SubMission Guidelines

The Saartjie Journal releases pieces on a rolling basis. We accept unsolicited submissions of previously unpublished original poems, short stories, and visual art by black women artists and writers. Black nonbinary people who identify with womanhood are welcome to submit. By “previously unpublished”, we mean work which has not appeared in any other literary publication, whether in print or online. However, work showcased on your personal blog or social media account is acceptable.

We do not accept novel extracts, essays, reviews or translations. We are only able to accept English language submissions at the moment, but hope to accept submissions in other languages in the future. Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.

Your work may deal with any theme or subject matter and take any tone or style. While we believe in art as activism, we also believe black women are deserving of the freedom to make art simply for art’s sake. We pride ourselves on our eclecticism, and do not confine our contributors to any particular aesthetic or theme. That said, our favourite writing is writing that is vivid and visceral and allows us to see the world through someone else’s eyes. We have a penchant for the strange, surreal and unexpected, writing that bleeds off the page and grabs us with its inventiveness. We care as much about craft as we do about catharsis. Above all else, we want to be moved.

Email all submissions to submissions@saartjiejournal.org. You may submit multiple genres at a time. Present all written submissions in one document per genre and include your name and email on each page. Please include the title(s) and genre(s) of your submissions in the subject line and a brief cover letter and third-person biography in the body, mentioning social media handles, previously published work, awards and honours, if applicable. Refer to the following template for further guidance:

“Subject: Short Story Submission: Recitatif; Poetry Submission: Eve Remembering, The Perfect Ease of Grain

Dear Editors,

I am sending one short story entitled “Recitatif”, and two poems entitled “Eve Remembering” and “The Perfect Ease of Grain” for your consideration.

Thank you for taking the time to read my work.

Kind regards,

Toni Morrison

Bio:

Toni Morrison is a writer from Lorain, Ohio. She is the author of Beloved (Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1987), The Bluest Eye (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970), and much more. She is the winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature.”

For the sake of transparency, The Saartjie Journal is not a business. We are an entirely self-funded, not-for-profit passion project and we neither charge for submissions nor pay contributors. However, we do our best to support our contributors on social media and in any way we can. All pieces are considered for nomination for literary awards such as the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net Anthology. Your work remains yours, but we ask for first serial and non-exclusive archival rights. All rights revert to the writer or artist upon publication, but please credit us as the original publishers if your work is reprinted elsewhere.

We will notify you of a decision within 24 hours, often much sooner. Feel free to send a query if you have not received a response within that time. We do not believe in form rejections and will give a personalised response to every submission.

Genre specific guidelines are as follows:

POEMS

You may submit a maximum of three poems per issue as a Microsoft Word document.

SHORT STORIES

Short stories must be between 1,500 and 5,000 words and are limited to one story per author. Short story submissions must be sent as a Microsoft Word document.

VISUAL ART

We accept traditional and digital paintings and illustrations, photography and photographs of three-dimensional art. You may submit a maximum of three artworks per issue in JPEG or PNG format.