Akpata Magazine - Open for subs
@AkpataMagazine
Telling stories of Africa and the world at large | Fiction, Poetry, Non-fiction, and more! | Partner - CWW UNIBEN | Open for Subs till July 30th!
The works within these pages remind us that to live is to feel, to be disrupted, and to be stirred. Welcome to The Stirred Issue. akpatamag.top/stirred-an-ant…
Unpopular Opinion: Unless WHEN UNAVOIDABLY NECESSARY, do not begin your story with a backstory. Backstory is earned. We don’t care about who they were until we care about who they are.
African literature deserves better. We've read some of the most unique works in our inbox. It's wild that aside from underfunded lit mags (that barely survive a decade), there's no real (local) ecosystem to nurture, promote, or preserve this brilliance on a global level.
This is a very good point.
African editors, Stop copying rejection templates from U.S. mags. Speak in your voice. Even rejections can be human, local, kind.
Read outside your genre. If you write prose, read poetry. Learn compression, rhythm, metaphor. Read screenplays—see how they teach structure and economy. Read essays—see how thought unfolds That’s how you grow as a writer.
African editors, Stop copying rejection templates from U.S. mags. Speak in your voice. Even rejections can be human, local, kind.
if only this tweet could get to editors. i'd pitch to pubs and they'd respond saying they like my pitch. after telling me to edit, they'd ghost you've got a lot of submissions, fine. But, please, try to get back to those submitting IF YOU DON'T LIKE THEIR WORK! it means alot.
Editors, if a piece almost made it, tell the writer. That one line of encouragement is sometimes the difference between quitting and continuing.
A gentle reminder that our submission window closes on the 30th of this month (in eight days!). Wipe the dust off story and send it our way. @JoemarioU38615 @ikennachurchill @evalenilawson and others are waiting to read you! akpatamag.top/submit
What one magazine did to me, I will never forget. Had my first real taste of rejection from them. Submitted a piece, waited months on end just to get a rejection without feedback or criticism on what I could do to make my piece better. It is well sha.
Editors, if a piece almost made it, tell the writer. That one line of encouragement is sometimes the difference between quitting and continuing.
Editors, if a piece almost made it, tell the writer. That one line of encouragement is sometimes the difference between quitting and continuing.
One our editing philosophies: Readers skim when they’re bored. That’s your edit cue. Track where your eyes drift. Trim until they stay locked.
Dear litmag, If you ask for exclusive submissions, make your decisions fast. Writers shouldn’t have to put their careers on hold for your backlog.
Dear writer, Don't confuse suffering with depth. Tragedy isn’t interesting by default. It’s what your character does with pain that makes us care.
#20!!🥺🥹 My 20th prose acceptance hit my mail this evening, courtesy. @AkpataMagazine. ❤️ It's been a long time coming, and it feels just as wonderful as the first acceptance mail I ever received. 😊 I'm over the moon. 😊 Can't wait for publication. 🥳
Here to remind you our first issue is available and in print too! 🥺🤭🥁
Don’t edit while drafting unless you want to choke the story. Let the mess live. You can clean up later, but you can’t revise a blank page.
We typically love when our contributors begin their fiction stories with a scene. Not a concept or a monologue. Let us watch something happen. Then layer in the big ideas.
Buy books. Stop downloading pirated PDFs and Epubs. Books aren't expensive, you just do not value them enough.
Reader to Reader:
One short tip: Prose is visual. Don’t just write what’s happening, show how it looks. If a reader can’t picture it, they won’t feel it.