Open Opportunities for African Writers
Pitch & publish. Prizes from $100 to over $10,000
This newsletter is published every Wednesday.
1. Isele Magazine is accepting essays, stories, poems etc
The magazine is currently seeking essays, fiction, poetry, interviews, visual art, and book reviews. They do not accept multiple submissions, but we do consider simultaneous submissions. Please do not submit previously published works (by this, we mean any piece that has appeared on the web or in print, including your personal blog). All accepted submissions are automatically considered for The Isele Prizes.
Submission guidelines:
Fiction & Nonfiction Submissions: You may submit up to 8, 000 words of prose. Please make sure your manuscript is double-spaced, preferably in Times New Roman or Garamond size 12 font. Send fiction (as a Word document attachment) to fiction.iselemagazine@gmail.com. Send nonfiction (as a Word document attachment) to nonfiction.iselemagazine@gmail.com.
Poetry: You may submit up to 6 pages of poetry or one long poem. Please submit as a single document. Send poetry (as Word document attachment) to poetry.iselemagazine@gmail.com.
Book ReviewsSubmit up to 1,500 words. Double-spaced, Times New Roman, size 12 font. Send book reviews to submissions.iselemagazine@gmail.com.
2. Brittle Paper is open to submissions
Brittle Paper always on the look out for new writing, so send them your work. They accept fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, book reviews, essays, literary commentaries, fun listicles, and any writing with a literary bent.
A few things to keep in mind:
Fiction: no more than 2,500 words. Book review: no more than 1,500 words. Literary commentary, think pieces and essays: no more than 1,500 words.
Include a short bio and photograph of yourself. Feel free to make the photograph as playful or as formal as you like.
Once you submit to the system, know that we will receive your submission. Because of this, we usually do not acknowledge reception unless emailed separately. However, we are working on a way to immediately acknowledge submissions.
Here are some of the reasons why we might turn down a submission: poor grammar, poor punctuation, poor use of tenses, plagiarism. We would especially reject a submission we deem to be misogynist or homophobic, or one that exhibits supremacist leanings on the basis of race, ethnicity or religion.
Be advised that we will edit your work and sometimes change the title, and if we consider the latter, we will inform you.
You retain the copyright to your work. However, we do require that you credit Brittle Paper as the original publisher of the work.
If the submission is a response to immediate events on the literary scene, please email it to brittlesubmissions@gmail.com for immediate consideration.
3. The St. Gallen Symposium Global Essay Competition
St. Gallen’s Symposium is an annual platform for proactive ideation and debate, the 2024 symposium will be held in Switzerland. They are inviting young people to become a members of a unique global community and participate in the symposium with us by writing on this years topic question: Striving for more or thriving with less – What pressing scarcity do you see, and how do you suggest to tackle it?
Deadline: 1st February 2024. | Prize: Over $22,000 in cash + full sponsorship to event
Things to note for participation:
You must be a student of a tertiary institution by 1st February 2024.
Scarcity generally refers to a situation where human needs exceed available resources. This year’s Global Essay Competition invites young leaders worldwide to focus on a specific contemporary or future challenge related to scarcity and propose an innovative way to address it.
Be creative in thinking about proposed solutions: do we need to strive for more and find ways to boost the availability of the resource in question? Or does it focus on ways to thrive with less and thus rethink our needs and demand?
Be free in choosing which scarce resource you focus on: examples include – but are NOT limited to – human labour, capital, natural resources, or intangibles like time, creativity, or care. Be bold and precise in describing a contemporary or future challenge of scarcity and the specific kind of resources you focus on, and offer a concrete and actionable idea of how we should confront it.
Click here to register for participation.
4. SADC Tertiary Institution Essay Competition 2024 for young South African students
SADC Tertiary Institution Essay Competition is calling for submissions of essay entries from active tertiary institution-going learners, on the topic “What in your opinion has SADC achieved since its formation; and does it reflect the vision of its founders?”
Deadline: 29th February 2024. | Prize: Total of $4500
Guidelines:
Open only to South Africans who are currently students of tertiary institutions in South Africa.
Essays are coordinated by the Ministries of Education in all respective SADC Member States. It is the responsibility of Government officials in SADC Member States to submit the top 3 essays to SADC Secretariat for adjudication at regional level.
The Secretariat will not accept entries from individuals and as such those entries will be disregarded and disqualified.
The essay should be 4000 words. The deadline for submission of entries to Ministries of Education in respective SADC Member States is 29th February 2024.
For more information, please download the competition brochure and further guidelines here.
5. Call for Submissions: Black Feminist Collective
The Black Feminist Collective is an intergenerational group of Black feminists and womanists who stand for Black liberation in its entirety. They are seeking essays, articles, interviews, artworks etc, from Black feminists and womanists, for their Spring 2024 publication.
Deadline: 26th February 2024 | Prize: Professional Consulting and Publication
Notes to guide submission:
Please provide your email address in order for us to work with you to edit your work before it’s published.
If the work you’re submitting has been published before, please copy + paste a link to it was originally published, and we’ll cite it.
Describe your submission(s).
If your work contains graphic and explicit content, and please provide a content warning.
Pick at least one of the following sections in which you want your works to be published: Resource lists, Art, Politics, Movements, Culture, Interviews and Conversations, Reflections and Personal Narratives.
All writings must be at least 100 words.
Resource lists must be accompanied by a brief overview.
Both video essays and audio essays must be accompanied by a transcript, or be transcribed before it’s published. If you’re submitting video essays to the submissions form, please only upload the transcript.
Clarify if you want your visual artwork to be published individually, or if you want it to be featured on another person’s works for future publications.
If you want your visual pieces to be published individually, it should be accompanied by a title and a description, or by an optional 100+ word piece.
If the artwork is you’re submitting is a picture of someone else, you must also have their written consent to be photographed and featured in order for it to be published—please confirm this with us!
Upload at least one picture per submission.
Please give credit to the creator(s) of the image you are uploading.
If you’re submitting your writings, and you don’t want to upload an image, you can pick one of your favorite quotes to appear at the top of your published work. View this example.
For more information, click here.
6. Deep Vellum’s Best Literary Translations Anthology 2025:
The second edition of this exciting annual anthology will showcase literary translators’ work to make possible literary encounters from around the world for the English-language reader. This anthology will help redefine the canon of world literature and challenge the perception that only Anglophone literature matters in the cultural conversation.
Deadline: 5th January 2024 | Prize: $150 + copy of anthology
Guidelines:
You can submit works of poetry, short fiction, literary essays, and hybrid-genre texts, translated into English from any language(s) and published online or in print in a US or US-affiliated literary journal or magazine during 2023.
Prose submissions are limited to 5,000 words. Drama, graphic, and illustrated works are not eligible. Acceptable file formats are .DOC, .DOCX, or .RTF.
Deep Vellum has a broad definition of “translation” and admire both “traditional” translations (those rendered so seamlessly into English that they seem to have been first written in it) but also more conceptual or experimental approaches to translation, especially where they reveal the often fraught and complex relationships between languages and cultures.
Translators will need to confirm that they have permission from the author or their estate (or that it is in the public domain) to publish the submission, should it be chosen, in this anthology.
Please make your nominations through Submittable and complete the questionnaire (Google Form) that is a required part of your submission. Both are important to completing your application.
Source: Brittle Paper
7. Iskanchi Book Prize 2024 is still open for submissions:
Iskanchi Book Prize aims to recognize exceptional prose and hybrid book manuscripts and offer the winners a chance to be published. This competition is open to both emerging and established African writers living anywhere in the world.
Deadline: 30 January 2024 | Prize: $1500 and book publication
Some things to note:
Submissions should be prose: Fiction and non-fiction manuscripts (novels, novellas, short story collections, essay collections, memoirs, etc.). OR
hybrid: Manuscripts that blend multiple genres or mediums (e.g., poetry and visual art, prose and photography, experimental formats, etc.)
Book submissions should be previously unpublished and between 50,000– 120,000 words.
Simultaneous submissions to other publishers or competitions are allowed, but please notify us immediately if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere.
Subject of submission should be "Iskanchi Book Prize"
Please send all submissions to submissions@iskanchi.com
Ending Soon
8. Afritondo Prize 2024 is accepting short story submissions with the theme “Aliens”
This year, Afritondo wants writers “to respond to the theme of “aliens”: unfamiliar things, unfamiliar people, how they are received and lived with or rejected, how they change families, communities, societies.”
Deadline: 16th December 2023. | Prize: $1000 (total)
Here are a few things to note:
You may only submit an entry if you are a citizen or national of an African country; one of your parents is a national of an African country; you identify as Black or African or belong to an African or Black minority population anywhere in the world.
Submissions must be in English. The submission, including the title, must be between 3000 and 5000 words.
Submissions must reflect the theme. Only one submission per writer is allowed.
Submission is accepted only via email. Entries should be sent to submissions@afritondo.com. The subject of the email should read: Submission for Afritondo Short Story Prize 2023. The filename of the entry (i.e., the attached document) must be the title of the short story. In the body of the email tell us, briefly, about yourself, including such information as your legal name, country of residence, age, and contact details.
For more information to guide your submission read these guidelines: https://www.afritondo.com/entry-guidelines-2023
9. SpringNG’s Poetry Journal (March 2024 issue) is now accepting submissions.
Poetry Journal is accepting poetry and short story submissions for the 2024 edition. SprinNG is a society for the promotion, revitalisation, and improvement of new Nigerian generations in writing and literature.
Deadline: 16th December 2023 | Prize: N100,000
Here are a few things to note:
There are no age restrictions
Writers submitting poems should send no more than six poems, while writers submitting short stories (2000-word limit) should send no more than three short stories (all in a word document).
While previously published works are welcomed, it is important to mention where and when they have been published while submitting.
Submission is done through the website ONLY.
10. The Lolwe Editorial Scheme: Editorial Internship
Lolwe is offering four people a chance to be part of their editorial team as Editorial Interns. If you are someone that is interested in the editing process and wants to understand the submission to publication pipeline of a literary magazine, then this is for you.
Deadline: 22nd of December 2023 | Prize: 6 month internship.
Things to note:
Lolwe will offer training, guidance and mentorship by the editor-in-chief, assistant editors and the guest editors of Lolwe.
Interns will gain an understanding of the magazine publishing backend process. You will be a part of the daily activities of Lolwe and will learn how to read through submissions, edit, proofread and communicate with the writers. You will also gain insight into the admin part of the running a magazine.
Time demands are 3-5hours per week. This role offers no financial compensation but interns will be credited in the issue they work on as an acknowledgment of their efforts.
To apply to the Lolwe Editorial Scheme, kindly send an email to join@lolwe.org with the subject ‘2024 Editorial Scheme’. In the email kindly tell us a bit about yourself and state why you should be considered for the scheme. Please be as clear and concise as possible (less than 300 words). Successful applicants will be notified by Monday, 8th January 2024.
Click here to find out more.
Prose of the Week
The Fire in My Memory | Immaculata Abba (Winner Abebi Award for Non-Fiction)
On December 10, 2005, my brother, KC, 59 other students from Loyola Jesuit College, and 48 other passengers were on the Sosoliso flight 1145 from Abuja that crash-landed on the airport tarmac in Port-Harcourt. There were only two survivors: one student and one flight attendant…
Poetry of the Week
a woman, & ellipsis | Ojo Olumide Emmanuel
if the world began in the name of a woman,
she wouldn’t be eve. she'd be the ‘seed’
bearing a dark country where [...]
is the life expectancy.
she’d be a scrappy song slippery on the tongues of […]
you'd think you know all about her until […]
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Ngikufisela inhlanhla (I wish you luck—Zulu, South Africa)