In our continuing series, we share opportunities for those who wish to submit work be it poetry, prose, or other related arts in January 2022. These callouts are divided into prizes, journals, and education (MFAs, Fellowships, residencies).
Prizes
AKO Caine Prize for African Literature
The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for writers in the English language.
Deadline: January 31, 2022
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
British Book Awards
The British Book Awards, aka The Nibbies, represent the absolute best of the book trade, showcasing the books, bookshops, agents and publishers who make this industry shine.
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.
Nebula Awards 2022
The Nebula Awards are voted on and presented by full, senior, and associate members of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. Founded as the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1965 by Damon Knight, the organization began with a charter membership of 78 writers; it now has over 2,000 members, among them many of the leading writers of science fiction and fantasy.
Deadline: February 28
Details: Click here.
Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2022
Calling all indie book authors and publishers – including small presses, mid-size independent publishers, university presses, e-book publishers, and self-published authors who have a book written in English released in 2020, 2021 or 2022 or with a 2020, 2021 or 2022 copyright date to enter the most rewarding book awards program.
Deadline: February 11
Details:Click here
Sharjah Children’s Book Award 2022
The Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF), organised by Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), has announced the opening of registrations for the Sharjah Children’s Book Award and SCRF Visually Impaired Book Award. The awards aim to encourage authors to produce high-quality works in the field of children’s literature and help develop children’s literary and cultural abilities, improve their literary awareness, and enrich libraries with children’s books.Deadline: March 13
Details:Click here.
The Hurston/Wright Crossover Award 2022
The Hurston/Wright Crossover Award, sponsored by ESPN’s The Undefeated, honors probing, provocative, and original new voices in literary nonfiction. Named after the most common dribbling move in basketball, the Crossover Award, aims to highlight an unconventional winner who writes across genres and can effectively crossover between writing styles and techniques. The name also speaks to the potential of the award winner to transition from obscurity to the spotlight.This award will celebrate one writer who contributes a unique perspective to the literary nonfiction landscape and whose writing exemplifies The Undefeated’s “Not Conventional, Never Boring” mantra.
Deadline: January 31, 2022
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.
Centre for African American Poetry & Poetics (CAAPP) Book Prize
Founded in 2020, the CAAPP Book Prize is a publishing partnership between the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for African American Poetry and Poetics and Autumn House Press with the goal of publishing and promoting a writer of African descent. The prize is awarded annually to a first or second book by a writer of African descent and is open to the full range of writers embodying African and African diasporic experiences. The book can be of any genre that is, or intersects with, poetry, including poetry, hybrid work, speculative prose, and/or translation. The winning manuscript will be published by Autumn House Press and its author will be awarded $3,000.
Deadline: February
Details: Click here.
TVO Tribe Poet Laureate
Poet Laureate is an honorary position conferred by Creatives and Community members (Tribesmen) as a creative institution and literary society. The poet laureate is our biggest event as a literary society and is projected to be the most recognized literary award in Africa. Highlighting creative works from the depth of Africa’s shores, it is a season for us to bring to the fore Africa’s most outspoken and impactful creatives. We work to ensure that true African stories are told from time to time. We publish African Poetry and Prose pieces creating more publications to contain and sustain original stories.
Deadline: January 23
Details: Click here.
Literary magazines/journals
African Global Networks Poetry Platform
Call for poetry from emerging writers in Africa: Each month African Global Networks (AGN) features a poem from an emerging writer in Africa. AGN pays £20.00 for each poem it publishes. The initiative has been ongoing since August 2019 and there is no end date.
Deadline: Not indicated
Details: Click here.
Columbia Journal
Columbia Journal is now accepting submissions in Poetry and Translation
Deadline: January 20
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.
Details: Click here.
Isele Magazine
Isele Magazine is seeking submissions of essays, fiction, poetry, interviews, and book reviews. We do not accept multiple submissions, but we do consider simultaneous submissions. Please let us know when your work has been accepted for publication elsewhere. Please do not submit previously published works (by this, we mean any piece that has appeared on the web or in print, including your personal blog). However, we will consider a translated version of the work if the original language wasn’t in English.
Deadline: Not indicated
Details: Click here.
Jahazi Journal
Jahazi, Journal of Arts, Culture and Performance, has since its inception, collated and curated articles from both academia and industry in the fields of art, culture, media, and performance. For 2022, Jahazi wishes to specifically bring together practitioners and scholars within the realms of popular culture and media for an issue dedicated to the current state of popular culture and media in Kenya. What are some of the strides we can observe within the wide Kenyan popular culture and media space? What are the emergent trends across different sectors and genres, and what narratives are these trends espousing? Where do we see “the popular” standing in the years to come, and is this even important? We, therefore, invite incisive, thoughtful and out-of-the-box articles for the Special Issue on Popular Culture issues that touch on, but not entirely limited to the following categories and subject matter.
Deadline: January 21
Details: 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
The Shallow Tales Review
The Shallow Tales Review accepts fiction, book reviews, poems, one-act plays, cultural and social essays, art photographs, and translations that touch on the sensibilities of the African.
Literary criticisms must concern texts that are of modern and African temperament. For essays, we expect themes to be tackled logically and as clearly as possible. By “modern,” we refer to books published at most 10 years before.
Deadline: January 20
Details: Click here
Publishers
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.
Education (MFAs, Fellowships, residencies)
Georgia College and State University MFA
A good MFA program is hard to find, but we believe the MFA Program at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Georgia offers unique opportunities for MFA students dedicated to the craft and purpose of creative writing. GCSU’s famous alumna, Flannery O’Connor, lived in Milledgeville on her farm, Andalusia, and of our beautiful, Southern town, she wrote “When in Rome, do as you done in Milledgeville.” Our MFA students certainly get a lot done in their three years in Milledgeville.
Deadline: February 1
Details: Click here.
Joel Gay Creative Fellowships
In partnership with Substack, I am establishing the Joel Gay Creative Fellowships to support three emerging writers over the course of the year as they develop and publish a newsletter on the Substack platform. Fellows will receive a $25,000 stipend, paid monthly from the initial publication of their newsletter, as well as up to $15,000 in services from Substack, including editorial support, design assistance in developing a logo for your newsletter, access to Getty Images, Substack Defender, and other business support services. Fellows will contract directly with Substack for the stipend.
Deadline: February 15
Details: Click here
Black Girl Live Fellowship
The Black Girl Live Fellowship is an accelerator program designed to empower black queer women storytellers in South Africa with resources and business skills that will equip them to become sustainable creative entrepreneurs. The fellowship produces and commissions experimental, collaborative, and cross-disciplinary stories made by black and queer women storytellers. It is an experimental space – where the creative process meets a business Bootcamp that covers everything from funding models to producing, intellectual property, and more.
Deadline: January 20
Details: Click here.
2022 LitSpace Writer’s Residency
The LitSpace St. Petersburg Writers’ Residency invites applications from fiction writers, poets, playwrights, essayists, and memoirists. We hope to build a legacy as a residency that provides support for adventurous writers and fresh voices. We encourage applications from writers whose work is challenging and daring, as well as from under represented backgrounds.
Our goals are to foster writers from around the country and world, enrich St. Petersburg’s literary culture, and connect it to the broader literary world. Therefore, we invite applications from anywhere in the world. However, we can only read applications and writing samples in English. While a track record of publication will be a plus for applicants, we are eager to recognize and foster excellent writers with limited publication histories.
Deadline: February 1, 2022
Details: Click here.
Other
Poets on the move as Hear My Voice announces Mobility Fund
Following the success of the previous Mobility Fund, which was initially introduced in 2020 to encourage the export of South African poets to the world, the Hear My Voice team has re-launched their Mobility Fund. This time the fund does not only enable and incentivise international travel, but poets and poetry platforms can also apply to get support for interprovincial travel. The fund will contribute towards poets mobility costs to the maximum of R10 000. In the instance of digital mobility, the fund will either match or contribute towards the poets performance fee.
Deadline: March 31
Details: Click here
Africa in Dialogue Internship Program
Africa in Dialogue is excited to present the 2022 call for its biannual Internship Program. We are growing and looking for creative individuals who are passionate, knowledgeable and interested in African Storytellers and the art of Interviewing. The Internship program is an unpaid six months learning and curating opportunity set to start on the 1st of March 2022 until the 31st of August 2022. The available posts for this program are: Contributing Interviewer for Fiction Contributing Interviewer for Creative Non-Fiction Contributing Interviewer for Poetry Contributing Editor Social Media Manager
Deadline: January 31
Details: Click here.
