Call for submissions | '20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry Volume IV'

03 February 2021 - 13:19 By Ebenezer Agu
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Submissions for the 2021 '20.35 African Anthology' series will be accepted until March 16.
Submissions for the 2021 '20.35 African Anthology' series will be accepted until March 16.
Image: Supplied

Set for publication this year, 20.35 Africa is accepting submissions for the fourth volume of its annual anthology, 20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry until March 16 2021. Submissions are open to African poets between the ages of 20 and 35. Nadra Mabrouk and K Eltinaé will guest-edit the volume.

Mabrouk is the author of Measurement of Holy (Akashic Books, 2020), part of the New Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set. The recipient of the 2019 Brunel International African Poetry Prize, Mabrouk holds an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University and works in publishing in New York City.

Eltinaé is a Sudanese poet of Nubian descent. His work has been translated into Arabic, Greek, Farsi, French and Spanish, and has appeared in The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human: Many Muslim Worlds (Penguin), and The African American Review. He is the winner of the 2019 Beverly Prize for International Literature (Eyewear Publishing) and co-winner of the 2019 Dignity Not Detention Prize (Poetry International).

Since its inception in 2017, the 20.35 Africa collective has pushed institutional boundaries in the African literary scene by pursing the mission to “create a balanced platform representing the continent’s contemporary voices”.

The first volume of the anthology was guest-edited by Safia Elhillo and Gbenga Adesina, the second by Yasmin Belkhyr and Kayo Chingonyi, and the third by IS Jones and Cheswayo Mphanza. The volumes house work by poets like Lillian Akampurira Aujo, Sara Elkamel, Momtaza Mehri, Romeo Oriogun, and Clifton Gachagua. Poet Tjawangwa Dema, in her blurb for the third volume said, “These poems are far from singular in their aesthetic ambitions and they reveal an unwavering attentiveness to everything from personal hurt to the symbolism of plants. But what may yet constitute this anthology’s true value are all these magnificent signs of listening before telling.”

Click here for the submission guidelines. 

Article courtesy of Ebenezer Agu (Editor-in-Chief: 20.35 Africa)


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