the bright lone eye of the cloudless sky moved to the center, inviting our stomachs to cry for food…
If you’d like your prose featured in ‘Prose of The Week’ send an email to editor.afww@gmail.com.
Poetry of the Week
Here is Water | Gbenga Adeoba
(After Kechi Nomu’s Your Old Bones are Seeking Wooden Crosses)
At the waterside in Boyo, the
rituals of movement intensify at dusk.
The pull of tides reinvents the shore
into a space for things intimate and lost…
If you’d like your poetry featured in ‘Poetry of The Week’ send an email to editor.afww@gmail.com.
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Ni ku lakaleza litohonolo (I wish you good luck—Lozi, Zambia)