Deadline: Sept. 30, 2019.
The Journal of African Youth Literature (JAYL) publishes literature written in English by, about, and/or for born-in-Africa youths. For the purposes of the Journal, the youth age category is defined as beginning in the mid-teenage years (from
15) up to 35 years. JAYL is interested in the types of literature listed below. Please note the lengths for publication and
requirements for submission.
JAYL will publish all forms of poetry including poetry intended to be oral, rhyming and non-rhyming poems, haiku, sonnets, limericks, your own style, and even song lyrics. JAYL will also consider themed collections. JAYL will take genre fiction, creative non-fiction, historical fiction, memoirs, flash and micro fiction, “I” stories, et cetera, in English.
The Journal strives to achieve balance in representing a diverse range of writers from all backgrounds and orientations. JAYL is against discrimination, and our main concern is with the writing itself. However, please note that the Journal is a platform for the youth as writers and is mostly aimed at youth readers. Therefore, all published work must meet at least one of the following requirements:
- Written by a youth aged 15 to 35 years;
- Written for youths aged 15 to 35 years; and/or
- Written about youths aged 15 to 35 years.
The topic is entirely up to you but the broad theme is African youth. You can write about your personal experiences and observations, or it can even be a partly or fully imagined story, or you can write about local and regional concerns in a creative way. It will be helpful for writers to consider the genre of creative non-fiction as this likely fits what many want to write about, and it is also suited to JAYL.
Formatting and sending your document
- Use 11 or 12 point Times New Roman black font with 1.5 line spacing and justified alignment.
- British or American English are acceptable, but please be consistent.
- Do not use bullets and numbered points.
- Add page numbers at the bottom of the page.
- Avoid using headings besides the title on the first page, the title of each poem if you are
sending more than one in a document, or for the acts and scenes of a play. - If summiting more than one poem, you can send all the poems in one document.
- Send the document in MS Word preferably. PDFs are also acceptable.
- Comic book and graphic art can be in any common picture file format, such as JPEG or PNG, or PDF. Please send good quality picture files.
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but you must let us know immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
- Please send all submissions to africanyouthliterature@gmail.com
Reading fees and author payments
JAYL asks for a small reading fee to be paid by the author before the submission will be read and considered for publication. At present, this is an industry-standard and unavoidable for the vast majority of literary journals and magazines. We are not able to compensate authors at this early stage as we lack the funding. All reading fees will pay for maintaining the JAYL website, publishing the Journal, and plagiarism checking.
A reading fee also helps ensure that only committed writers send their work, which greatly decreases the workload and time spent on reading material that turns out to be unpublishable. Currently, without reading fees this journal would not be possible.
JAYL will be online only and open access. In time, the team hopes to make payments to authors the norm, and secure funding that will allow it to do away with the reading fees altogether. The reading fees are shown in the table below. Pay attention to the lengths and number of submissions per reading fee.
It accepts one long poem, story, play, or comic book at a time for each reading fee. Short poems (1-3 poems for the same reading fee) and poem collections (5 poems for the same reading fee) are the exceptions. For long submissions, bear in mind that the reading fee is multiplied. For example, if you send a story of 8 000 words, the reading fee will be R45.00 x 2 = R90.00, or US$3.20 x 2 = US$6.40. This is because the reading fee is calculated for every 5,000 words or part thereof.
After receiving a submission to africanyouthliterature@gmail.com, the team will send details on how to pay the prescribed reading fee, and how much the reading fee is for your submission. You can pay in rands or in US dollars using PayPal.
Author rights
You retain rights to your writing. If accepted for publication, you will need to fill in a form giving JAYL the first right of online publication. This is a limited right meaning that JAYL can publish your work once online. Thereafter, the rights revert to you, and the Journal is not permitted to publish your work again (except with written permission from you).
You are free to republish elsewhere. However, please tell a potential publisher if your work has been published by us beforehand to prevent legal troubles for yourself. If your work has been published elsewhere before, it cannot be published in JAYL.
Response time
The team will get back to you within 30 days, with the exception of any submission over 5 000 words (long stories, novellas, and long plays). Longer submissions can take up to 60 days. If you don’t hear from us in that time, please send us an email to check if we have received your submission. The email address for submissions is africanyouthliterature@gmail.com.
Direct all inquiries to africanyouthliterature@gmail.com