Nib Hub Zambia

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Vol. VI of 20.35 Africa Anthology Series Guest Edited by Safia Jama and Nick Makoha

The 20.35 Africa anthology series is dedicated to pushing the limit of how contemporary African poetry has been perceived, and also to bridge the publishing gap set by this perception for young African poets. Across its five volumes, the anthology has sought to ask important questions, most importantly: What is contemporary African poetry? Can African poetry be read beyond its thematic inclination? In his Introduction to the fourth volume, editor-in-chief, Ebenezer Agu, states that 20.35 Africa anthologies “afford the opportunity to illustrate a reading of African poetry along language aesthetics,” putting out poems that will be read “foremost for their literary qualities.”

In accordance with their annual publications, 20.35 Africa is happy to announce this call for submissions to the Sixth Volume of our anthology. This year’s guest editors are Safia Jama and Nick Makoha, who will be working with the organization’s editors – Ebenezer Agu, I.S. Jones, and Precious Okpechi.

Safia Jama was born to a Somali father and an Irish American mother in Queens, New York. A Cave Canem graduate fellow, she has published poetry in Ploughshares, Boston Review, World Literature Today, Spoken Black Girl, and Poem-a-Day. Her poetry has also been featured on WNYC’s Morning Edition and CUNY TV’s Shades of US series. Jama is the author of Notes on Resilience, included in the New-Generation African Poets chapbook box set (Akashic Books 2020). Her full-length poetry collection, Crowded House, is forthcoming from Beltway Editions (Fall 2023).

Nick Makoha is the founder of The Obsidian Foundation. Winner of the 2021 Ivan Juritz prize and the Poetry London Prize. In 2017, Nick’s debut collection, Kingdom of Gravity, was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection and was one of the Guardian’s best books of the year. Nick is a Cave Canem Graduate Fellow and the Complete Works alumnus. He has been writer-in-residence for the ICA London and Wordsworth Trust. He won the 2015 Brunel International AfricanPoetry Prize and the 2016 Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Prize for his pamphlet Resurrection Man. His play The Dark—produced by Fuel Theatre and directed by JMK award-winner Roy Alexander—was on a national tour in 2019. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Alfred Fagon Award and won the 2021 Columbia International Play Reading prize. His poems have appeared in the Cambridge Review, the New York Times, Poetry Review, 'e Rialto, Poetry London, TriQuarterly Review, 5 Dials, Boston Review, Callaloo and Wasafiri. He is a Trustee for the Arvon Foundation and the Ministry of Stories, and a member of the Malika’s Poetry Kitchen collective. https://nickmakoha.com

Submission Guidelines
1. The anthology is open to African poets who are between the ages of 20 (or who would be 20 by the time of publication) and 35.
2. Contributors published in the fifth volume are NOT eligible for this volume but may submit for subsequent volumes.
3. Submissions can cut across different themes and each contributor may send three poems ONLY. Please send us your best poems, properly edited.
4. The anthology is ONLY for African poets. We define an African poet as someone born in Africa, whose parents (at least one) are African, or someone who currently lives in Africa and has done so for at least 10 years.
5. Poets who have had a full-length book or a chapbook or pamphlet published in electronic or print format can submit. Poets who have not been published in any form or on any literary forum/outlet, and fall into the acceptable age bracket, are encouraged to submit as well.
6. Only poems written in English will be accepted. Works translated into English from any African language may be submitted, but they must be accompanied by their original.
7. There is no stipulation as to the content of submitted poems, but poems should be ideally within 40 lines.
8. Identifying information, including names of poets, addresses, phone numbers, and publication histories, should NOT be included in the manuscript or in the body of the email. Submit through your personal email address and include the same email address on the last page of your manuscript. Submissions will be judged solely on merit.
9. We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if any of your poems is accepted elsewhere.
10. All entries must be submitted in a SINGLE WORD DOCUMENT, typed in TIMES NEW ROMAN, font 12, single-spaced, and sent via email only to the 20.35 Africa Team at [email protected].
11. The email subject should read “20.35 AFRICA SUBMISSION.”
12. Submissions must be written in black ink. No colours.
13. Each poem must have a title.
14. Poems must be the original work of the contributor.
15. The deadline for submissions is midnight (UTC+01:00) on 24th March 2023.
16. We hope to respond to every submission by June 2023. However, there may be a delay in response time pending the editors’ final decision.
17. We will not entertain any inquiries concerning submission status until after June 2023.
18. Accepted contributors must be available throughout the editing process and for other correspondence that may follow.
19. All inquiries must be sent to [email protected]. Inquiries sent to the submissions email address will not be read.
20. Except in proven cases of plagiarism or when a piece we have published violates any form of human rights, we do not take down works once they have been published in our anthology or on our website.
21. By submitting your work to us, you agree to give us first serial rights of said work, which shall revert to you upon publication. If your work is republished elsewhere, kindly acknowledge that it first appeared on 20.35 Africa.

2023 Kalemba Prize open for entries

The 2023 Kalemba Short Story Prize is open for submissions until 10 December 2022. Online submission form available on
www.kalemba-shortstory-prize.com

Note: Please read the Entry & Eligibility Rules carefully, and downloadable from www.kalemba-shortstory-prize.com

Eligibility and Entry Rules

Please read these eligibility and entry rules before submitting your story.

Opening date

10 October -10 December 2022.

Entries submitted after 10 December 2022 will not be considered.

1. About the Prize
a. The Kalemba Short Story Prize is an annual award for unpublished short fiction administered and funded by Ukusefya WORDS.
b. The prize is open to nationals only, including those living outside Zambia.
c. The judging panel comprise authors, publishers and editors.
d. The winner will receive USD1500. Two run ups will receive USD500 each.
e. The winner will be announced in 2023 on Kalemba digital platforms

2. Eligibility
f. Entrants must be Zambian citizens (including in diaspora)

3. Entry rules
g. Entries must be made by the writer.
h. Entries are accepted via online form
i. The deadline for receipt of entries is STRICTLY Dec 10, 2022
j. Only one entry per writer may be submitted for the 2022 KSSP
k. The story must be the entrant’s own work.
l. The story must be original and should not have been published anywhere in full or in part before May 2023 including in an anthology, magazine, book, newspaper and online.
m. Entries previously submitted elsewhere are not eligible.
n. Entries should be submitted in English. Entries in a Zambian language are only eligible with English translation submitted by the writer.
o. Entries must be between 2000-5000 words. (Entries exceeding word limit will automatically be disqualified.
p. Entries should be submitted in a PDF or Word document, preferably PDF, saved under title of the story.
q. The author’s details should be included on the entry form. They must not be given anywhere on the uploaded document. All entries are judged anonymously.
r. All entries should be submitted in Arial 11-point font and 1.5 line spacing. No handwritten entries.
s. The story should be fiction. There are no restrictions on setting, genre or theme.
t. Entrants agree as a condition of entry that Ukusefya WORDS may publicise a story that has been entered or shortlisted for the Prize.
u. Copyright of each story remains with the writer. Ukusefya WORDS will have the unrestricted right to publish the winning or any stories including for promotional purposes.
v. The winner will be expected to take part in publicity activities.
w. Ukusefya WORDS reserves the right not to give the prize if none of the entries meet the acceptable standards.
x. For any queries on entry or eligibility not covered above, please email [email protected] for clarification before submitting an entry. Frivolous queries, including on what is already covered in eligibility and rules will attract NO response.

Link to submission form -https://www.jotform.com/app/build/222815065674459/publish/link

Source: Kalemba Short Story Prize page.

www.jotform.com

The U.S. Embassy Zambia is introducing Write Up Zambia, a new space for aspiring Zambian writers to network and share tools related to creative and publishing opportunities.

Register at http://bit.ly/writeupzambia for the first meeting on Friday, July 29 at 14hr at American Corner NIPA in Lusaka.

Featured speakers will discuss their experiences with storytelling, developing manuscripts, and publishing.

See you there!

Until 29th May 2022, Ibua Publishing is inviting and receiving submissions for their literary journal, Ibua Journal.

Share your food-inspired short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in their Bold 2022 Continental Call.

Details: http://ibuajournal.com/continental-calls/

Good luck, and happy writing!

From Afritondo: If you are a young writer, you don't want to miss this virtual workshop!

In partnership with Afritondo, the Royal African Society is organising a FREE one-day workshop on Wednesday, May 4, featuring some of Africa's brightest minds around how to approach a writing prize and [possibly] getting shortlisted!

The panelists will include Jarred Thompson, winner of the 2020 Afritondo Short Story Prize; Desta Haile, Deputy Director of the Royal African Society; and Nancy Adimora, Publisher of Afreada.

Please register using the link below.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writers-panel-session-how-to-get-shortlisted-tickets-328275078597?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

Share with other writers.

Writer's Panel Session - How to Get Shortlisted RAS Arts & Culture presents the first in a series of discussions aimed at our writing community!

PRESS RELEASE: Submit to Volume V of 20.35 Africa Poetry Anthology Series Guest Edited by Sara Elkamel and Chibuihe Obi

Since its inception in 2017, the 20.35 Africa collective has annually published an electronic Anthology of Contemporary African Poetry. This anthology has sought, over the years, to reshape the existing view of what African poetry entails; to usher a rethink of the ways African poetry, like poetry from other regions of the world, uses language to portray the experiences and thoughts of the poets – a creative outline of how they view and interact with their internal self, their immediate environment, and the world at large. The anthology series seeks to canonize African poetry, a project Phillipa Yaa de Villiers describes as “serious, strident, playful – a promising, powerful clutch from the next generation of greats.”

In our mission to be a resource institution for African poetry 20.35 Africa established two projects: the Conversations series and the New Poets series which assists further in giving visibility to living African poets and infusing new understanding into existing interpretations of African poetry.

Over the years, the anthology series has featured works both from poets living in the continent and in the diaspora, prominent and emerging voices in the scene, including Saddiq Dzukogi, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, JK Anowe, Megan Ross, Dalia Elhassan, Clifton Gachagua, Hiwot Adilow, Akosua Zimba-Afiriyie Hwedie, Nour Kamel, Rabha Ashry, Ernest Ogunyemi, among others.

The fifth volume will be guest-edited by Sara Elkamel and Chibuihe Obi alongside the collective’s editors: Ebenezer Agu, I.S. Jones, and Precious Okpechi.

Sara Elkamel is a poet and journalist living between Cairo and NYC. She holds an MA in arts journalism from Columbia University and an MFA in poetry from New York University. Her poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, The Yale Review, MQR, Four Way Review, The Cincinnati Review, The Adroit Journal, Poet Lore, Poetry London, Best New Poets 2020, Best of the Net 2020, among others. She is the author of the chapbook Field of No Justice (African Poetry Book Fund & Akashic Books, 2021).

Chibuihe Obi Achimba grew up in Southeastern Nigeria. He is a poet, essayist, and Founding-Editor of Dgëku Magazine. He served as the 2019 Harvard University Scholar At-Risk Fellow, a Visiting Poet in its English Department, and the 2020 Summer Visiting Artist at the Oregon Institute for Creative Research. Chibuihe has been awarded grants by PEN America, PEN International, Freedom House, and St. Botolph Club Foundation, which named him one of the 2021 Emerging Artists in New England. His writing has been published or forthcoming in The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Harvard Review, Poet Lore, Foreign Policy Magazine, Guernica Magazine, and several other prints and online journals. In August 2021, he was appointed to the editorial board of Transition Magazine at the Hutchins Center, Harvard. He is currently completing an MFA degree in Poetry at Brown University.

Submission Guidelines
1. The anthology is open to African poets who are between the ages of 20 (or who would be 20 by the time of publication) and 35.

2. Contributors published in the fourth volume are NOT eligible for this volume, but may submit for subsequent volumes.

3. Submissions can cut across different themes and each contributor may send three poems ONLY. Please send us your best poems, properly edited.

4. The anthology is ONLY for African poets. We define an African poet as someone born in Africa, or whose parents (at least one) are African, or someone who currently lives in Africa and has done so for at least 10 years.

5. Poets who have had a full-length book or a chapbook or pamphlet published in electronic or print format can submit. Poets who have not been published in any form or on any literary forum/outlet, and fall into the acceptable age bracket, are encouraged to submit as well.

6. Only poems written in English will be accepted. Works translated into English from any African language may be submitted, but they must be accompanied by their original.

7. There is no stipulation as to the content of submitted poems but no poem should exceed 40 lines in length.

8. Identifying information, including names of poets, addresses, phone numbers, publication histories, should NOT be included in the manuscript or in the body of the email. Submit through your personal email address and include the same email address on the last page of your manuscript. Submissions will be judged solely on merit.

9. We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if any of your poems is accepted elsewhere.

10. All entries must be submitted in a SINGLE WORD DOCUMENT, typed in TIMES NEW ROMAN, font 12, single spaced, and sent via email only to the 20.35 Africa Team at [email protected].

11. The email subject should read “20.35 AFRICA SUBMISSION.”

12. Submissions must be written in black ink. No colours.

13. Each poem must have a title.

14. Poems must be the original work of the contributor.

15. Deadline for submissions is midnight (UTC+01:00) of 24th April 2022.

16. We hope to respond to every submission by July 2022. However, there maybe delay in response time pending the editors’ final decision.

17. We will not entertain any inquiries concerning submission status until after July 2022.

18. Accepted contributors must be available at all times, for necessary editing of their works and correspondence that may follow.

19. All inquiries must be sent to [email protected]. Inquiries sent to the submissions email address will not be read.

20. Except on proven cases of plagiarism or when a piece we have published violates any form of human rights, we do not take down works once they have been published in our anthology or on our website.

21. By submitting your work to us, you agree to give us first serial rights of said work, which shall revert to you upon publication. If your work is republished elsewhere, kindly acknowledge that it first appeared on 20.35 Africa.

Submit and good lu!

To embody the full woman spirit as we commemorate the International Women’s Day, “A Door Ajar”, by Sibongile Fisher, a South African renowned and award winning creative writer is our read today. The story is part of Short Story Day Africa’s ‘Migration: New Short Fiction From Africa’.

Read it on their website: http://shortstorydayafrica.org/news/weekendread-sibongile-fishers-a-door-ajar

Study these women in the story, enjoy these women’s journeys, and above all see how the writer traverses Between womanity and the environment.

Warsan Shire, the Kenyan-born Somali British writer and poet, has finally put out her highly anticipated poetry collection, 'Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head'.

If you are new to her works, she previously wrote two chapbooks, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth and Her Blue Body. Also, she was the inaugural Brunel International African Poetry Prize award winner.

To celebrate her new work, Brittle Paper has featured an excerpt from the poetry collection, 'Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head'. Read excerpt here:https://brittlepaper.com/2022/03/excerpt-bless-the-daughter-raised-by-a-voice-in-her-head-by-warsan-shire/

Excerpt: Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire Extreme Girlhood A loop, a girl born to each family, prelude to suffering. Bless the baby girl, caul of dissatisfaction, patron saint of not good enough. Are you there, God? It’s me, Warsan. Maladaptive daydreaming, obsessive, dissociative. Born to a lullaby lamenting melanin,

Last year’s key literary prizes went to writers from Africa and the diaspora. South African Damon Galgut, Senegalese Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Zanzibar-born Abdulrazak Gurnah and others explain what winning these prestigious prizes means to them.

Read here:https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/nov/20/from-the-booker-to-the-nobel-why-2021-is-a-great-year-for-african-writing

From the Booker to the Nobel: why 2021 is a great year for African writing This year key prizes have gone to writers from Africa and the diaspora. Damon Galgut, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Abdulrazak Gurnah and others explain what winning means to them

Ipikai Poetry Journal, a predominately Zimbabwean poetry publishing journal, has launched in hopes to advance Zimbabwean and African poetry beyond the local borders.

They are currently calling for submissions from Zimbabwean poets.

To read what they are about visit their website: https://ipikai.org/

After a long hiatus, this March, Nib Hub Zambia resumes offering creative writing classes, workshops, and publishing consultancy services.

For all creative writing support, kindly follow us. You will find writing contests, literary workshops, classes, selected literary readings, notes on craft, and literary interviews shared here.

We have designed experiences that will shift the perception of writing, inform and challenge the known craft of writing, and above all make writing less solitary and difficult for you.

Dear Zambian writer, do you have it in you to produce three short stories in three months? Short Short Day Africa knows you do, and they’ve created a programme to help you do it!

In association with Laxfield Literary Associates, and supported by the British Council, they are calling for applications to select 12 talented, emerging (18-35) writers for Inkubator Africa/Uk, an intensive three month, online curriculum for fiction writers.

Go to http://shortstorydayafrica.org/inkubator to see how to apply, and by when.