We were taught in elementary school that a
noun is a name of a person, place or thing. Ancient, medieval and contemporary
literature has encouraged lots of conversations around persons and things, but
hardly places. Yet places have marked
the backbone of every narrative, every art, every work of literature, and in a
lot of ways it has been left there- at the back. Voices is picking up places
and making it the core of our tale.
Voices is an anthology of contemporary art
and literature emerging from Africa, yet not promoting only Africa or African
voices. Voices is interested in exploring every single place that makes up our
world. It is a curious work, determined to reveal places and the lives they consist.
The world is one global place, and is made up of smaller places called
continents, which is made up of smaller places called countries made up of
smaller cities and towns.
Thus, we want to showcase the various places that
make the world a global village.
‘Voices’ is as it is called is a
conglomeration of voices from a place, be it a region, town, country or county.
The voices are unique, stemming from various notions and interpretations of
different people on this particular place. The anthology places its interest on
places rather than ideas or abstract nouns. For us, places reveal people,
places have a life of their own that we want to show the world.
Voices welcomes submissions of all kind and
is opposed to stereotypical writing or art. We want something dynamic, uncommon
and unusual that tells the true story of a place without sugar-coating, yet
with clarity on as many sides to the story as are reasonably expected.
The Ife Issue
 |
| Oduduwa Park Ile-Ife |
Ile-Ife is an ancient Yoruba town in
Southwestern Nigeria, Osun State. Also known as Ife, the town is renowned for
its place in Yoruba folk myth as the traditional home of Yoruba civilization
and doubles as a holy city of humankind. It boasts of art and culture and rich
history that stands it out as one of the most desirable archaeological sites in
Southwestern Nigeria. These exquisite characteristics of the small city
peppered with mysteries ignites the interest to debut this anthology with this
place- Ife.
We are accepting submissions from all over
on the theme of ‘Ife’. We believe in the concept of borderlessness, that everyone
can talk about every place, especially through art and literature, and we want
to reach every one in every place with the stories and pictures and arts of Ife
as well.
All submissions must explore, reveal and /
or revolve around the place ‘Ife’. Essentially, it is not compulsory that all
submissions are set in Ife, but the underlying theme of ‘Ife’ must be felt in
the heart of the piece. We accept compelling
and atypical short fiction, non-fiction, book reviews, poetry,
photography, art, and conversations.
FORMATTING
GUIDELINES
All submissions must be:
Formatted in 1.5 line spacing
Properly edited for errors (Works dotted
with errors will have reduced chances of being selected for publication)
Font 12 Times New Roman
Contain a cover page stating name, mailing
address, email address, phone number (with International dialing code, title of
piece and word count.
Sent as a Microsoft word doc or docx file
attachment. Photography and art may be sent as jpeg files
Also:
No submission must be sent in the body of
the mail
The title of the mail should be FIRST NAME
LAST NAME e.g Akintunde Bello
Where there are multiple submissions, the
submissions should have a number after the first name and last name signifying
what number of submission it is.
Please send along a bio of no more than 50
words (in third person) in the body of the mail.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
OF RECEIPT
Submission window is from July 15th
to September 15th. Upon receipt of your submission, you will receive
a mail within 72 hours acknowledging receipt. If you do not receive a mail,
please do not resend your work, simply send a query to voicesquery@gmail.com
RESPONSE
TIME
No responses are given about pieces being
accepted for the anthology until the end of October. Only selected works will
get responses by the end of October. Other works that may be archived for
certain promotional purposes will also get responses at a later date.
MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS
Multiple submissions are accepted, however,
we aim at publishing as many views and as many names as possible with a wide as
possible geographical spread, so while multiple submissions may increase
chances of being published in the anthology, not all submissions sent in from
one person may be entered in the anthology for purposes of fairness and our
limited page capacity.
COPYRIGHT
Please note that we do not accept already
work already published elsewhere in print or on the web. All submissions must
be previously unpublished. We maintain first copyrights of all works submitted
for the first six months after publication of the anthology after which the
work may be used elsewhere. We also reserve the right to format the submitted works
without altering the content to fit the necessary publishing requirements.
Submissions that will be archived and not selected for publication will be done
at the instance of the writers and upon their permission.
FICTION
Must be between 1,500 and 4,500 words
We accept any form from horror to surreal
and magical. Any form is acceptable as long as it conforms to the theme and
compelling.
Multiple submissions must be sent as
individual attachments with individual cover pages
NON-FICTION
Must be between 1,500 and 2, 500 words.
Memoirs, essays, travel writings and all
forms of creative non-fiction are accepted. News pieces, op-eds, articles,
scholarly and academic papers and journalistic writings are not accepted. We
want creative and compelling non-fiction.
Multiple submissions must be sent as
individual attachments with individual cover pages.
BOOK
REVIEWS
We are accepting a small number of book
reviews so submissions of book reviews must be pitched. Pitches may be no more
than 400 words and be sent in the body of the mail to voiceseditor2015@gmail.com
Response time for pitches is 24 hours. As
soon as the pitch is accepted, the reviews may be worked on and submitted.
This, however, does not ordinarily mean such review has been selected for
publication, but the chances are high.
 |
| MayFair Roundabout |
POETRY
Each poem must be no more than two pages
long. No more than three poems may be submitted in one document. Each poem
title must be indicated above the poem individually as well as on the cover
page.
ART
AND PHOTOGRAPHY
We are also open to digital art and
photography. Must be high resolution jpeg
files (300 dpi or higher) and not larger than 3MB. Each submission must be
properly named and sent as an attachment to voicesphotoart@gmail.com
CONVERSATIONS
We are not looking for bland interviews, we
want active, participatory and lively conversations that inspire, intrigue, and
even spark more conversations.
Conversations must not exceed 1, 500 words.
All conversations must be first pitched. Pitches must be no more than 400 words
and should be sent to voiceseditor2015@gmail.com
Pitches will be responded to within 24
hours. Upon acceptance, conversations may be conducted and submitted.
Publication is not assured by the mere fact that a conversation was pitched,
but it increases the chances.
