SUBMISSION ARE OPEN.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
When to submit: January, March, May, July, September, and November by the last day of those months at midnight CAT.
Where to submit: Here
What to submit: Fiction, essays, visual art and poetry.
Who can submit: Zambian artists living anywhere in the world may submit during all submission periods.
Non-Zambian artists – African artists living in Africa and only African artists living in Africa may submit in March of every year.
Submissions received outside of these windows will be deleted unread.
Limit: 3000-6000 words for prose (fiction and essays) or 1-3 poems in a single document.
Format: Word document (not PDF) typed in a legible, plain font such as Arial, Book Antiqua, Georgia, Garamond, or Times New Roman. Please keep font size to 12pt and 1.5 spaced.
Other Logistics: Poetry and Prose must be in English but may contain Zambian languages. Poems may be in English/and or Bemba, Nyanja, Lozi, Tonga, Luvale, Lunda, and Kaonde or a combination of English and any Zambian language.
Visual Art submissions must contain 5 -10 images/art in a single document (Cover image submissions may be a single image)and a 300-500-word narrative about the work. All submissions must be unpublished in digital or print media (including social media). Images must be inclusive, positive, representative, unique, and creative in colour or black and white. Image size must be between 5 MB and 10 MB. No AI-generated images will be considered.
Response time: We will do our best to respond to eligible submissions within six weeks after the close of each submission period. Please don’t enquire about your submission status until this time has elapsed. Email queries to ubwalimagazine@gmail.com
Multiple submissions: No. Please submit only one piece and to only one category per submission period.
Translations: Translations are not accepted at this time.
Novel Excerpts: Yes, provided they are unpublished, self-contained and within our word limit.
Simultaneous submissions: Yes. Just remember to withdraw if accepted elsewhere. To withdraw, email ubwalimagazine@gmail.com with the title and genre of your piece in the subject line.
Republishing: No. Only original, unpublished submissions will be read. Self-publication of any kind counts, including on social media platforms counts, as publication.
Ubwali requests the first serial rights of every piece we accept for publication. All rights will revert to you 90 days after publication. Please credit Ubwali Literary Magazine as a first publication if your work is republished elsewhere.
Submission fees: None. You can, however, donate a tip.
Payment: Ubwali Literary Magazine will offer a modest remuneration for work that is accepted for publication.
Send a brief bio (200 words max) alongside the submission.
If you are accepted for and subsequently published in Ubwali Literary Magazine, please wait at least two issues after being published before submitting work to the same genre. There are no limitations if you want to submit to a different genre.
Please note that submissions are now capped at 75 submissions per reading window.
SUBMISSIONS THAT DO NOT ADHERE TO ANY OF THE ABOVE GUIDELINES WILL BE DELETED UNREAD.