In a brief announcement of the latest from our sister post, the monthly round-up of ‘other words’ – news on AiW’s radar from our social media feeds – we are retiring the ‘Wrap’ as was…

‘In other words…’, our retrospective catch-up of things we’d loved and seen on our socials, was something we began in the urgencies of the pandemic’s first hits to our industries: it’s now time for it to take some different shapes… Watch this space and please let us know any thoughts or suggestions. (And see the foot of the post for a platform-roll / roll call for African literary and cultural news.)

We will continue our catch up with the monthly selection of “calls for” posts here, for opportunities and contributions – academic and creative – that we’ve also been collating from various platforms we visit and revisit, and across our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Do get in touch and let us know if there are any other calls or opportunities that we can feature in our next post, as well as if there are any crossovers, overlaps, productively inter-generating and co-productive conversations between them that we can help to make visible and draw out…

Our Contact Us page has all the details you need, or catch us on our SMs.

Jump to:

Scholarly & Academic
 submissions open for | for participants | for roles / positions | awards / competitions 

Creative-Critical – Makers & Producers
 awards / prizes | submissions | participants | roles / positions 

Scholarly & Academic – CFPs and CFAs

Scholarly submissions – journals, special issues, edited collections

Remember to check out the call for chapters for the book titled  Aesthetics of the Future: The Cinema of Jean-Pierre Bekolo. The deadline is December 15, 2021.

 “The goal of this edited book is to revisit contemporary approaches in African film criticism by focusing on critical perspectives in Bekolo’s art while expanding a fresh inquiry in the artist’s active engagement with crossing visual, narrative, filmic, theoretical, discursive borders, to name a few; Bekolo’s blurring of (post)modern and postcolonial boundaries with Afrofuturism, for example, highlights the director’s commitment to challenge critical paradigms not only in African filmmaking but also in broader artistic domains.”

Contributors can express their interest by sending a 200-word abstract, a bio blurb with contact information (email, phone number) and institutional affiliation to P. Julie Papaioannou at julie.papaioannou@rochester.edu

Call for submissions for African Literature Today 40 on the theme: African Literature Comes of Age.

The deadline is 16 November.

“ALT 40 offers scholars a platform to break new ground and explore novel issues in African Literature, especially in writings by new and budding authors.” 

Find more info: https://boydellandbrewer.com/african-literature-today/

Participants at the 2021 ALA conference are invited to submit to The Journal of the African Literature Association, for a special issue on the the conference theme, “Beyond Censorship? Literature, Film, Media, and Public Discourse.” 

Submission deadline: January 30, 2022

Participants / Events – conferences, symposia, colloquia, salons

A call for papers is out for the symposium “Social media as new canvas, space and channel for Afrophone Literatures” which is to be held at University of Hamburg, Germany in September 2022. Organised between the University of Hamberg and Bayero University, Nigeria, the envisaged symposium aims at exploring how Afrophone literature has been impacted by the use of social media, with a particular focus on popular forms of literature. The symposium asks how social media – understood as any digital media that allows for exchange, including blogs and websites having comment sections – have affected Afrophone creative writing with regard to form, genre, discussion of gender issues and sexuality, networks, publishing and dissemination, visibility, local and global reach. 

Submission of abstract deadline: November 30, 2021

For more information and to submit your abstract, please email afrodigit2022.aai@uni-hamburg.de

Academic Positions – jobs, roles, fellow- & studentships

Call for applications for The Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa program. Deadline: February 01, 2022

Applications remain open for the joint two-year position in 20th- and 21st-century African Francophone Literary Studies. Apply by December 01.

The African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town is advertising a post in their new African Feminist Studies dept – deadline 15 November:

“To be assured of consideration, please apply by November 28, 2021. The position will remain open until the position is filled.”

The department is particularly interested in scholars with expertise in African American, African, Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, and Black diasporic anglophone literatures. Applications from scholars working in or across a range of historical periods, including scholarship that considers race and racialization across a wide span from the medieval to the contemporary. We are interested in scholars working on Global Black Literatures in any genres, cultural formations, and theoretical orientations. 
https://jobs.hr.wisc.edu/en-us/job/510988/professor-in-english

Creative-Critical – Makers & Producers

Writers – Awards / Prizes

Writers Space Africa have shared the call for a new creative nonfiction/essay prize and anthology from Libretto Publishers – the submissions window is open now and closes on December 31st:

The new Island Prize for debut African novelists has opened and is accepting submissions until 12 December: 

The James Currey Prize for African Literature is open for submissions until 1st April 2022: 

The third edition of the Afritondo Short Story Prize is now open for entry. Check out the full guidelines: here. Deadline: 15th December.

MS’s – publishers

Do not miss this exciting opportunity to submit to Cassava Republic before the end of November:

And equally exciting – Blackbird Books have announced their opening for MS submissions:

Mukana Press are a new indy “seeking authors from traditionally underrepresented groups”:

They are also open for submissions of short stories for an inaugural anthology – a call which will be open until November 30th:

Mags, journals, platforms, anthologies

There’s still – JUST! – time to apply for this high school anthology from Storymoja but the deadline is TOMORROW Sat 6th November! 

Afrocritik, a new magazine that aims to project Africa one word, one story at a time, is accepting submissions of African-centred fiction, nonfiction, poetry, book, film, art and music reviews, as well as features, interviews, and cultural essays. 

TV, film, moving media

Durban International Film Festival have opened submissions for their 2022 edition:

And students – as we say (large!) on instagram, don’t miss this DFF opportunity…

Participants / Events – workshops, symposia, salons

LOATAD, Greater Accra, Ghana, have put out a call for a one month residency for West African writers of all genres and literary translators (check out the link and site for countries and eligibility):
Residency Dates: March 2022 – July 2022
Deadline to Apply: 30 November, 2021

Eligibility Criteria

This call is open to writers of all genres at all stages of their writing careers including:

• Childrens and YA writers
• Screenwriters
• Playwrights
• Poets and Performance Poets
• Translators
• Academic writing

Writing in:

• English

• French

• Spanish

• Or any local language

The African Theatre Magazine is calling for participants for a workshop, with a deadline of November 14th:

Jobs, roles, positions

Can you be based in Cape Town? Interested in pursuing a career in publishing? Check out this opportunity at the wonderful Book Dash – application process closes 14 November 2021:

Thank you all for reading, and for being here with us. As we said at the head of the post, if there are academic, scholarly or creative, critical calls for… or any other opportunities that you’d like to see featured on the site, or if you’d like to connect up, in any way – don’t hesitate to get in touch. Our Contact Us page has all the details you need, or catch us on our SMs

Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Facebook

And while we refigure our ‘And other words…’ news & wrap post, a roll call of some of the African literary, arts and cultural scene platforms we’ve returned to and have loved on our SMs this month include (in no particular order)…

Larry Madowo @LarryMadowo  |  The JRB @JoburgReview  |  Ainehi Edoro-Glines, Phd @ainehiedoro  |  Radical Books Collective @warscapes  |  cultureafrica @cultureafrica1  |  BRITTLE PAPER @brittlepaper  |  africanwriterstrust.org  |  Cassava Republic @CassavaRepublic  |  CATranslation @CATranslation  |  InterKontinental  |  nationalartsfestival  |  James Murua @jamesmurua  | African Artists’ Foundation @aaf_lagos | 1-54 Contemp. African Art Fair @154artfair 

Categories: Calls for & opportunities

Tags: Africa, books, Call for applications, Call for papers, Call for submissions, Calls for & opportunities, Conferences, Culture, jobs, literature, opportunities, Performance, Poetry, Publishing, Seminar series, short stories, visual culture, writing, writing workshop