GENERAL GUIDELINES
- We Do Not Accept Multiple Submissions: Only one entry is allowed for this competition. Multiple submissions are not acceptable. Multiple entries, in either the same or in a different category, will automatically disqualify you.
- We Do Not Accept Simultaneous Submissions: Please make sure any work you submit to us is not being submitted to other publications.
- We Only Accept Original Work: Submissions cannot be previously published.
- We Only Publish African Authors: We define African not by the physical continent but by its descendants spread all over the Diaspora. As part of your submission, you will be asked to submit a 250-word bio, which should include information about how you self-identify.
CATEGORY DEFINITIONS
Submitted works do not need to adhere to a specific theme or topic. Just send your best work! However, please ensure you are submitting your work in the appropriate category.
Fiction: We’re open to any and all types of stories here! Any genre and style is welcomed from literary, romance, comedy, speculative, satire, children’s, and beyond. You can either submit a short story or you can submit excerpts of a longer work (if part of a longer work, please indicate that on the title page).
Nonfiction: Nonfiction must be 100% based on fact, research, and/or interviews you’ve conducted. If there are any fictional elements to your writing, please submit under the fiction category. All types of nonfiction are welcome! We are open to creative non-fiction like personal essays, memoirs, or short biographies and to critical or analytical essays like historical, philosophical or economic writing.
Poetry: You can submit up to three (3) poems, in whatever style, as long as the total word count is 8,000 or less. The three poems can be related in theme or they can all be completely different from each other. Again, just send us your best work!
**Works in Translation: We are open to original fiction, nonfiction, and poetry works in translation.
FILE FORMAT GUIDELINES
DO NOT include your name or contact information in the file name, header, footer, or title page of your submission. Should you include any identifying information, your submission will automatically be disqualified.
- Any work that is submitted must be no longer than 8,000 words.
- File Type: The submitted work should be a .doc, .docx, or .rtf file. DO NOT submit PDF files.
- File Name: The file name should be the title of your piece. For poetry, if you’re submitting more than one poem, please title it the name of the first poem (you can add “and other poems” to the file name). DO NOT include your personal name or any identifying information in the file name.
- Font: Times New Roman or Calibri, 12pt-sized font.
- Spacing: For fiction and nonfiction: submission should be double-spaced; for poetry: submission should be single-spaced, unless unique spacing is deliberate for the poetic technique/style.
- Text color: use only black. *exception would be in poems where the color is part of the technique.
- Margins: Use standard 1” margin spacing
- Page size: Use either Letter or A4 size
- Spelling: You may use American or British spelling.
- Language: Manuscripts must be predominantly written in English, however, we welcome the use of African words and language in your submission.
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