Call for Submissions: NOMBONO: An Anthology of Speculative Poetry by BIPOC Creators

Sundress Publications announces an open submission call for NOMBONO: An Anthology of Speculative Poetry by BIPOC Creators, a collection that asks us earthers, terrans, the identified sentients of this planet to reconceive how we perceive our doings and being in this world.

Reaching far beyond a generic exploration of visionary and speculative possibilities, NOMBONO: An Anthology of Speculative Poetry by BIPOC Creators asks: are we on a bright threshold or at the edge of a dark precipice? Are we about to take flight and evolve, or plummet into an abysmal abyss? BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, poets of color) word-wielders are invited to share their visions, invocations, foretellings, and alterations in this new anthology of speculative poetry entitled NOMBONO (the Zulu word for “visionary”). The range of speculative poetry’s engagements are sought: aliens, alternate history, cryptids, cyberfunk, cyberpunk, dystopia, fairy tales, fabulism, fantasy, folklore, futurism, horror, magic, monsters, mythology, occult, paranormal, post-apocalyptic, robots, science fiction, shifters, slipstream, solar punk, space opera, steamfunk, steampunk, superheroes, supernatural, sword and sorcery, sword and soul, time-travel, and weird. All poetic forms and scifaiku are welcome.

Interested poets should submit up to 5 poems, a short bio (max. 100 words) along with your preferred email address, phone number, and physical mailing address as a single DOCX or PDF file to anthology@sundresspublications.com, by April 30, 2021. Previously published work will be considered as long as you retain the right to reprint it and note where it first appeared. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable as long as they are noted as such and the author notifies the editor that the work has been accepted elsewhere, before notification of acceptance in the anthology. Failure to conform to these guidelines means your poems will go unconsidered for the anthology. Early submission is recommended, as work will be assessed as it arrives. Publication is slated for the second half of 2021.

Artwork by BIPOC artists is also sought for consideration for this anthology. To submit, please send high-resolution JPEGS and a short bio (max. 100 words) along with your preferred email address, phone number, and physical mailing address to anthology@sundresspublications.com.

This anthology will appear both in a print and digital format. All contributors will receive one print author copy plus any additional copies at cost. Any additional funding from the project will be paid to authors.

The poet Akua Lezli Hope will serve as the editor for this anthology. Akua Lezli Hope’s awards include the National Endowment for the Arts writing fellowship, two New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellowships, a Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association prize, and Rhysling and Pushcart Prize nominations, among others. She is the author of the award-winning collection, EMBOUCHURE, Poems on Jazz and Other Musics (ArtFarm Press), and THEM GONE (The Word Works). A lifetime member of the SFPA, she created Speculative Sundays, a biweekly, online, speculative poetry reading series. Her speculative poetry chapbook, Otherwheres (ArtFarm Press, 2020), is available on Amazon.