About the Saartjie Journal

Founded in March 2025, The Saartjie Journal is a bi-annual not-for-profit literary magazine which elevates the voices of black women creatives. We celebrate prose, poetry and visual art which centres all dimensions of black womanhood, from the personal to the political. We welcome creators of all backgrounds, ages, gender identities and sexual orientations. We aim to publish new and emerging writers and artists, upholding evocative work which challenges the boundaries of language and form.

So often black women in media have been dehumanised, forced into narrow moulds, or erased entirely. Our guiding philosophy is that art—in the broadest sense—is not merely a leisure activity, but a vehicle for empathy. The Saartjie Journal is a publication made for, by and about black women which explores the true breadth and complexity of our experiences—whether joyful, tragic, or mundane.