Submissions for our inaugural issue are now closed.
Please email submissions to [email protected] Your subject line should look something like this: [FICTION/NON-FICTION/POETRY/ETC.] SUBMISSION – [YOUR NAME] – [TITLE OF PIECE(S)]. Include a 50-word bio in the body of your email and your work as an attachment. Any file format is fine.
PROMPT
This issue is committed to championing new Black voices from Africa and her diasporas across America, Britain, the Caribbean, Canada, Europe, and wherever else Black people have blessed. People of mixed or biracial Black heritage are included. There is power in putting Black voices from everywhere and anywhere into fruitful dialogue and communion. We want to capture the trepidation, exhilaration, frustration, and perhaps infinite possibility of the now. We want to hear how you see the past and the future converging in the present. This issue is a still of the Black moment. This issue welcomes the very experimental and very best new writing across a variety of forms, themes, genres, issues, and more. Attract us with your daringness and keep us with your craft.
TIMELINE
Submissions for Issue 1 will be open until 14 February. All submitters will hear back by the end of that month. We can provide individual feedback upon request. Those selected should be available throughout February and March 2022 for the editing process. The issue will be published in June 2022.
GUIDELINES
Most individual prose pieces should be between 1000-5000 words and no poem should be longer than 7 pages. You are free to submit more than one piece and/or more than once. All submissions should be in ‘English’. We’re eager to read work in ‘pidgin’, idiolect, dialect, slang, vernacular, and in languages that are not recognised in mainstream publishing. Translations are welcome and should be accompanied by a copy of the original text. We prefer pitches for research-heavy non-fiction like interviews, op-eds, and criticism.
FORM & FORMAT
We’re form-irreverent and accept pretty much everything: genre and literary fiction, hybrid pieces, literature-we-have-yet-to-categorise, reviews, criticism, interviews, oral literature, short stories, flash, CNF, personal essays, memoir, poetry, prose poetry, op-eds, graphic literature, manifestos, letters, podcasts, video essays, and more. What’s important is that your work is provocative and accessible—send us your very best. If you are unsure about whether it qualifies, ask us at [email protected]
The issue will be available online and may therefore include recorded oral literature, podcasts, and video essays.
COPYRIGHT & COMPENSATION
We are looking for writing that hasn’t been published anywhere before. We only ask for first-time publication rights and are happy for work to be republished elsewhere after the issue is published (if we are acknowledged).
We are a very new publication and cannot pay right now. We are hoping to change this soon and put the ‘paying’ into our mission of paying Black readers, writers, authors, and publishers their literary dues.
Any donations will be split evenly among contributors.