SUBMISSIONS
The Shallow Tales Review accepts fiction, creative non-fiction, book reviews, poems, one-act plays, cultural and social essays, art photographs, and translations tackling issues more generally viewed as specifically African, or Black.
Literary criticisms should concern texts that are of modern and African temperament. For critical essays, we expect themes to be tackled logically and as clearly as possible. We fact-check. By “modern,” we refer to books published at most 5 years before.
Feel free to break genre restrictions as you wish. We appreciate fluidity (quite) as much as we value artistic ingenuity.
We DO NOT publish horror, sci-fi, travellogues or any sociological piece without the slightest literary tilt. We could, however, break our rules for exceptionally great pieces that reflect the African/Black condition.
At the moment, we do not offer financial support to contributors. We hope to do so in the nearest future. We, however, nominate for the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, as well as the Best of a Shallow Year award. We are also BSFA-nominated!
Entries should be sent in by mail to:
poetry.tstr@gmail.com (poetry)
essays.tstr@gmail.com (Essays & Creative Nonfiction)
theshallowtalesreview@gmail.com (Fiction/Plays/Art & Photography)
Use “TSTR Submissions” in the subject line.
Non artwork entries should be between 1,500 – 4,000 words and should come in .doc or .docx format. Poetry submissions should not be more than forty (40) lines, per poem. We accept a maximum of three poetry entries at a time.
Only previously unpublished works would be reviewed and considered.
Reprints are NOT allowed. Do inform us if your piece has been considered or is being considered for publication elsewhere. At publication, all intellectual rights revert to the contributor.
Files should be saved with the title of the work, and in the case of a body of poems, with the first poem in the file. The editors respond before they begin to review towards publication.
We only accept one body of work in a genre at a time. Feel free to resubmit in another issue if your work was rejected within a submission window.
Should a contributor’s published piece be accepted elsewhere after ours, we hope to be credited as first publishers.
Entries must be sent single-spaced in 12 point, Times New Roman font. In the body of the mail, include a short cover letter describing the genre of the work, word count (for prose), number of poems included (for poetry), short author bio, and any other relevant information relating to the piece. Do not add any identifying information in the document with the entry.
Note that selected pieces rarely get published the way they come, so please be ready to work through the revisions recommended by the assigned editors towards publication. They are free, and your piece would be better for it.
The Shallow Tales Review publishes three times a year in January, June, and November.
Yearly schedule:
January issue:
Window: January 1st – January 20th
Feedback: January 21st
Publication: January 31st
June issue:
Window: May 1st – May 31st
Feedback: June 10th
Publication: June 30th
November issue:
Window: October 1st – October 31st
Feedback: November 10th
Publication: November 30th