Open submissions in February 2021

As of January 2021, this open submissions period has been cancelled.

We are very sorry about this. Please read this letter from our director for more information, including the reasoning behind this difficult decision.

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uHlanga is excited to announce our third open submissions period for original collections of poetry from South African poets, or poets living in South Africa, in February 2021. Our last open submissions period resulted in the publication of a number of books, and we look forward to reading new work!

Please take note of the following important information.

Submissions will be open from 1 February to 28 February 2021. Manuscripts must be predominantly written in English, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, or a combination of those languages.

There is no prescripted length for manuscripts. Most books published by uHlanga contain 20-40 poems, but there are exceptions. Manuscripts envisioned as chapbooks, for example, may be shorter, while epic poetry may contain very few poems.

uHlanga publishes books that are about something. Be ambitious about what you write about, but also remember: the more coherent, structured and economical your manuscript is, the higher the chance of it being published – so do not simply include every poem you have ever written. Successful manuscripts will be published in the manner and format that uHlanga deems most appropriate for the content.

Please note that anthologies or retrospective collections – i.e. collections composed solely of poems published previously in other single-author collections – will not be accepted. Manuscripts containing poems previously published in magazines, anthologies, journals, or online will be accepted, as long as each previously published poem is acknowledged in the manuscript. Manuscripts that have already been published previously – including self-published books – will not be accepted.

We accept manuscripts from writers of any experience, whether they have published a collection of poetry before or not. It is, however, highly recommended that you read our director’s open letter, penned after the first open submissions period in 2017. It contains insights that will be helpful for your submission.

GUIDELINES

Writers must be either a citizen, national, or permanent resident of South Africa. (Asylum seekers and refugees are also included.)

Submissions will only be accepted through our email address –submissions@uhlangapress.co.za – as either .doc or .pdf attachments, with all text in Times New Roman. Exceptions will be made for books that require special formatting, e.g. concrete poetry, image poetry, and so on.

Include your name and contact information on a cover letter attached alongside the manuscript. Feel free to mention in this cover letter why you think your manuscript will be a good fit for uHlanga.

You must prove ownership of at least one uHlanga book (either by photo/screenshot of a receipt, or a selfie with the book, or by other means) to submit your manuscript. This proof must be attached in your email submission. This condition will be waived if you cannot afford to – or otherwise cannot – buy one of our books. Please be in touch if this is the case.

Successful writers will be offered our standard contract. Please note that this is not a competition: we reserve the right to publish none of the manuscripts received during this submissions period. We also reserve the right to respond to submissions in our own time. uHlanga is run by one person. As such, response times will vary, depending on the availability of readers and other factors. Most submissions are evaluated within six months; some may take up to nine months or a year.There is no reading fee. Agented submissions are discouraged, but not strictly disallowed.Do not submit your manuscript before 1 February 2021 or after 28 February 2021 – it will be discarded without being read. Good luck!

Announcing two collections in isiXhosa by Athambile Masola and Mthunzikazi Mbungwana

It has always been our ambition to publish poetry in African languages.

While some of our books, such as Imbewu Yesini, a collection of poems by members of the CYPHER, have been partially or predominantly in isiZulu or isiXhosa, there remains a lack of high-quality, cutting-edge, original books entirely in those languages.

With that in mind, uHlanga is excited to announce the upcoming publication, in 2021, of two collections in isiXhosa: Ukuzilanda by Athambile Masola, and Unam Wena by Mthunzikazi A. Mbungwana.

Athambile Masola, born in Ezibeleni in 1987, grew up in East London and is currently a lecturer at the University of Pretoria. Her research and writing focuses on black women’s life writing, historiography, and intellectual histories. She recently submitted a PhD looking at the life writing of Noni Jabavu and Sisonke Msimang. Her own writing has been published in academic journals and a variety of publications, such as Al Jazeera, Africa is a Country, Prufrock and Sable Litmag. She is also a blogger and co-creator of the podcast Umoya: On African Spirituality, which features discussions on African spirituality in a modern context. She is a 2010 Mandela Rhodes Scholar and Mail and Guardian Young South African.

Mthunzikazi A. Mbungwana, born in 1981, is a poet and storyteller from Upper Indwana, Cala, Eastern Cape. She writes in isiXhosa, focusing on themes of home, dreams, and everyday black queer life. She has performed at major poetry festivals, and has had her work published in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Baobab, Prufrock, Poetry Potion, New Contrast, and Our Words, Our Worlds: Writing on Black South African Women Poets, 2000-2018. She self-published her debut chapbook, Umnikelo, in 2015, and holds a Masters in Creative Writing, in isiXhosa, from the University Currently Known as Rhodes, Makhanda.

More details about the volumes, including release dates, will be provided closer to their release.

Announcing: Malibongwe: Poems from the Struggle by ANC Women

“Untitled” by Dumile Feni, courtesy of the Dumile Feni Estate.

uHlanga is proud to announce the release of Malibongwe: Poems from the Struggle by ANC Women, edited by Sono Molefe.

A book four decades in the making. The first South African edition of a Struggle classic, once published, re-published and translated throughout Europe, but banned by the apartheid regime – a book in and of exile.

In the late 1970s, Lindiwe Mabuza, a.k.a. Sono Molefe, sent out a call for poems written by women in ANC camps and offices throughout Africa and the world. The book that resulted – released in the early 1980s by Swedish, Danish and German publishers and anti-apartheid solidarity movements – was unsurprisingly banned by the apartheid regime. Half-forgotten, it has never appeared in a South African edition – until now.

Authorised by the editor, this re-issue of Malibongwe re-establishes a place for women artists in the history of South Africa’s liberation. These are the struggles within the Struggle: a book that records the hopes and fears, the drives and disappointments, and the motivation and resilience of women at the front lines of the battle against apartheid. Here we see the evidence, too often airbrushed out of the narratives of national liberation, of a deep and unrelenting radicalism within women; of a dream of a South Africa in which not only freedom reigned, but justice too.

It is a book of collaboration and homecoming, a point underlined by an artwork we are proud to be able to put on the cover. Dumile Feni – one of South Africa’s greatest artists despite the difficult and exploitative conditions in which he worked – contributed a number of illustrations to the second German edition of Malibongwe. These works were until recently unknown to Feni scholars, and even his own family. uHlanga managed to recover copies of the images to add to the archive of known Feni works. In return, Feni’s estate graciously negotiated permission for us to reprint one of his most powerful images on this edition’s cover.

In her new introduction to the book, Makhosazana Xaba argues that “The political and the literary are not mutually exclusive, and should not be treated as such.” Indeed, Malibongwe is a product of the concurrent forces of art and politics that propel the work of activists in times of war and struggle. And it’s as true now as it was in the 1980s: “Poetry has always raised morale,” writes Mabuza (as Sono Molefe) in Malibongwe’s original 1982 foreword, “giving impetus and emotional stimuli and dimensions to political content. Through this cultural medium [of poetry], political consciousness has been elevated in many.”

uHlanga hopes to continue this tradition through this new edition of a forgotten classic. The project to bring the book to South African audiences was spearheaded by Dr Uhuru Phalafala of Stellenbosch University, and was financially supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Dr Phalafala also contributes a new preface, outlining some of the book’s publishing history. This, alongside Xaba’s introduction and Molefe’s original foreword, may be found on the book’s page on our website, along with publication information.

The book is available now through bookstores in South Africa and Namibia, distributed by Protea Boekhuis, and is available overseas through the African Books Collective.

Announcing new collections from Kopano Maroga and Jacques Coetzee, and a new chapbook from Sihle Ntuli

We are proud to announce new works forthcoming in 2020 from Kopano Maroga, Jacques Coetzee and Sihle Ntuli, granting new perspectives on the local, the global, and the self.

These books were selected from manuscripts submitted during our open submissions period last year. (There will not be an open reading period this year.) Also, these are not the only books we are publishing in 2020 – more on that next month!

Photo by Katinka Bester

Kopano Maroga (Jesus Thesis and Other Critical Fabulations; second quarter, 2020) is a performance artist, writer, cultural worker and co-director of the dance, movement and embodied politics publication and performance platform ANY BODY ZINE. They are a Masters candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies in Public Spheres and Performance Studies at the Institute for Creative Arts, University of Cape Town. They very much believe in the power of love as weapon of mass construction. They currently live and work in Ghent, Belgium as a programmer and dramaturg for Kunstencentrum Vooruit.

Jacques Coetzee (working title: Unscripted Music; second quarter, 2020) matriculated from the Pioneer School for the Blind in Worcester. In 2002 he obtained a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. He has worked as a busker at the Cape Town Waterfront, and tutored English literature to first- and second-year university students. In 2018, he and Barbara Fairhead launched their joint anthology of poems, The Love Sheet, which was published by Hands On Books, an imprint of Modjaji. He currently lives in Cape Town, where he is a singer-songwriter in the band Red Earth & Rust.

Photo by Niamh Walsh-Vorster

Sihle Ntuli (Rumblin', a chapbook; third quarter, 2020) is a 29-year-old writer based in Durban. He holds an MA in Classical Civilizations from Rhodes University, Makhanda. He is the winner of the 2019 CTL Innovation Award for Curriculum Design and Delivery, and his work has appeared in New Contrast, Agbowo II: Limits Issue & Brittle Paper presents 20:35 Africa Volume II.

Release dates and advance information of each collection will be announced later in the year.

Announcing our new chapbook series, with three titles from Francine Simon, Kobus Moolman (with Shubnum Khan), and H.I.E. Dhlomo

uHlanga is proud to announce a new series of chapbooks, beginning with three new titles: Shark by Francine Simon, All and Everything by Kobus Moolman (with Shubnum Khan), and Valley of a Thousand Hills by H.I.E. Dhlomo.

These slim, saddle-stitched volumes are have a slightly bigger page size than our other titles, with bold and beautiful covers, a cheaper price point, and intriguing, immersive poetry. Retailing at R100, these are perfect gifts or introductions to local poetry for the curious reader.

Some of our chapbooks are re-issues of classic volumes, and make important texts available, accessible and affordable in print for the first time in decades — perfect for academics and students.

Shark by Francine Simon consists of twenty queer and tender love poems by, for, and about sharks. Each poem is a different shark! It is the Durban-born, Italy-based poet’s follow-up to her successful 2017 debut, Thungachi.

All and Everything by Kobus Moolman, subtitled Scenes from a Winter Farmland, is a fragmentary, meditative, and minimalist long poem accompanied by ink drawings by author and artist Shubnum Khan.

Valley of a Thousand Hills by H.I.E. Dhlomo is the long-overdue new edition of the classic mini-epic poem, written by one of the most influential Black South African authors of the early 20th Century. It is an elegiac tale written for the eponymous area of modern KwaZulu-Natal, told through the lens of Zulu history and mythology.

All three of these titles are printed in limited first editions, and are available to order from bookstores now.

Any issues with bookstores not being able to order the books should be resolved by pointing them to our distributors, Protea Boekhuis, or supplying them with the ISBN of the title you’re trying to order, available on the publication page of each book on this website. Further issues can be reported to us on our about page.