bigblackbooks is the publication for Black readers, writers, and publishers. Our issues feature the most promising emerging writers and put them in conversation with the big voices.

SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR ISSUE TWO

The past decade has seen an inexhaustible number of era-defining events —  whether environmental, political, economic, social or indeed cultural — that have irreversibly exposed our way of life for the anti-life, anti-earth, anti-human, anti-Black mess that it is.  The world has arrived at a crossroads. It’s soul has grown very quiet.  It wants to know what we have decided to become. The word revolution can mean ‘a very important change in the way people do things’. It can also mean ‘a circular movement’.  What now? Circularity or change? In this interval between old and new, the future is crying out to be imagined. Write it for us — whatever ‘it’ is  to you.

We are irreverent and open to all forms and genres including but not exclusive to: poetry, prose poetry, folktales, short stories, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, personal essays, memoir, critcism, opinion, scripts, comics, photo essays, and whatever else you’ve got . We are accessible and publish online to accommodate digital literature including but not exclusive to: oral literature, spoken word, podcasts, video essays, interactive poetry and fiction, and literally any literature.

Submissions should be emailed to  as attached WordDocs before 30 JUNE with the subject line [FORM EG. POETRY – YOUR FULL NAME – WORK TITLE] and a 100-word creative biography of the author. We have no word, line, or length count — or limit on the number of submissions per participant. The issue will be published in October 2024.