Submission Guidelines

Callaloo welcomes submissions of literary fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, scholarly articles, interviews, book reviews, and visual art relating to the African Diaspora. We seek formally rigorous, intellectually engaged work across genres. At this time, we do not accept speculative fiction (including science fiction and fantasy), children's or young adult literature, romance, or work that has been previously self-published.


Overview

General Submissions: Open August 1 – May 1

Response Time: 4–6 months

All work must be previously unpublished.


Requirements

All manuscripts must be submitted only as a Word document (.doc or .docx). Identifying information, including names of authors, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses, should not be included in the manuscript. Full style guide here.


Poetry

  • No more than 6 poems per submission, submitted in a single document
  • Formatting
  • Begin each poem on a new page, including its title
  • Preserve intentional line breaks, spacing, and indentation
  • Use consistent formatting across multiple poems in a single submission
  • Clearly indicate sequence or series titles where applicable

Prose

  • Fiction & Creative Nonfiction
  • Double-spaced
  • No longer than 6,000 words
  • One manuscript per submission
  • Max 3 submissions per year
  • Book Reviews
  • 500-1,000 words
  • Must be a book published within the last 12 months, or to be published within 12 months of submission

Scholarly Work

  • Double-spaced
  • Up to 6,000 words, excluding abstract and references
  • Full scholarly guidelines here

Proposals for Interviews and Special Sections

  • Considered on a case-by-case basis
  • Full proposal guidelines here

IMPORTANT NOTE: All submissions made to the journal are considered final drafts. Before submitting your work, please be sure that the manuscript being uploaded is the version you wish to ultimately see in print.



SUBMIT