Reading Period for Obsidian 2026 For the next general issue of Obsidian, submit May 15–October 15, 2026 by 11:59 PM Central time (US & Canada). Unless otherwise noted, submissions sent from October 16, 2025 through May 14, 2026 will not be accepted. Themed issue submissions are accepted during announced dates. Get Lit blog submissions are accepted year-round.
Submitting Online We accept submissions via our online submission management system only. Submissions via postal mail or email will be discarded without response. To submit online, please use the Obsidian submission management system, found at obsidian.submittable.com/submit.
Notifications and Queries Expect three to six months for a decision. Using our online submissions system you will be able to track the status of your submission. We accept queries after six months have passed. Queries should be sent via email. They should include:• Your name.• The date, genre, and title of the submission.• The title of the Call for Submissions to which you are responding, if applicable.
Spam Notice To ensure that you receive our email responses, please add staff@obsidianlit.org and notifications@email.submittable.com to your address book so that our correspondence does not end up flagged as spam.
Audio Submission Guidelines
- Include a short cover letter noting the title(s) of the work(s) submitted and citing major publications and awards, as well as any association or past correspondence
- Submit up to five (5) sound files totaling no more than 75 MB.
- Upload your submission(s) as .mp3 or .wav file(s)
Drama/Performance
- Submit one act or a collection of short scenes no longer than twenty (20) pages in the Samuel French format. Excerpts of longer works are welcome if self-contained.
Please number each page of your manuscript. Submissions should be no longer than twenty (20) pages in length and double-spaced.
Image Submission Guidelines
- Include a short cover letter noting the title(s) of the work(s) submitted and citing major publications and awards, as well as any association or past correspondence with a guest or staff editor.
- Submit up to five (5) images totaling no more than 40 MB.
- Upload your submission(s) as .jpg or .tif file(s) (.tif preferred) in 300 ppi at the size(s) intended to be used.
- Specify the orientation of the image(s) as portrait or landscape.
Submit up to five (5) poems totaling no more than eight (8) pages.
Video & Media Arts Submission Guidelines
- Include a short cover letter noting the title(s) of the work(s) submitted and citing major publications and awards, as well as any association or past correspondence with a guest or staff editor.
- Submit up to three (3) video and/or gaming files totaling no more than 800 MB.
- Upload your submission(s) as an mpg, .avi, or .mov files, Flash Animation (.swf), Graphics Interchange Format (.gif), UNITY game files, and HTML5 (with or without CSS and JavaScript markup).
- Include a short cover letter noting the title(s) of the work(s) submitted and citing major publications and awards, as well as any association or past correspondence with a guest or staff editor.
Image Submission Guidelines
- Submit up to five (5) images totaling no more than 40 MB.
- Upload your submission(s) as .jpg or .tif file(s) (.tif preferred) in 300 ppi at the size(s) intended to be used.
- Specify the orientation the image(s) as portrait or landscape.
- Submit up to five (5) sound files totaling no more than 75 MB.
- Upload your submission(s) as .mp3 or .wav file(s)
Video & Media Arts Submission Guidelines
- Submit up to three (3) video and/or gaming files totaling no more than 800 MB.
- Upload your submission(s) as mpg, .avi, or .mov files, Flash Animation (.swf), Graphics Interchange Format (.gif), UNITY game files, and HTML5 (with or without CSS and JavaScript markup).
Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora invites submissions for our online blog, a digital space focused on critical conversations, engaged interviews, in-depth book reviews, and current happenings. We welcome unpublished essays, reviews, short interviews, hybrid works that reflect the diversity and dynamism of the African Diaspora and global Black creativity.
Blog submissions are accepted year-round and are reviewed by our editorial team. All submissions must be made through Obsidian’s online submission management system at Submittable.
For fullest consideration please review following submission guidelines for blog features:
Submission Period
Year-round through Submittable. We do not accept submissions by postal mail or email.
Simultaneous Submissions
Simultaneous submissions are welcome as long as they are identified as such and we are notified immediately upon acceptance elsewhere.
Submission Guidelines
• Include a short cover letter noting the title(s) of the work(s) submitted as well as any association or past correspondence with a staff editor.
• Upload text submissions as a Word (DOCX), portable document format/PDF (PDF) or rich-text format (RTF) file. No Pages, TXT, or Open Office Documents. Text should be typed, double-spaced, no more than 3,000 words, and follow the Chicago Manual of Style for grammar and MLA format for citations and works cited, when applicable. Pages should be numbered and margins should be set at no less than 1” and no greater than 1.5”.
• Upload image submissions, up to five (5) images totaling no more than 15 MB, as JPG, GIF, PNG, or TIF file(s) (TIF preferred). Specify the orientation of the image(s) as portrait or landscape.
• Upload audio submissions, up to five (5) sound files totaling no more than 30 MB with a total duration of ten (10) minutes max, as MP3 or WAV file(s).
• Upload video & media arts submissions, up to five (5) video and/or gaming files totaling no more than 800 MB with a total duration of ten (10) minutes max, as M4V, MP4, MPG, MP3 or MOV files.
Book Review Submission Guidelines
Please contact Obsidian’s blog editor at blogeditor@obsidianlit.org to inquire about reviewing and to receive detailed guidelines.
Restrictions & Requests
• We do not reprint previously published work (including work published on personal websites or other self-published works). The work submitted should be exclusive content.
• At this time, Obsidian is unable offer payment for blog features.
• To ensure that blog content is accessible to those using screen readers, please provide alt-text descriptions for non-text content.
• Please try to avoid specialist jargon, providing explanations and definitions where necessary.
• Images should not be under any copyright restrictions.
• Feel free to provide links to secondary sources for readers. Links for secondary sources must begin with https:// and connect to secure websites.
• Contributors are encouraged to become regular authors who publish monthly, but one-off posts are also acceptable. Contact us if you would like to pitch a running series or larger collaborative project.
Direct inquiries to blogeditor@obsidianlit.org