Call for Submissions: CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN WOMEN’S POETRY

Across the continent as well as in the African Diaspora, African women are well known for their word craft. Over the centuries, African women have accomplished difficult feats using a capacity for words that is only surpassed by their ability for physical labour. This project on Contemporary African Women’s Poetry is looking for submission of poems written by African women from all works of life. We are looking for: (A) poetry about contemporary African life and experience on the continent; (B) poetry about life in the African Diaspora.

Poems may focus on any of the following: the work life, motherhood, wifehood, children, the state and nation, war, Africa’s wealth or lack thereof, poverty, HIV-AIDS, prison, freedom, celebration, grief, happiness, border crossings, marriage, birth, the environment, loss, love, trans-nationalism, migration, gender, race, class, and any other topics or issues that interest African women globally.

Unpublished poems are preferred. The original poems can also be in any African language if the poet will provide a translation into English. If the original is accepted, it will be published alongside the translation. If a translator is used, the author should indicate how credit should be acknowledged. Maximum number of submissions per person is three (3) poems.

For consideration, submissions should reach us before or on December 31, 2010. Please send submissions by email to: Anthonia Kalu (kalu.5@osu.edu); Folabo Ajayi-Soyinka (omofola@ku.edu); Juliana Nfah-Abbenyi (jmphd@ncsu.edu)

For submissions via snail mail, please mail your submissions to:

Anthonia Kalu, PhD

Professor

Department of African American and African Studies

486 University Hall 230 North Oval Mall

The Ohio State University

Columbus, OH 43210-1319

Folabo Ajayi-Soyinka, PhD

213 Bailey Hall,

1440 Jayhawk Blvd.,

University of Kansas,

Lawrence, KS 66045.

Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi, PhD

Professor

Department of English

212 Tompkins Hall

North Carolina State University

Raleigh, NC 27695-8105