Àkwà Literary Annual

Year 1

Crossing — migration, borders, bridges, the diaspora experience

 African literature is not only written in English.

Every issue includes at least one work translated from an African language — Igbo, Yoruba, Swahili, Zulu, Amharic, Wolof, Hausa, Arabic, French — into English.

Submission Window

Opens: June 1, 2026 Closes: December 31, 2026 Decisions by: January 29, 2027 Publication date: May 2027

We do not accept submissions outside the submission window. Please do not query about late submissions.

Rights

Àkwà Literary Magazine acquires first world English rights for all accepted work. This means:

  • We have the right to publish the work for the first time in English, in print and digital formats

  • After publication, all rights revert to the author

  • Authors are free to republish their work elsewhere after the issue has been published, with a credit line: First published in Àkwà Literary Magazine, Issue 1

  • We do not acquire rights to adaptations, translations, or derivative works

  • For translated works, we acquire first world English rights to the translation. Rights to the original work remain with the original author.

Payment

Every accepted contributor is paid before publication. We do not publish work without paying for it.

Payment is made via PayPal, Wise, or check — whichever is most convenient for the contributor. We understand that international payments can be complicated and we will work with every contributor to find a method that works.

We also provide:

  • 2 complimentary print copies of the issue

  • A 30% discount on additional copies

  • A contributor page on akwammiri.org

Contact

For questions about the submissions process: akwaorganization@gmail.com

For all other inquiries: akwaorganization@gmail.com

Please do not send submissions by email. Wait for the submission portal to open.

We are interested in work by:

  • Writers born on the African continent, regardless of where they now live

  • Writers of African descent in the diaspora — the Americas, Europe, the Caribbean, Asia, and elsewhere

  • Writers whose work is in deep conversation with African cultural, linguistic, or historical experience even if they themselves were not born in Africa

We do not require writers to prove their Africanness. We trust writers to know their own relationship to this tradition. What we ask is that the work itself carries the weight of genuine engagement — not tourism.

We are pan-African in the fullest sense. We do not privilege any single country, language, region, or tradition over another. The continent is vast. The diaspora is global. Àkwà is a bridge across all of it.

COMING SOON