In our continuing monthly series, we share opportunities for those who wish to submit work be it poetry, prose, or other related arts in August 2020.
- FIYAH’s new publication Is Open to Submissions
Tor.com and FIYAH Magazine are officially open to submissions for Breathe FIYAH, an online flash fiction anthology co-edited by Brent Lambert and DaVaun Sanders. The finished anthology will appear on Tor.com, and will be available to read for free on October 19. DaVaun and Brent are accepting submissions for original speculative flash fiction written by Black authors, including those from the Black diaspora and Black African authors. As with short fiction published in FIYAH, they are looking for stories that reject regressive ideas of Blackness, respectability politics, and stereotypes. They want to see the stories you might be afraid to tell because they deserve to be read.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: August 28
- Call for Applications: Pilot Online Creative Writing Workshop
Saseni!, Huza Press, and the University of Exeter are pleased to announce a new creative writing project that seeks to explore the possibilities of fiction and creative non-fiction for disrupting, sharing and highlighting narratives of mental health and well-being in East Africa in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Saseni! and Huza Press are launching a pilot online creative writing workshop for ten writers based in East Africa (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda), interested in exploring questions of form, genre and voice in relation to narratives of mental health and well-being. The pilot online workshop will run asynchronously over September 2020, sharing readings and writing exercises, alongside offering opportunities for one-to-one feedback on your work and to shape future workshop and publication plans.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: September 6
- The TLC Scholarship with Ellah P Wakatama
The consultancy in partnership with Ellah P Wakatama, editor-at-large at Canongate has launched the TLC Scholarship. Submissions for 2020’s scholarship are open exclusively to black British writers, after which applications will be accepted each year over a three-week period “from writers on low-income and/or from communities currently under-represented in publishing”.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: August 21, 2020.
- Barjeel Poetry Prize
Barjeel Art Foundation is an independent initiative established to manage, preserve and exhibit an extensive collection of Modern and Contemporary Arab Art based in the United Arab Emirates. It has launched the first-ever Barjeel Poetry Prize, an international competition that invites poets around the world to respond to twenty works of Arab art from the 20th century. Poetry and art have a long history of mutual inspiration; the Barjeel Poetry Prize aims to encourage fresh engagement with Arab paintings from the Barjeel collection and to celebrate Arab art in its myriad forms by inviting poets to respond to it.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: September 30.
- PREE Magazine
PREE is a unique online magazine for new contemporary writing from and about the Caribbean. We publish original works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays, interviews, and experimental writing, giving our authors international visibility far beyond the islands.
In the upcoming issue of PREE are looking for work raw and lyrical, textured, and playful. Work that is stripped down to the basics of rhythm and then rebuilt; transformed with freedom and spirit, embracing all the tools at your disposal.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: August 15, 2020.
- Doek! Literary Magazine
Doek! is a free, independent, and Pan-African online literary magazine produced in Windhoek, Namibia. It publishes short fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art from Namibia and the African diaspora. Doek! seeks nuanced, exciting, challenging, disturbing, and transformative work from the following categories of eligible writers and poets: Namibians, or those of Namibian descent, residing in Namibia; Namibians, or those of Namibian descent, in the diaspora; and Foreign nationals residing in Namibia who have a direct connection with Namibia (through the work they produce). Unsolicited submissions from other foreign nationals are not presently accepted.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: August 15, 2020
- Lettres De Lemurie
The Revue Lettres de Lémurie is open to all texts from authors of Lemuria or texts from all walks of life concerning Lemuria (the continent being mythical, the author’s faith is authentic). An unpublished text by author: in French or in the language of Lemuria with a mandatory translation into French
Deadline: October 31, 2020
Details: Click here.
- CritLab.2020
OPEN CALL The Foundation for Contemporary Art-Ghana, in collaboration with Exit Frame Collective, blaxTARLINES KUMASI and SCCA Tamale, is pleased to announce the open call of its inaugural CritLab.2020 scheduled to be held from October 20th – 31st, 2020.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: August 15
- Kikwetu Journal
Kikwetu Journal is an annual online literary journal that publishes both new and established writers from East Africa and beyond in English and Swahili. They believe that African writers play a significant role in breaking down systemic injustices on the by calling out and giving voice to the African struggle and centering African lived experiences. The African Black Lives issue seeks short fiction and nonfiction.
Details: On image.
Deadline: August 20, 2020.
- Impepho Press call for submissions
Impepho press is a Pan Africanist, intersectional-feminist publishing house committed to the sincere telling of African and international stories, celebrating both the fragility and resilience of human experience. We believe in championing brave, particularly feminist, voices committed to literary excellence. The South African-based publisher has made a call out for History and Imagined Realities Poetry from South Africa for poets under 30
Deadline: September 3, 2020.
Details: On the attached Tweet.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
History and Imagined Realities
Poetry from South AfricaPoets under 30
Closing 3 September
[email protected] pic.twitter.com/En2TmDfPsK— impepho press (@impephop) August 13, 2020
- Contemporary Ghanaian Writers Series
The Contemporary Ghanaian Writers Series (CGWS) is a literary initiative created to promote Ghana’s contemporary writing scene by publishing the works of emerging writers particularly of Ghanaian descent. They accept submissions of original fiction, non-fiction essays and poetry only.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: September 14, 2020.
- The Caribbean Writer’s tribute to Kamau Brathwaite.
The Caribbean Writer (TCW) renews its call for submissions for Volume 35 under the 2020 theme: Diasporic Rhythms: Interrogating the Past, Imagining a Future.” And as The Caribbean Writer (TCW), a refereed, international journal published by the University of the Virgin Islands, continues to mourn the passing of its esteemed founding editorial board member, Barbadian Poet and Author Kamau Brathwaite, TCW Editor Alscess Lewis-Brown, remarked that the theme — even though it was announced before we experienced this great loss — captures the essence of the Kamau Brathwaite literary aesthetic and, therefore, is fitting that volume 35 is dedicated to this giant advocate for Caribbean literary expressions.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: December 31, 2020.
- Mosi Oa Tunya Literary Review
Mosi Oa Tunya Literary Review is a new multi-lingual, pan-African, online magazine from Zimbabwe. They are currently open for submissions from writers, poets, and artists, in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, children’s stories, and photography/drawings/paintings.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: October 30.
- Isele Magazine
Isele Magazine is a magazine that plans to publish writers and artists who hold the mirror to our society, who challenge conventional expectations about ways of being, how to be, and who decides who should be. It will be a monthly web magazine, a quarterly guest-edited magazine, a yearly print magazine, and a weekly blog.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: Not indicated.
- Iskanchi Magazine
Iskanchi Magazine will seek out and publish wayward/experimental pieces by African writers. The idea is to showcase works that engage with and examine what the experimental form looks like in the African literary context. They are interested in pieces that disobey in form and content, in works that bother by being without borders. The new magazine is open for submissions, and they pay for published work.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: Not indicated.
- Global Literature in Libraries Initiative Translated YA Book Prize
The Global Literature in Libraries Initiative is a US-based non-profit which seeks to promote the greater acceptance and availability of foreign-language literature in English. The purpose of the GLLI Translated YA Book Prize is to recognize titles in translation for readers between the ages of 12 and 18 inclusive. This award will increase the visibility of such titles, and boost the availability of top-notch literature from around the world for young adults. We accept titles published anywhere around the world.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: December 15, 2020.
- Touchstone Literary Magazine Debut Prize in Poetry
Touchstone is Kansas State University’s student-edited literary arts magazine. Aside from our regular online publications, our annual issue is published each Spring by the Department of English at Kansas State University, USA. They are dedicated to supporting emerging writers & artists beyond accepting their work. Writers who are yet to publish a full book of collection, self-published, or marginalized or underrepresented voices are cordially welcome to find a home for their work here.
The magazine has a callout for its Debut in Poetry Prize worth $50 for one poem judged by Luisa Muradyan.
Deadline: September 1.
Details: Click here.
- Critical Africana Studies
The Critical Africana Studies book series features critical, interdisciplinary, and intersectional scholarship within the emerging field of Africana studies. Most scholars within the field agree that “Africana studies” is essentially a rubric term utilized to conceptually capture the teaching and research of a wide-range of intellectuals (both “academic” and “organic” intellectuals) working in disciplines or subdisciplines as discursively diverse as: African studies, African diasporan studies, African American studies, Afro-American studies, Afro-Asian studies, Afro-European studies, Afro-Islamic studies, Afro-Jewish studies, Afro-Latino studies, Afro-Native American studies, Caribbean studies, Pan-African studies, Black British studies and, of course, Black studies. Epistemological and methodological advances in Africana studies, as well as historical and cultural changes, over the last fifty years have led to an increased interest in continental and diasporan African history, culture, thought, and struggles. The Critical Africana Studies book series directly responds to the heightened demand for monographs and edited volumes that innovatively explore Africa and its diaspora employing cutting-edge critical, interdisciplinary, and intersectional theory and methods.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: Not indicated.
- Ruth Rendell Award 2020
Nominations are now open for the ALCS-sponsored Ruth Rendell Award 2020. Publishers, booksellers, libraries, schools, charities and families are invited to nominate the author or writer they believe has had the most significant influence on literacy in the UK in the past year.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: September 30, 2020.
- Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize
The Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize is an annual award for emerging Caribbean writers living and working in the Anglophone Caribbean to devote time to advancing or finishing a literary work, with support from an established writer as a mentor. The Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize is sponsored by philanthropist Dr. Kongshiek Achong Low and administered by The Bocas Lit Fest and the literary charitable trust, Arvon. The Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize 2021 is now open for entries in the poetry genre for writers in the Caribbean.
Deadline: September 30, 2020
- Morland Writing Scholarships
The Morland Writing Scholarships for African Writers, universally known as the Morland Writing Scholarship, gives writers a grant of £18,000, paid monthly over the course of twelve months. At the discretion of the foundation, Scholars writing non-fiction may receive a grant of up to £27,000, paid over a period of up to eighteen months.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: September 30, 2020.
- Black Poetry Review’s 2021 Discovery Prize
Black Poetry Review is an online micro-journal of poetry by poets of the Black diaspora. The Black Poetry Review is now reading for their annual Discovery Prize with no submission fee. The prize is specifically for poets from the Black diaspora. The prize is Publication, mentorship, and a gift worth $400 from GrubStreet.
Deadline: September 31
Details: Click here.
- Libretto Magazine
Libretto Magazine is pleased to announce its call for submissions. We are looking for work with bold and elegant style that pushes boundaries beyond limit. You can play with form, style and language. Send in your euphoria and fears, your faiths and doubts, your silences and interests. Show us your best works. Kindly read the submission guidelines below, and please know that we look forward to reading your work.
Information: Click here.
Deadline: September 1
- Random Photo Journal
Random is largely focused on African photography so it’s only right for its magazine to tell African stories, present and past. Stories about women, men, non-binary, queer, life before colonialism, history, ordinary and extraordinary. We think it’s important to tell these stories because Africa desperately needs written literature. Our stories must be told, shared and preserved by us because who else but us? We would like to read stories that make us feel. A story that is able to convey the writer’s emotions through their characters is the best kind of story. We would also like to read stories about African people not centred on poverty or struggle because we believe it feeds a certain narrative that to be African is to be miserable. As much as that is our reality, it’s only a part of it.
Details: Click here.
Deadline: Not indicated.
- Enyo: An Anthology of Contemporary Plays
Enyo is an Igbo word which means mirror. Enyo seeks to reflect places, people, traditions and cultures. We ask for the play you will honestly write, one that could not have been written by someone else if not you. We are not themes restricted. We want plays that transcends reality to the metaphysical, portraying the fine African tradition. Plays that will show the condition of people and individual longings.
Submission ends: September 10, 2020
Details: Click here.
- Ka’edi Africa
Ka’edi Africa is an online art organisation that is centred on books, food, places, people and photography. We seek to rewrite the hitherto widespread unpleasant African narrative through these five essential facets of human life. Ka’edi Africa seeks to showcase Africa by telling African stories properly and truthfully to the global community. Our mission is to positively rewrite African narratives and properly tell our stories by promoting relevant African books, arts, foods, places and photography.
Ka’edi Africa online creative nonfiction magazine is accepting submissions year round in five categories: Art, Reviews, Photography, Food and Culture/People.
Submission guidelines: Click here or check Tweet.
Deadline: Not specified (all year round).
- International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2021
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is delighted to announce that submissions will open for the 14th edition of the prize on Friday 1 May 2020. Submissions will close on Monday 31 August 2020. Eligible novels must be written in Arabic and have been published for the first time between 1 July 2019 and 31 August 2020. This allows for an extension of two months to the eligibility period compared to previous prize cycles and is granted in response to the current disruption to publishing and distribution.
Details: Click here
Deadline: August 31, 2020.
