Opportunities for writers, poets and publishers for September 2022

In our continuing series, we share opportunities for those who wish to submit work be it poetry, prose, or other related arts in September 2022. These callouts are divided into journals, publishers, prizes, and education (MFAs, Fellowships, residencies).

Literary magazines/journals/Anthologies

FIYAH Literary Magazine

FIYAH is a quarterly speculative fiction magazine that features stories by and about Black people of the African Diaspora. This definition is globally inclusive (Black anywhere in the world) and also applies to mixed/biracial and Afro-appended people regardless of gender identity or orientation.
Deadline: December 31 (for Jan ’23 and April ’23 editions)

El Ghourabaa

Metonymy Press is calli006Eg for contributions to El Ghourabaa, a queer and trans Arab and Arabophone anthology edited by Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch and Samia Marshy.
Deadline: September 15

Writers Space Africa Magazine

Writers Space Africa (WSA) magazine is accepting submissions for its 71st edition (NOVEMBER 2022 Edition). The theme for this edition is HUNGER.
Deadline: September 15

Maroko

Márọkọ́, an annual print and digital journal published by the Lagos International Poetry Festival, is now receiving submissions for its first issue.
Deadline: September 30

Moremi Review

Founded on the values of equity, Moremi Review hopes to feature women-only voices both in the Nigerian literary sphere and beyond. They are named after Moremi Ajasoro, a legendary Yoruba queen.
Deadline: October 15

Guernica

Guernica publishes poetry, essays, reportage/journalism, criticism, and fiction, and we offer honoraria of $50 for poetry, $100 for original essays, and $150 for original fiction and for reportage/journalism.
Deadline: Not indicated

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: September 30

Seize The Press Magazine

Seize The Press Magazine is looking to publish dark, transgressive speculative fiction. Bleak sci-fi, dark fantasy and horror only. We’re looking for stories that aren’t didactic or moralistic. We want stories where everything isn’t wrapped up neatly at the end. We want to promote a diverse range of voices from authors who write messy characters, so give us your problematic queers and your angry women—we want your difficult and morally questionable characters in unpleasant situations who don’t slide neatly into a narrow definition of positive representation and don’t fit the model minority mould.
Deadline: Not indicated

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

Publishers

Iskanchi Press

Iskanchi Press calls for book-length manuscripts in any genre by writers of African descent. Women over the age of 50 are particularly encouraged to submit. Please submit only one manuscript at a time.
Deadline: October 30

Botsotso

Since 1996, Botsotso has published 66 books: 20 editions of our Literary Journal, Anthologies, and over 40 individual collections of Poetry, Fiction and Drama. Botsotso is proud to announce that they will now also begin publishing Novels, Memoir, and full-length works of Nonfiction.
Deadline: October 30

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

Osmosis Press

From August 1, Osmosis will be open for manuscript submissions! No guidelines for length, form, page size, or number of collaborators. They celebrate work that has previously faced difficulty in finding a home.
Deadline: September 30

Prizes

Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2023

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize aims to identify talented writers who go on to inspire their communities. It unearths and promotes the best new writing from across the Commonwealth, developing literary connections worldwide. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2000 – 5000 words). It is open to translated fiction. The overall winner receives £5,000 and regional winners receive £2,500. Translators will receive additional prize money.
Deadline: November 1

Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry 2022

The Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry, under the auspices of the African Poetry Book Fund and in partnership with the literary journal, Prairie Schooner, is an annual award of USD $1,000. Established in 2015 and named for the literary philanthropist Glenna Luschei, this Pan African Poetry Prize is the only one of its kind in the world and aims to honor and promote African poetry written in English or in translation and to recognize a significant book published each year by an African poet.
Deadline: December 1

The Abena Korantemaa Oral History Prize (2022)

We’re pleased to announce the opening of submissions for the 2022 edition of the Abena Korantemaa Oral History Prize, an annual award for Oral History narrated by a woman over the age of 65 years.
Deadline: September 4

ArabLit Story Prize 2022

ArabLit Story Prize

The ArabLit Story Prize is an award celebrating the best short stories, in any genre, newly translated from Arabic into English. It was founded in 2018 by Arablit.org, a leading resource on Arab literature.
Deadline: September 20

The Jericho Prize

The Jericho Prize, open to unpublished Black British writers, is a new award for writing for children aged four years plus (picture books) and seven to nine (short chapter books). Each submission must include a Black or mixed-Black main character.
Deadline: November 7

Hamwe Festival Short Stories Contest

African writers on the continent and in the diaspora are invited to submit their short stories by September 25th, 2022. Stories should be between 2000 and 5000 words, and you can submit your story in English or French. The themes of this year’s prize are memory, heritage and mental health. The winners will be announced during Hamwe Festival in November 2022 and each of the winners will receive a $1000 cash prize.
Deadline: September 25

Prix Littéraire FETKANN Maryse condé 2022

The Prix littéraire Fetkann Maryse Condé rewards the works, collections, research works or essays which promote the work of memory of the countries of the global South and all that goes in the direction of the promotion of human dignity in general. It is a creation of the French organisation CIFORDOM.
Deadline: September 30
L
Sheikh Zayed Book Award

Three Africans on Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2019 longlist.
The Sheikh Zayed Book Award, one of the Arab world’s most prestigious literary prizes, is now open for submissions for its 17th edition. The Award – known as the Nobel prize of the Arab world – has a reputation for showcasing some of the most stimulating and ambitious works across a range of prize categories.
Deadline: October 1

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A call for submissions to Anthology of Contemporary African Poetry

Since its inception in 2017, the 20.35 Africa collective has annually published an electronic Anthology of Contemporary African Poetry. 

This anthology has sought, over the years, to reshape the existing view of what African poetry entails; to usher a rethink of the ways African poetry, like poetry from other regions of the world, uses language to portray the experiences and thoughts of the poets — a creative outline of how they view and interact with their internal self, their immediate environment and the world at large. 

The anthology series seeks to canonise African poetry, a project Phillipa Yaa de Villiers describes as “serious, strident, playful — a promising, powerful clutch from the next generation of greats”.

In its mission to be a resource institution for African poetry 20.35 Africa established two projects: the “Conversations” series and the “New Poets” series which assists further in giving visibility to living African poets and infusing new understanding into existing interpretations of African poetry.

Over the years, the anthology series has featured works both from poets living in the continent and in the diaspora, prominent and emerging voices in the scene, including Saddiq Dzukogi, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, JK Anowe, Megan Ross, Dalia Elhassan, Clifton Gachagua, Hiwot Adilow, Akosua Zimba-Afiriyie Hwedie, Nour Kamel, Rabha Ashry and Ernest Ogunyemi.

The fifth volume will be guest-edited by Sara Elkamel and Chibuihe Obi alongside the collective’s editors Ebenezer Agu, I.S. Jones, and Precious Okpechi.

Sara Elkamel is a poet and journalist living between Cairo and New York City. She holds an MA in arts journalism from Columbia University and an MFA in poetry from New York University. Her poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, The Yale Review, MQR, Four Way Review, The Cincinnati Review, The Adroit Journal, Poet Lore, Poetry London, Best New Poets 2020, Best of the Net 2020, among others. She is the author of the chapbook Field of No Justice (African Poetry Book Fund & Akashic Books, 2021).

Chibuihe Obi Achimba grew up in south-eastern Nigeria. He is a poet, essayist, and founding editor of Dgëku Magazine. He served as the 2019 Harvard University Scholar At-Risk Fellow, a Visiting Poet in its English department, and the 2020 Summer Visiting Artist at the Oregon Institute for Creative Research. Chibuihe has been awarded grants by PEN America, PEN International, Freedom House, and St Botolph Club Foundation, which named him one of the 2021 Emerging Artists in New England. His writing has been published or forthcoming in The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Harvard Review, Poet Lore, Foreign Policy Magazine, Guernica Magazine, and several other prints and online journals. In August 2021, he was appointed to the editorial board of Transition Magazine at the Hutchins Center, Harvard. He is completing an MFA degree in Poetry at Brown University.

Submission Guidelines

1. The anthology is open to African poets who are between the ages of 20 (or who would be 20 by the time of publication) and 35.
2. Contributors published in the fourth volume are not eligible for this volume, but may submit for subsequent volumes.
3. Submissions can cut across different themes and each contributor may send three poems only. Please send us your best poems, properly edited.
4. The anthology is only for African poets. We define an African poet as someone born in Africa, or whose parents (at least one) are African, or someone who lives in Africa and has done so for at least 10 years.
5. Poets who have had a full-length book or a chapbook or pamphlet published in electronic or print format can submit. Poets who have not been published in any form or on any literary forum/outlet, and fall into the acceptable age bracket, are encouraged to submit as well.
6. Only poems written in English will be accepted. Works translated into English from any African language may be submitted, but they must be accompanied by their original.
7. There is no stipulation as to the content of submitted poems but no poem should exceed 40 lines in length.
8. Identifying information, including names of poets, addresses, phone numbers, publication histories, should not be included in the manuscript or in the body of the email. Submit through your personal email address and include the same email address on the last page of your manuscript. Submissions will be judged solely on merit.
9. We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if any of your poems is accepted elsewhere.
10. All entries must be submitted in a single Word document, typed in Times New Roman, font 12, single spaced, and sent via email to the 20.35 Africa Team at submissions@2035africa.org.
11. The email subject should read “20.35 Africa submission”.
12. Submissions must be written in black ink. No colours.
13. Each poem must have a title.
14. Poems must be the original work of the contributor.
15. Deadline for submissions is midnight (UTC+01:00) of April 24 2022.
16. We hope to respond to every submission by July 2022. However, there may be delays in response time pending the editors’ final decision.
17. We will not entertain any inquiries concerning submission status until after July 2022.
18. Accepted contributors must be available at all times, for necessary editing of their works and correspondence that may follow.
19. All inquiries must be sent to info@2035africa.org. Inquiries sent to the submissions email address will not be read.
20. Except on proven cases of plagiarism or when a piece we have published violates any form of human rights, we do not take down works once they have been published in our anthology or on our website.
21. By submitting your work to us, you agree to give us first serial rights of said work, which shall revert to you upon publication. If your work is republished elsewhere, acknowledge that it first appeared on 20.35 Africa.

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Great opportunities for poets and writers in March 2022

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.

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