Paying Markets for Storytellers

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African American Literary Journals

  Although I don't live in the United States, I have been given an impression of American culture from television, movies, the Internet and so on. It is clear to an outsider that African Americans have had a large influence over American culture. Musically there's rap music, blues, jazz, soul etc. In television you've got Oprah Winfrey. Movies you've had blaxploitation, Spike Lee, actors like Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, Samuel L Jackson and so on. When it comes to literature, the contributions of black Americans is not so obvious to the outside observer, so I decided to take a closer look.

The African American Review, which is the official publication of the Division on Black American Literature and Culture of the Modern Language Association, is published quarterly. Its aim is to promote dialogue on African American culture and literature. When it began in 1967 it was called the Negro American Literature Forum. This was changed to the Black American Literature Forum in 1976. It was in 1992 that it became the African American Review. As well as literature and poetry it prints essays on African American literature, theatre, film and culture generally.

The African American Review website offers detailed submission guidelines, be sure to follow them if you hope to have your submission published. Fiction can be between 2500 and 5000 words. Thankfully, they accept electronic submissions through manuscriptcentral.com.

http://aar.slu.edu/
http://aar.slu.edu/submsinf.html

Transition Magazine was first published in 1961, founded in Uganda by Rajat Neogy. It soon became a leading intellectual magazine, printing the works of many eminent African writers and thinkers. Neogy was jailed in 1968 for sedition. Transition was later revived in Ghana in 1971. It was then edited by Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, and was becoming progressively more and more controversial until it eventually disappeared in 1976.

In 1991 the magazine was brought back to life in America by Skip Gates, a former contributer to the magazine during Soyinka's tenure. It has since won much acclaim around the world for its thought provoking stories and essays.

Transition Magazine is published quarterly and submission guidelines through its web-page. Stories may be up to 8000 words. Unfortunately it appears they do not currently pay for stories, but they do provide three sample copies to published writers.

http://www.transitionmagazine.com
http://www.transitionmagazine.com/submissions.htm