Submit to Wasafiri

For over 35 years, Wasafiri has published the very best works of and on international contemporary writing and culture, placing critics alongside leading novelists, poets, and playwrights, to generate exciting cross-genre and inter-regional conversations. We welcome innovative creative and critical writing that, in form, focus, or theme, seeks to expand the boundaries of global literary culture.  

Our next submission window for fiction, life writing, and poetry is September-October 2021. The Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize is now closed for submissions and will re-open next year. 

We invite submissions of critical articles and essays, reviews, and interviews year-round. 

All submissions to the magazine must be submitted via our online submissions portal, except for reviews which should be sent directly to the reviews editor. Please refer to our style guide in formatting your submission. 

Submissions are reviewed by external readers, ensuring Wasafiri’s long reputation for rigour and excellence. While we receive a high volume of submissions, we will always deliver a decision on your submitted work within six months.  

Critical articles and essays

Wasafiri is a peer–reviewed journal and listed in the Clarivate Analytics’ Arts & Humanities Citation Index. We are seeking conceptually rigorous, substantially researched, accessibly presented articles and essays engaged with any genre of contemporary literature, from writers across disciplines. The magazine particularly welcomes articles that position new critical perspectives within one or more broader contexts.  

If you are an early career researcher, you may enter your submission into our annual Essay Prize. 

Read some examples of some of our favourite recent essays and articles here: 

• ‘Whitely’: Race and Lyric Subjectivity in Clare Pollard’s Poetry by Kayo Chingonyi 
• Nunca Invisibles: Insurgent Memory and Self-representation by Female Ex-combatants in Colombia by Cherilyn Elston 
• Out of the George Padmore Institute Archive: Venetta Ross, John La Rose and the Creation of New Roots in the West Indies by Alexa Hazel 
• ‘Room’ by Claire Hynes 
• An Island of Whiteness: Rereading Penelope Lively’s Oleander, Jacaranda by Emma Parker 

Fiction, life writing, and poetry

We are highly selective in what we publish, accepting less than 5% of creative work sent to us in our most recent submissions window. Make sure your manuscript is as thematically, structurally, conceptually, and grammatically polished before submission as possible, to show it in the best light. Above all we look for submissions that are thoughtful and nuanced, formally outstanding, and profoundly absorbing reads. You can browse the fiction and poetry published on our website for examples of the quality of work that we publish.  

Reviews

If you are interested in reviewing for Wasafiri, please contact the Reviews Editor and include a recent sample of your writing (preferably a book review), as well as a short CV, and contact details. There will always be a list of titles we are keen to review, though we welcome suggestions of other titles.

If you are a publisher, please post review copies to the address below, or email details to wasafiri.reviews@qmul.ac.uk.  Unfortunately we cannot guarantee that we will be able to review every title we receive.

Please post review copies to:

The Reviews Editor
Wasafiri c/o School of English and Drama
Queen Mary, University of London
Mile End Road
London
E1 4NS

Word Length

Payment

Wasafiri pays for all creative submissions and reviews. 

Inclusivity

Wasafiri is committed to publishing work that represents the world and creating an inclusive global community of writers and readers. Central to this is our unwavering commitment to equality and advocacy for underrepresented and marginalised voices. We do not discriminate on the grounds of age, gender, nationality, race, or sexuality. While we welcome a diversity of opinions and topics in our pages, the validity of the identities of our writing and reading community is not up for debate. In particular, we affirm and supports the rights and dignity of transgender, non-binary, and gender diverse people the world over. We seek to publish writers with compatible core values. 

All submissions must be submitted via our online submissions portal