Afro Writing Resources
It’s important for Black creators to have our own spaces to express ourselves freely in, so we’ve complied a list of literary magazines created specifically for Black writers of the diaspora here! If there’s an important literary magazine or publishing press that we’ve missed, please let us know via our Contact page.
“African American Review is a quarterly scholarly aggregation of insightful essays on African American literature, theatre, film, the visual arts, and culture; interviews; poetry; fiction; and book reviews.”
The Black Poetry Review is “a microjournal of poetry by poets of the Black diaspora.”
BLACKBERRY: a magazine is “a literary magazine featuring black women writers and artists. Its goal is to expose readers to the diversity of the black woman’s experience and strengthen the black female voice in both the mainstream and independent markets.”
FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction
“FIYAH is a quarterly speculative fiction magazine that features stories by and about Black people of the African Diaspora.” They pose the following question: “What does it mean to be Black and look at intersectional issues of equality through the lens of science fiction and fantasy?”
midnight & indigo is a literary magazine dedicated to celebrating Black women writers. Their focus surrounds short stories and narrative essays.
“Launched in 1998, Mosaic explores the literary arts by writers of African descent, and features interviews, essays, and book reviews.”
Obsidian Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora
Obsidian is published biannually in print, and published year round online. With over forty-five years of continuous publication, they define themselves as “A premier platform dedicated to African and African Diaspora Literatures.”
“African Voices is an international, literary magazine devoted to the promotion of fiction, non- fiction, poetry and visual arts created by people of color. Founded in 1992, African Voices is published three times a year (2 print issues and 1 digital issue) and distributed throughout the United States and abroad.”
“Born in Africa and bred in the diaspora, Transition is a unique forum for the freshest, most compelling ideas from and about the black world.”
“Jalada Africa is a pan-African writers’ collective. Our aim is to publish literature by African authors regularly by making it as easy as possible for any member to publish anything or execute any literary project as quickly and effectively as possible.”
“AFREADA is a literary magazine, featuring original short stories from established and emerging writers across Africa and its diaspora. A fusion of the two words ‘Africa’ and ‘Reader’, we live for the well-crafted narratives and effortless reads that speak to our daily realities as Africans at home and abroad.”
“African Writer Magazine is a New Jersey-based monthly publication that celebrates established and emerging African writers, literature and ideas. For almost two decades, we have laid out a conspicuous platform exhibiting the best of contributions from African Writers worldwide. It is powered wholly by volunteers.”
Saraba is a nonprofit literary magazine published by the Saraba Literary Trust in Nigeria. First published in February 2009, it aims "to create unending voices by publishing the finest emerging writers, with focus on writers from Nigeria, and other parts of Africa.” (Wikipedia)
“Born out of our Nairobi-based writing group in 2015, Kikwetu is an annual online literary journal that publishes both new and established writers from East Africa and beyond in English and Swahili. “
“/ˈstelēəm/ : a group of several celestial bodies in a single sign or house. Stellium is a literary magazine centering Black queer and trans prose writers.”