• 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).

Editors for the VRY PRSNT BLK: The Black Artist as Moral Witness special issue: Duriel E. Harris & Guest Editor L. Renée

Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora is calling for submissions for a special issue on “The Black Artist as Moral Witness.” We seek work from the African Diasporic community invested in what it means to witness socio-political, environmental, racial, gender, and sexuality-based injustices. We are particularly interested in how Black writers and artists transmit these experiences, often hidden from public view and scrutiny, through their making and provoke affective responses that compel actionable change in the world around them.

We welcome unpublished works across genres of poetry, fiction, drama, critical essays, as well as sound, video, digital media, and visual art. We are looking for creative work that both (1) acknowledges the trauma, hopelessness, and powerlessness that many feel at this historical moment when various terrors—wars across the world, gun violence in public gathering spaces, police violence, gender-based violence, environmental harms—are occurring simultaneously AND (2) explores reparative ways for artists to resist hostile circumstances by finding freedom in their witnessing, generating historical corrections, and building models of support in the collective sharing of refusals and resiliencies.

By engaging, witnessing, and connecting, we make meaning of our experiences and increase potential to craft transformative art.

Published in print and online in late 2025, this special issue will include an intergenerational group of established and emerging writers/artists who explore what it means to witness in diverse and innovative ways, wrestling with history, disability justice, body politics, and immigration, among other elements in their creative work.

For fullest consideration please review following submission guidelines for the VRY PRSNT BLK: The Black Artist as Moral Witness special issue:

Reading Period
Deadline for submitting is April 15, 2025, by 11:59 PM Central time (US & Canada). 

Simultaneous Submissions
Simultaneous submissions to other journals are welcome as long as they are identified as such and we are notified immediately upon acceptance elsewhere.

Manuscript 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 guest or staff editor.
• Upload your text submission as a Word (DOCX), portable document format/PDF (PDF) or rich-text format (RTF) file. No Pages, TXT, or Open Office Documents.
• Typed, double-spaced (poetry may be single-spaced) pages.
• Numbered pages.
• Submissions should follow the Chicago Manual of Style for grammar and MLA format for citations and works cited, when applicable.
• Margins should be set at no less than 1” and no greater than 1.5”.
• Poetry: submit up to five (5) poems totaling no more than eight (8) pages.
• Fiction, Hybrid genre, and critical essay: 12-point font. No more than twenty (20) pages or 5000 words (whichever is achieved first). Excerpts of longer works are welcome if self-contained.
• Drama/Performance: submit one act or a collection of short scenes no longer than twenty (20) pages following Samuel French or the Dramatists Guild suggested formatting. Excerpts of longer works are welcome if self-contained.

Image 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 guest or staff editor.
• Submit up to five (5) images totaling no more than 15 MB.
• Upload your submission(s) as JPG, GIF, PNG, or TIF file(s) (TIF preferred) in 300 ppi at the size(s) intended to be used (Obsidian journal is 6" x 9").  
• Specify the orientation of the image(s) as portrait or landscape.

Audio 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 guest or staff editor.
• Submit up to five (5) sound files totaling no more than 30 MB.
• Upload your submission(s) as MP3 or WAV file(s).

Video & Media Arts 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 guest or staff editor.
• Submit up to five (5) video and/or gaming files totaling no more than 800 MB.
• Upload your submission(s) as M4V, MP4, MPG, MP3 or MOV files. 

Restrictions
• We do not reprint previously published work.

Please note you can submit a total of seven (7) files but please follow the guidelines for the max requirements for each genre. This allows you to submit in more than one genre. Also, the total duration of audio and/or video files submitted is ten (10) minutes max for all files combined. 

Direct inquiries to witness@obsidianlit.org

Obsidian at 50: Activating the Archive—Looking Forward/Looking Back

Editors: Obsidian Editor Duriel E. Harris & Guest Editors Kwame Dawes, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Erica Hunt & L. Lamar Wilson

  Obsidian’s volume 50.2 special issue, Obsidian at 50: Activating the Archive—Looking Forward/Looking Back, is a celebration and activation of our 50 years of publication history. The award-winning and dynamic publishing platform Obsidian is a versatile, enriched, vibrant, and extensive space for Black imagination, Black presence, and Black futures, and we invite you to participate in this landmark volume—taking the present moment to consider our recent past and potential futures. 

Guest edited by five esteemed artists, historians, and archivists with ties to Obsidian’s rich history, the issue will be composed of five folios representing the five decades of Obsidian’s publication—one decade folio for each editor. Each editor will invite 5-6 contemporary artists of their choosing to mine the content of their respective decade and craft original poetry, fiction, drama/performance, and/or visual art inspired by/engaging that decade’s content. 

Submission Deadline
    Deadline for submitting is March 15, 2024, by 11:59PM Central Time (US & Canada) [Extensions may be granted if requested]

Submission Guidelines

• Include a short cover letter noting the title(s) of the work(s) submitted. Address your cover letter to the decade editor who invited you to submit. 
• Upload your text submission as a Word (DOCX), portable document format/PDF (PDF) or rich-text format (RTF) file. No Pages, TXT, or Open Office Documents.
• Typed, double-spaced (poetry may be single-spaced) pages. 
• Numbered pages. 
• Submissions should follow the Chicago Manual of Style for grammar and MLA format for citations and works cited, when applicable. 
• Margins should be set at no less than 1” and no greater than 1.5”. 
• For any genre: no more than ~5 pages of creative work. 
• Fiction, Hybrid genre: 12-point font. Excerpts of longer works are welcome if self-contained. 
• Drama/Performance: Follow Samuel French or the Dramatists Guild suggested formatting. Excerpts of longer works are welcome if self-contained.
• Images: Upload as JPG, GIF, PNG, or TIF file(s) (TIF preferred) in 300 ppi at the size(s) intended to be used (Obsidian journal is 6" x 9"). Specify the orientation of the image(s) as portrait or landscape.
• Audio: · Upload your submission(s) as .mp3 or .wav file(s)
• Video & Media Arts: · 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).

Direct inquiries to Obsidian Managing Editor Tara Reeser: tareeser@obsidianlit.org