Submissions

FIYAH is a quarterly speculative fiction magazine that features stories by and about Black people of the African Diaspora. This definition is globally inclusive (Black anywhere in the world) and also applies to mixed/biracial and Afro-appended people regardless of gender identity or orientation.

SUBMISSIONS ARE CURRENTLY OPEN.

January + April 2022: UNTHEMED – Submission Window open September 1st – December 31st, 2021

The remaining 2022 submissions schedule is as follows:

July 2022: Food and Cuisine – Submission Window Opens March 1st – April 30th, 2022

Food. We spend large portions of our day buying, prepping, eating and cleaning up afterwards. It’s essential for life, yet more than fuel. We gather with friends at cafes, enjoy holiday feasts with loved ones and thrill at our flourishing gardens. Cuisine is heritage. We find it at the halal butcher shop, the tang of injera bread and arguments over how to cook grits.  It’s how we connect to our roots, passing on family recipes and tales from the kitchen table. Meals are how we innovate, whether it’s turning stale rice into pudding or veganizing traditional fare. Give us your tales of scents, sounds and flavors. Of contacting ancestors to answer the grits debate once and for all. Of cloning long extinct spices, cookbook grimoires, or assimilation plots through bland monotonous fare. We want your Blackest, most drool-worthy stories.

October 2022: Hauntings and Horrors – Submission Window Opens June 1st – July 31st, 2022

We’re turning October into Black Horror Month. Give us your night terrors, your blood-thirsty urban legends, your ancestral ghosts haunting plantation weddings. We want stories that linger in dark corners and aren’t afraid to follow us into daylight. Keep in mind our guidelines when deciding on gore levels or who gets to be your victim.

FIYAH now accepts submitted reviews of long-form fiction (novellas and novels) from Black and Indigenous readers.

Below you will find specific guidelines for each of our areas of submission.  The following guidelines apply to all areas of submission and will be take into consideration regardless of medium.

We are open to receiving work around many themes but we will immediately reject work that feature any of the following without providing feedback:

• Graphic depictions of rape or sexual assault
• Needless brutalization of women and children
• Depictions of brutalization or abuse of people with disabilities
• Graphic abuse of animals

Additionally, we reserve the right to reject and not provide feedback on work we believe may be harmful to our readers. Like our staff, our readers come from a variety of backgrounds and work that has elements of homophobia, fatphobia, colorism, ageism etc. that go unchallenged will not find a home with us.

In addition:

• We only consider unpublished work, and we do not consider reprints (work that has been published in another magazine or on your blog or other social media) or fan fiction.
• We do not accept multiple submissions for fiction, so please wait until you have heard a response to a submission before submitting again.
• We do not accept simultaneous submissions.
• Please do not resubmit previously rejected stories or poems in a new submission period. Resubmissions are by editorial solicitation only.
• We are only accepting submission from authors from the African diaspora and the African continent because #BlackWritersMatter. This is an intersectional definition of Blackness, and we strongly encourage submissions from women, members of the LGBTQIA community, and members from other underrepresented communities within the African diaspora.

Writers previously published in an issue of FIYAH must wait 1 year or 4 issues to submit work again. Works submitted before that time is up will be automatically rejected.

We accept submissions of short fiction 2,000 – 7,000 words and novelettes up to 15,000 words.

We are looking for brave works of speculative short fiction by authors from the African continent and diaspora that reject regressive ideas of blackness, respectability politics, and stereotype. Please submit your bravest, blackest, most difficult to sell stories to us. We want to read them.

We want stories that are well written, of high quality, and generally easy to read on a screen.

What we want in speculative poetry is verse that struggles, reveals, instructs, comforts, and fights back. We are looking for weird, complex, honest and challenging work with a clear speculative element from Black authors. You can check out this post from our Poetry Editor for more on what we’d like to see in your poetry.

Additionally, poetry submissions should be no more than 1,000 words.

Nonfiction Issue guidelines

For works appearing in the issues of FIYAH Literary Magazine

We’re looking for writing that examines the figurative over the literal, from a distinctively Black lens. Give us your best on theory, cultural myths, craft, the supernatural, afro-futurism, afro-gothic….again, your best. Think outside of the box—which is where speculative fiction lives. At this time, We’re not looking for stories centering Black trauma. Submissions are not required to fit the theme of the upcoming issues. Essays must be between 800-1200 words.

Using the form, submit a one page query including the synopsis for your piece in .doc/.docx. In the space for a cover letter please include a link to any writing samples or previous writing. Blog posts are also considered previous writing. Only two pitches may be submitted per period.

Nonfiction Web guidelines

For works featured on the FIYAH Blog

We are seeking creative nonfiction essays, criticism, and analysis related to Black SFF. We want to explore the contribution of Black thinkers to the speculative – in prose, in poetry, in music, in theatre, in film, in television. Any medium a Black creative has expressed themselves through SFF, we want to see responses. We want to see the scientific discoveries and mythic histories of Africa and the diaspora given the spotlight. We want to think about the past, the present, and the future of Black SFF.

Submissions do not need to match the issues theme though we are looking for work that fits the theme as well.

Using the form, please submit a pitch of 100 words for a short read and up to 200 words for a long read. This pitch should clearly outline the concept of your article and any inspirations, if relevant. You may submit up to one short read and one long read per submission period.

FIYAH is currently CLOSED to portfolio submissions for consideration for 2022’s issue covers. Commissions pay $400.00 USD for original artwork and we purchase rights to First Use and six months exclusivity.

Artists should submit portfolios or work samples which illustrate an understanding of composition, and which feature fantastical elements and/or can be categorized as fantasy, science-fiction, horror, and their related subgenres. Standard portraiture and/or still life will not be a good fit for us.  

In keeping with our mission, we prioritize Black creators as the face and content of our magazine.

Beginning with submissions for the 2020 publication year, we are using a simple form to collect submissions for prose and poetry. We understand the use of a form may not be accessible to disabled users. If you require an alternative means of submission for your work, please contact us at team[@]fiyahlitmag.com and we will arrange one for you. You will see a confirmation message when the form is completed, indicating your submission was successfully received. You will not receive an e-mailed confirmation.

•  Click here to learn more about how to write a professional cover letter. 
• Submissions should be submitted in proper short story manuscript format with your name, email address, and the story’s total word count on the first page. For our purposes, you do not need to include a mailing address or phone number. Click here for an example of proper short story manuscript format.
• For poetry, you may submit up to four (4) separate poems, one (1) poem per form submission. 
• All submissions should be in .doc/.docx format

Our payment schedule for 2021 is as follows (all amounts USD):

Short stories (2,000 – 7,000 words): .08/word

Novelettes (<15,000 words): .08/word

Poetry: $50 USD

Nonfiction: .10/word

FIYAH is a SFWA-qualifying market as of 2021. Works of prose published with us count toward SFWA membership.

FIYAH will publish accepted stories in a quarterly ebook magazine format, as well as archiving them on our website. Thus, FIYAH will claim first world electronic rights, nonexclusive archival rights, and nonexclusive anthology rights to your story.

This means that we are buying the rights to publish your story on FIYAH’s website and in electronic issues of our magazine. This also means that you can only publish your story as a reprint after it appears in FIYAH, and it cannot appear anywhere else online or in print prior to submission, or for 180 days after we publish it. After that it can be reprinted online, in a magazine, or in an anthology.

Response time will vary by volume of submissions. You may query after 45 days using email submissions[at]fiyahlitmag.com. Please include the date that you submitted and the title of your story.

We encourage you to track your submission using Duotrope and The Submission Grinder.