In our continuing series, we share opportunities for those who wish to submit work be it poetry, prose, or other related arts in March 2022. These callouts are divided into journals, publishers, prizes, and education (MFAs, Fellowships, residencies).
Publishers
Narrative Landscape
Narrative Landscape Press is calling on suitable applicants for an eight-week internship. Successful candidates will work remotely & be paid a stipend.
Deadline: March 22
Details: On poster
Farafina
Farafina is one of the leading publishers based in Nigeria. They have made their annual call for submissions.
Deadline: March 31
Details: Click here.
Ouida Books
Ouida Books calls on all writers of unpublished fiction and nonfiction to send us their works. We look forward to receiving your manuscripts.
Deadline: Not indicated
Details: Click here.
Literary magazines/journals
Omenana
Call for submissions from artists and writers for a special edition of Omenana Speculative Fiction Magazine.
As we put pen to paper, it was literally raining coups in Africa.
From Sudan to Mali, from Burkina Faso to Equatorial Guinea to Niger, one hears either of violent truncation of government or an attempt at seizing the reins of power by gun wielding soldiers who purport to act for the greater good of the country.
Democracy, the system of governance that best serves the interest of the individual by allowing them a say in who governs them and how they are governed, is in peril. With this backdrop, Omenana Speculative Fiction Magazine in partnership with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) – a US-based non-governmental organisation that works to strengthen democracy – is calling for submissions for a special themed edition that explores positive visions of democracy.
Note that some of the stories in this special edition will form part of a global anthology edited by Dr. Amy Johnson in late 2022. Stories for the anthology will be selected from Omenana and two other great SF magazines from South America (Mafagafo and A Taverna) and an SF magazine based in Asia (Mithila Review).
Deadline: April 30
Details: Submissions should be sent to sevenhills.media@yahoo.com or go to the Omenana Submissions page
Jalada Africa 10
Pan-African arts and literature collective, Jalada Africa, confirms Resistanceas the theme for Jalada 10 and opens its call for submissions.
Rooted in the Latin word resistere—to make a stand, to oppose, to be dissident—resistance evokes images: of Mandela at Robben Island bearing the dreams of his people, of Che at the beachfront in Havana framed by Alberto Korda; of a little girl reading Little Women by lamplight, defiant of Boko Haram and fundamentalist terrors; of Kenya’s Freedom Corner Mothers who staged a hunger strike and stripped down to stop senseless violence and secure the release of their sons detained as political prisoners; of young protesters across the globe united by a single banner–that #BlackLivesMatter; of the lonesome poet or painter locked down in this period of pandemics and upheavals, creating nonetheless.
Deadline: Not indicated
Details: Click here
Ipikai Poetry Journal
Ipikai a new online poetry journal, an initiative of the new Zimbabwe Poets Society open to Zimbabwean poets at home and abroad.
Deadline: March 21
Details: Click here.
ArabLit Quarterly
ArabLit Quarterly is a literary magazine that brings together Arabic literature, essays, wordplay, art, music, and food in translation, founded in 2018.
This issue will be guest-edited by Anam Zafar and Nadiyah Abdullatif. We are looking for writing in or about a JOKE, however that may be interpreted. Whether this is a literal knock-knock joke, or a meme, or a person who’s a joke, or a reflection on humor from the 10th century—we’re interested in it all. We are happy to accept a pitch as a submission.
Deadline: April 15
Details: Click here.
TVO Tribe
TVOTRIBE is a community of proud and constantly evolving African Creatives. We focus on inspiring one another to becoming the best representation of Africa and changing the narrative of the African literary world.
Deadline: April 1
Details: Click here.
Afapinen
A magazine of Nigerian criticism, we represent a space of literary discourse that is serious-minded and grounded in critical analysis. We are also a space for language to thrive and illuminate our minds, doing the following: book reviews, culture writing, popular writing, and literary criticism.
We are open for reviews and essays submission. We prefer reviews for mainstream literature Nigerian books. Essays can be on a wide-range of topics peculiar with the Nigerian (or African) art and literature sphere.
Deadline: Not indicated
Details: Click here.
Shiwaki
Shiwaki is short for Shirika La Waandishi Wa Lugha Ya Kiswahili which in English is the federation of writers in Kiswahili. If you wish to submit your writing in Kiswahili, here is your chance.
Deadline: Not indicated
Details: Click here
Doek
Namibian poets—wherever you are—we are open for your poetry submissions. Send us your work for consideration for our 8th issue.
Deadline: March 14
Details: Click here.
Afreada
From the sandy shores of Senegal, to the backstreets of Mozambique, if you write short fiction, we want to hear from you. What exactly are we looking for?
Deadline: March 31
Details: Click here.
Decolonial Passage
Decolonial Passage presents each distinct piece of writing as a passage worthy of readers’ attention in which writers create texts to articulate a variety of themata affecting the human condition including, but not limited to authenticity, liberty, alienation, dignity, community, and boundless love. Decolonial Passage publishes writing from emerging and established writers who use language and form in innovative ways.
Deadline: Not indicated
Information: Click here.
Olúmọ Review
Olúmọ Review seeks amazing poetry – poetry that is bold, poetry that would collide with rocks and grind them to powder, that sparks curiosity, that intrigues the intellect, that kicks in the teeth, that guts the heart, that says something genuine about the world as well as the individual. We celebrate diversity and are open to diverse styles, forms, and kinds of poetry, about any and all subjects.
Deadline: March 31
Details: Click here
Prizes
Nigeria Prize for Literature
Nigeria Prize for Literature is a Nigerian literary award given annually since 2004 to honor literary erudition by Nigerian authors. The award rotates among four genres; fiction, poetry, drama and children’s literature, repeating the cycle every four years.
The prize this year will be handed out for poetry and will hand out 100,000 to the winner.
Deadline: April 8
Details: Click here
Quramo Writers Prize
Created in 2017 as an avenue for fresh writers to showcase their manuscripts to the global literary community, and contribute their works to the canonisation of Africa literature, the Quramo Writers’ Prize celebrates unpublished writers who are working every day to hone their craft and record our continent’s original stories. The prize aims to encourage and stimulate a new community of talented writers, providing an opportunity for otherwise unexposed talent to achieve publishing recognition and encouragement.
For Quramo Writers’ Prize 2022, we are inviting unpublished African writers to submit an original manuscript in fiction prose, with a minimum word count of 30,000. An ‘African’ writer is taken to mean someone who is a citizen of an African country, or who has a parent who is African by birth or nationality, living anywhere in the world. The Prize is awarded to an original fiction prose manuscript by an unpublished African writer. ‘Unpublished is taken to mean the writer has never traditionally, digitally or self-published his writing in book format before. Each entry must be an original, unpublished work of fiction.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: April 30, 2021
Details: Click here
Toyin Falola Prize 2022
Now in its third year, the theme for this year’s edition of the Toyin Falola Prize is Freedom. However, freedom is conceived very broadly, for it means several things and can be several things too. It could be a physical condition, psychological, geopolitical, or even spiritual. Still, at the heart of the lexical item’s several interpretations is a roaming spirit, since to be free is to defy bounds: i.e., to have the capacity to not be pinned down. To what extent is this true or false? We want your story to answer this.
Deadline: May 15
Details: Click here
BBC Short Story and Young Writers’ Awards 2022
The 2022 BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University (YWA) is now open for entries. Now in its eighth year, the BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University invites all young people in the UK aged between 14-18 years to submit stories of up to 1,000 words.
Deadline: March 28
Details: Click here
Diverse Book Awards (UK)
Open to any children’s, YA or adult book published in 2021 by a UK author. Publishers can submit up to 5 books and self-published authors can submit up to 2 books.
Deadline: May 31
Details: Click here
Hugo Awards 2022
The Hugo Award is the leading award for excellence in the field of science fiction and fantasy. The Hugos were first presented in 1953 and have been awarded every year since 1955 by the members of the World Science Fiction Society (Worldcon members) at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon).
Nominations for the 2022 Hugo Awards, Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and Astounding Award for Best New Writer are now open.
Deadline: March 15, 2022.
Details: Click here.
International Publishers Association Prix Voltaire 2022
The Geneva-based International Publishers Association (IPA) has made a call for nominations for the 2022 IPA Prix Voltaire for exemplary courage in upholding the Freedom to Publish and enabling others to exercise their freedom of expression.
Deadline: March 27
Details: Click here.
The Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize
Exceptionally international in scope, the prize supports writers who have not yet published a book-length work, with no limits on age, gender, nationality, or background. The winners of each category will receive a £1,000 cash prize and publication, and will be published in Wasafiri’s print magazine. Shortlisted writers will have their work published on Wasafiri’s website. All fifteen shortlistees and winners will also be offered the Chapter and Verse or Free Reads mentoring scheme in partnership with The Literary Consultancy (dependent on eligibility), and a conversation with Nikesh Shukla of The Good Literary Agency to discuss their career progression.
Deadline: June 30
Details: Click here.
The James Currey Prize for African Literature
The James Currey Prize for African Literature is an annual award for the best unpublished work of fiction written in English by any writer, set in Africa or on Africans in Africa or in Diaspora. It was established in 2020 by Nigerian writer, filmmaker and publisher of Hattus Books, Onyeka Nwelue, in honour of James Currey, the leading publisher of academic books on Africa – dedicated to distributing books about Africa in Africa.
Deadline: April 1, 2022
Details: Click here.
Education (MFAs, Fellowships, residencies)
University of East Anglia Writer Master Class (English and Kiswahili)
Are you in East Africa with a short story idea or an unpublished short story which could use some panel-beating from more experienced hands in the trade and possibly make it into an anthology? The University of East Anglia’s International Chair of Creative Writing Programme, led by Tsitsi Dangarembga invites you to submit your 2,000-3,000 word short story in English or Kiswahili to stand a chance to take part in a week’s residential Masterclass 4-9 July 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya to nairobisubmissions@gmail.com from now until Midnight on 9 May, 2022.
Story submissions in either of the two languages from writers based in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda will go through a first draft edit via email before final selection of participants who are expected to be in Nairobi during the week of the Masterclass at their own cost (we will make suggestions for low-cost accommodation). Participants in the Masterclass stand a chance of being published in two anthologies with Kiswahili stories translated into English and English stories translated in Kiswahili. The Masterclass that will be facilitated by Elias Mutani (Kiswahili) and Zukiswa Wanner (English) along with guest visits/readings from Tsitsi Dangarembga and the University of East Anglia’s director of Creative Writing and the International Chair programme Jean McNeil.
Deadline: May 9
Details: Click here.
