[Editor's Note: This is the submissions call for Strange Horizons' special issue on AfroSurrealist SF, which was one of our stretch goals in last year's fund-drive, and will be published on June 30. The submissions window for the special issue is April 15 to April 30. Please read this post carefully if you are intending to submit.]

“AfroSurrealism presupposes that beyond this visible world, there is an invisible world striving to manifest, and it is our job to uncover it.”

— D. Scott Miller, the AfroSurreal Manifesto.

Imagine the Sunken Place of Get Out, where reality slips like a trapdoor beneath your feet. Imagine the demon hunters of Ring Shout, fighting horrors that lurk beneath history’s skin. Imagine the surreal logic of Atlanta, the strange landscapes of I Am Not a Witch, the absurdity of Sorry to Bother You and the gothic terror of His House.

Welcome to the Afrosurrealist Special Issue, where the boundaries between the real and the unreal blur, where reality bends, time fractures, and the living and the dead exist side by side. Afrosurrealism has long given shape to our struggles, our power, and our dreams. This special issue seeks to bring those visions to life through stories that cut deep—tales that unsettle, haunt, and liberate.

Many of us have become enchanted by Afrosurrealism through the works of pioneers like D. Scot Miller, Ishmael Reed, and Ralph Ellison. Others found their way here through films like Get Out, Atlanta, and The Burial of Kojo. From the speculative beats of Sun Ra to the haunting visions of Octavia Butler, Afrosurrealism has always existed at the intersection of resistance, reimagination, and the radical transformation of the mundane into the magical.

For this special issue, we are looking for:

• Worlds that slip between the mundane and the uncanny, the ghostly and the futuristic.
• Worlds rich with history and spirit striving to manifest—whether set in the past, present, or futures unknown.
• Tales of hauntings, doppelgängers, liminal spaces, memories, and places that don’t stay put.
• Give us your tales of portals that lead to nowhere, of cities that rearrange themselves overnight, of people becoming someone—or something—else.
• Narratives that challenge traditional structures and defy linear storytelling.
• Works that experiment with or reimagine genres like sword & soul, jujuism, cyberfunk, or Black gothic horror.
• Visions of power, freedom, and transformation shaped by the Black experience where Blackness itself is a force that bends time, space, and destiny.

Send us your myths. Your nightmares. Your dreams wrapped in ancestral magics and spirit.

The editors for the AfroSurrealism Special invite you to submit fiction, poetry, and nonfiction.

We welcome writers who are new and experienced. The submissions call is open to writers of African descent ONLY, whether based in the diaspora or in Africa.  We ask writers to be mindful of cultural appropriation. Rachel Dolezals are not allowed.

Submission Period: April 15 to 30. Fiction, poetry, and non-fiction will be submitted through Strange Horizons' Moksha portal, here:

Submissions Portal:

https://strangehorizons.moksha.io/publication/strange-horizons/afrosurrealism-special-issue/submit

Note this submission category is specifically for this special issue. If you submit something for this issue through, say, the poetry portal, it will go to the wrong editors! Make sure you submit in the Afrosurrealism Special category.

Editorial Team:

Yvette Lisa Ndlovu (she/her) and Shingai Njeri Kagunda (she/they) for Fiction (2,000 – 7,000 words); Poetry (of any length or complexity); Non-Fiction (2,000 – 3,000 words).

Fiction

Yvette and Shingai are looking for the bizarre, otherworldly, dream-like and uncanny realities that are staples of Afrosurrealism, they can be historical or contemporary, or set elsewhere.

Poetry

Yvette and Shingai are looking for speculative poetry. We encourage submissions that play with form, language, and genre.

Nonfiction

Yvette and Shingai want new perspectives on Afrosurrealism, especially by voices underrepresented in the genre like women, queer voices etc (for example essays on queer and feminist interventions of the genre are most welcome).