GUIDELINES TO BECOME A 
CONTRIBUTOR

EKONKE CONTRIBUTORS

Ekonke is a community of storytellers connected through the charm, history and magnificence of African stories. Our platform aims to showcase the best of art, literature, photographic and video content by established, emerging and new African creatives. We seek to connect our audience with thought-provoking, compelling and inspiring pieces that showcase the beauty and cultural diversity of Africa as well as highlight prevalent social issues. We are interested in original work from Africans resident on the continent and all storytellers of African descent in the diaspora. 

Ekonke welcomes submissions on a wide range of themes provided they do not polarise or discriminate against any group.

Due to our editorial capacity, we are only accepting works in the Standard English language at the moment.

At this time, Ekonke is unable to provide compensation to contributors; However, because we appreciate the time and effort creatives put into content creation, we are working towards that end in the future.

Submission guidelines

Literary works must be original and previously unpublished unless specifically solicited. We will accept art, photography and video content that have previously been published on a creator’s social media pages. All submissions are required to have an accompanying title. Non-fiction pieces must be truthful, accurate and appropriately cited. Submissions must be properly edited and free of grammatical and punctuation errors.

Ekonke retains first publication rights on creative content. Upon subsequent publication, rights revert to the author; however, we ask that Ekonke is credited as the first publisher, should the piece be published elsewhere.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted; however, you must promptly notify us and withdraw your submission when the work is accepted elsewhere.

Ekonke reserves the right to reject a piece or remove a published content if we find the work to have been previously published, plagiarised, or if it is offensive.

In collaboration with the contributor, our editorial team may edit submitted work and/or change the title, should we deem it necessary.

Contributors are encouraged to respond to comments on their posts, however, responses should be respectful. Responses should not defame, harass, or threaten anyone.

All prospective contributors must attach a short BIO and a portrait to accompany their submissions.

Prose

Send us prose, fiction and non-fiction, which is no more than 1500 words long. We are seeking stories on any theme that are compelling, thought-provoking, funny, witty, experimental and wildly uncanny. Send us stories that capture the lived experiences of Africans at home or abroad. The pieces must be formatted in Times New Roman, font size 12, and double-spaced.

Poetry

Send us one to three unpublished poems per submission. A poem must not be more than two pages long. We are interested in poems that are contemporary, experimental or traditional in style. We will publish poems on a wide range of themes. Due to the large volume of love and romance poems we receive, we will only publish love poems that have grit, edge and an intriguing fresh perspective. All poems must be aligned to the left margin.

Artworks

We are interested in abstract art and intriguing pieces which capture the natural beauty of African landscapes, explore the diversity of African peoples and cultures and document the depths of African history. Artworks can be digital or manually created. All we ask is that it must be original. Please send five to ten works of art per submission. All artworks must have an accompanying title.

Photography

Send us photographs that capture the profound and simple, the celebratory and melancholic, the chaotic and calm moments of life. We will only publish photographs without watermarks. Send us five to ten of your best images per submission. All photographs must be in high definition and resolution. 

Videos

Please only send one video per submission. Video resolution must be 360p and above.  

Due to the large volume of submissions we receive, we are not able to respond to individual messages to convey the status of a submission. We will typically notify you within a month of submission if your work is accepted.

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