Open Call for Submissions: 20.35 Africa Vol. VIII Anthology Guest Edited by Sarah Lubala and Logan February

As 20.35 Africa makes it into its eighth anthology year, we want to take a moment to reflect back on the legacy in the making we have the honor to document. An anthology by and for living African poets means celebrating the current moment, the lush and vibrant landscape of what African poetics is negotiating, while also looking back and paying homage to the great writers who walked. Since its inception in 2017, the anthology series has gathered emerging poets from every corner of the continent such as The Congo, Sudan, South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, etc., expanding the documentation of alive and thriving art. The anthology series also serves as an educational tool and both a free and environmentally conscious way to disseminate poetry that reflects the urgent socio-political concerns of this moment we are living through right now.

To this end, we are pleased to announce our call for submission to the eighth volume which is guest-edited by Sarah Lubala and Logan February alongside 20.35 Africa editors: Ebenezer Agu, I.S. Jones, Precious Okpechi, and JK Anowe.

Logan February is a language artist whose work explores themes of desire, psychospirituality, and Afro-queer identity through poetry, essays, performance, film, and translation. Born in 1999 in Nigeria, they studied poetry and psychology at Purdue University and the University of Ibadan. February has been recognized with the Future Awards Africa Prize for Literature and has received fellowships from Cave Canem and the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin program. Their published works include In The Nude (Ouida Poetry, 2019), Mental Voodoo (Engeler Verlag, 2024, translated by Christian Filips), and the forthcoming Nude Imperative (Spector Books, 2025). Logan February lives in Berlin.

Sarah Lubala (she/her) is a Congolese-born South African poet. Her debut collection, A History of Disappearance (Botsotso Publishing, 2022), was featured on a number of notable book lists, including Open Country Mag‘s 60 notable books of 2022 and The Africa Report’s 15 must-read books for summer 2022. She has been shortlisted twice for a Gerald Kraak Award and once for a Brittle Paper Award for Poetry and was longlisted for a Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award. She is the winner of the HSS Award 2023 for Best Fiction: Poetry and the Ingrid Jonker Prize 2024.

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 seventh 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 submissions@2035africa.org.
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 2025.
16. We hope to respond to every submission by June 2025. 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 2025.
18. Accepted contributors must be available throughout the editing process and for other correspondence that may follow.
19. All inquiries must be sent to info@2035africa.org. 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 agre 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.