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In this
Debut Issue, we have representations of South African, Nigerian,
Zimbabwean, Ugandan, Cameroonian and Sudanese literatures. There
are also writers from Brazil and the United Kingdom. Additionally,
there is information on writers and literary activity from some
other national literatures. We aim as we grow to provide even more
extensive coverage of all the literatures of Africa, and their representations
outside the continent. We will also sometimes feature contributions
from other national literatures of the world. Our Africa-centred
but international outlook is evident in the varied perspectives,
interests and subjects of the contributors in this Debut Issue.
In ‘Bear-Watching in Tofino,’ Ike Anya, a medical doctor
and writer, delights in the wonders of the Canadian outlands. But
he is not alone in celebrating that artistic sense of wonder or
tendency to wander. Toyin Adewale-Gabriel plumbs the poetic wonders
of an important personal passage, and from Chika Unigwe we have
a report on her recent triumph in local council elections in Belgium.
Yes, Belgium! There are interviews, fiction and much poetry from
our writers, established and new, African or other, individual as
their different voices, global as the online addresses from which
they necessarily post, but national also in how their hearts beat
the drums of their different and similar experiences. Read all.
Learn more about your world. Enjoy also the Africa-inspired visuals
of our artists, Yomi Ola, who is in the US, and Mohamed Bushara
in the UK. From our Oxford, UK, base we hope to become a magnet
especially but not exclusively for African literary talent wherever
it may be found.
This issue features an editorial cover on the Slavery
Abolition Bicentenary. Future editions may or may not have editorial
covers, and will each focus on particular subjects or places in
African writing. We hear it said often enough that Africa can't
be done. We say with African Writing that Africa can be done, and
we wish to prove over time that Africa can be done quite brilliantly,
successfully. It is our purpose to provide the space for all kinds
of writers on all kinds of subjects, whatever may be the age or
life experiences of these writers. All we ask is that our contributors
demonstrate excellence and creativity in their writing, and this
we will increasingly insist on.
The Editor
Writing for us
The Editor and management of African Writing invite
you to contribute poems, fiction, creative non-fiction, life and
travel writings, reviews, interviews and critical essays to its
online and paper editions. Art and news photographs or photographic
commentaries on any subject relevant to our interests will also
be considered. Following our debut, 
will be published monthly from September 2007, in print and online
editions. Its central interest is new writing from Africa, or of
African origin, but it will also feature work from other national
literatures.
Contributors to African Writing will be paid. We
are flexible about our submission requirements, but expect that
most submissions will be by email attachment. Fiction, essays and
creative non-fiction submissions should aim at around three thousand
words. Maximum for exceptional contributions will be five thousand
words. An accompanying author’s photograph will be useful.
Poets may send in several short pieces or a long work. Please email
the Editor if you are uncertain about our submission requirements,
or to discuss other editorial matters regarding the publication.
Letters to the Editor responding to any of the features or reports
in African Writing may be similarly emailed, or posted to our offices.
African Writing aspires to become a leading quality,
literary paper from Africa. We are committed to reflecting writing
and literary work from all the countries, literary generations and
official languages of Africa. We will publish in English so some
of our submissions will be translated. Our readers and contributor
will be those who produce, celebrate or work with African writing
in one form or another, including individuals and institutions with
longstanding research and leisure interest in African literature
and culture, or others recently introduced to the many voices of
that international and multilingual body of writings.
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