Submit to Wasafiri

For 40 years, Wasafiri has published the very best works of and on international contemporary writing and culture, placing critics alongside leading novelists, poets, and playwrights, to generate exciting cross-genre and inter-regional conversations. We welcome innovative creative and critical writing that, in form, focus, or theme, seeks to expand the boundaries of global literary culture.  

Fiction, life writing, and poetry: Closed

We are highly selective in what we publish, accepting less than 5% of creative work submitted in our most recent submissions window. Make sure your manuscript is thematically, structurally, conceptually, and grammatically polished before submission. Above all we look for submissions that are thoughtful and nuanced, formally outstanding, and profoundly absorbing. You can browse the fiction and poetry published on our website for examples of the quality of work that we publish.  

We are a small, part-time team, and everything we publish is additionally assessed by external readers. For these reasons, we expect to issue decisions on work submitted within a six month period. Thank you for your patience while we work as quickly as we can, while also taking the time to give your work the attention it deserves. 

All submissions must be submitted via our online submissions portal.

Critical articles and interviews: Open

We invite submissions of critical articles and interviews year-round. All submissions must be submitted via our online submissions portal.

Wasafiri is a peer–reviewed journal and listed in the Clarivate Analytics’ Arts & Humanities Citation Index. We are seeking conceptually rigorous, substantially researched, accessibly presented articles and essays engaged with any genre of contemporary literature, from writers across disciplines. The magazine particularly welcomes articles that position new critical perspectives within one or more broader contexts.  

We aim to make a decision within six to nine months, allowing time for mutually-anonymous double peer review.

Reviews: Closed

If you are a publisher, please post review copies to the address below, or email details to [email protected].  Unfortunately we cannot guarantee that we will be able to review every title we receive.

Please post review copies to: Reviews Editor, Wasafiri c/o School of English and Drama, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK

Word Length

Payment

Wasafiri pays for all creative submissions and reviews. The below fees are an indication only of a typical fee offered for publication in the magazine. 

Inclusivity

Wasafiri is committed to publishing work that represents the world and creating an inclusive global community of writers and readers. Central to this is our unwavering commitment to equality and advocacy for underrepresented and marginalised voices. We do not discriminate on the grounds of age, gender, nationality, race, or sexuality. While we welcome a diversity of opinions and topics in our pages, the validity of the identities of our writing and reading community is not up for debate. In particular, we affirm and support the rights and dignity of transgender, non-binary, and gender diverse people the world over. We seek to publish writers with compatible core values. 

If you have queries about the submissions process, you can contact us here. All submissions must be submitted via our online submissions portal.