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Call for submissions: Kinfolks: a journal of black expression
Theme: Unthemed 

Submission deadline: November 15, 2013 
 
Kinfolks: a journal of black expression is a publication dedicated to thinking about blackness in its infinite permutations. Started in 2013 by a small collective of friends old and new, the journal’s ethos is centered around the notion that the culture(s) of Africa and the African Diaspora provide us with models of collectivity, commonality, and kinship that have been and will be central to the story of our world. Thus, we are interested in publishing poetry, photography, essays (personal, video, narrative, lyric, etc.), literary criticism, art criticism, reviews, extended meditations, flash fiction, and paintings that are a part of the continuing conversation about and around blackness. What this conversation looks and sounds like is, of course, up to the panoply of voices that assemble to build its foundation.

We are now accepting submissions of poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, visual art, art criticism, photographs, or other original creative works for our inaugural issue, to be released in January 2014. The issue will not be themed; this is an open call.

Please use our online submissions form– do not email individual editors with submissions.

We cannot accept work that has been published elsewhere, including on blogs or personal websites. We accept simultaneous submissions, but if your work is accepted elsewhere, please contact us immediately. You may submit to Kinfolks only once per quarterly issue.

Use the “Cover Letter / Biography” field of the online submissions form to include a cover letter, in which you should tell us a bit about yourself.

Our editors review submissions blindly. Therefore, please do not include your name or contact information in the body of your submission document or in the title field of the submissions manager.

Please carefully read the guidelines below before submitting. If you have questions or would like to send us a book to potentially review, please contact Joshua Bennett: 

editor [[[at]]] kinfolksquarterly [[[dot]]] com (Change [[[at]]] to @ and [[[dot]]] to .)

Poetry
Include 3-5 poems at a time in one .doc, .docx, or .pdf file. Your name should not appear anywhere on the document.

Visual Art /Photographs
Include 1-3 pieces as individual files. All art submissions must be attached as high-resolution .jpg files. Label each file with the title of the individual piece, and list the titles in your cover letter, as well.

Criticism/Essays/Reviews
Please submit 1-3 pieces as individual .doc or .docx files; each should be no longer than 1500 words. Do not submit .pdf files. Reviewed books and films must have been released within the last 12 months. Reviewed exhibitions and performances must have taken place within the last 6 months.

Fiction
One piece per submission; limit 25 pages of any style. Submit as individual .doc or .docx files. Novel excerpts are fine if the piece stands on its own without additional context.