The Theme of Issue 1 is:
A Dream of Home
Black scholars and writers have conceptualized dreams as collective politicized aspirations, pathways towards imagining liberation, evocations of cultural memory, and ways of knowing via ancestral transmission.
The African Diasporic conception of home exists as a mercurial vision of nonlinear, heterogeneous beliefs/wishes/remembrances. Black Geographies scholars argue that anti-Blackness positions the Diaspora continually “out of place” as ongoing forced displacement and spatial exclusion engenders experiences of generational displacement and placelessness.
In the wake of dispossession, “Black placemaking” has been observed in the varying ways Black people claim space and forge conceptions of home even in un-homelike conditions.
If we cannot call this place home then what can we call it? What happens when home no longer exists? How do we create home in a world that denies it of us?
For Kawandi Magazine’s inaugural issue, A Dream of Home, we invite you to
Conjure images of home, question the erection of borders, contend with the historical remnants of your surroundings, confess your refuges, elucidate your personal definition of home, illuminate the invisibilized voyages of suffering.
Submission Guidelines
Content
Kawandi Magazine is committed to publishing the writing and art of Black storytellers, especially that of emerging voices.
We are seeking submissions in poetry, fiction, non-fiction, prose, and scannable visual art.
Format
In your email please state your full name/pen name, pronouns, your social media handle, and include a 50 word bio.
Please submit fiction, non-fiction, and prose in double space format. For poetry please submit in whatever format is best suited for your work.
The maximum word count for fiction, non-fiction, and prose is up to 5,000 words. The limit for poetry is up to 5 poems. The limit for art is up to 4 pieces.
Submit all writing as a .doc, .docx, or pdf file. Please scan visual art and submit it as a TIFF, JPEG, PNG, or PDF file.
Rules
We do accept simultaneous submissions but we ask that you swiftly inform us if your work is accepted elsewhere so we can withdraw it from our submission pool.
Any work created with the help of AI will be immediately denied and prompt a permanent ban from submitting work to Kawandi.
Our submission window closes on 12/31 at 11:59pm.
Send all submissions to submit.kawandimagazine@gmail.com
Additional Information
Because our reading team is small, we are not currently able to offer feedback and also ask that submitters refrain from querying the status of your submission unless you have not yet heard back from us after January 7, 2026.