Suppressed Realities Poetry Anthology Press Release                     

‘Suppressed Realities’ is an experimental digital anthology that invites poets to directly respond according to the theme that is in its name: suppressed realities.

What is in the way of things? If culture loads the gun, where is your pen in all this? Who holds your hand through and against where we find ourselves? Who, or what, suppresses reality?

Broadly, we want poems that respond to any and all material — for example, news stories, in the form of headlines; recent images, or videos; articles — that represent a form of ‘reality’.

We invite you to speculate in all directions, to extend to the page an attempt at openly addressing not only what is suppressed but also why and how it is suppressed.

Additionally poems can celebrate heritage, imagine alternative worlds, or explore identity, culture, and belonging through:

the shapes that ‘culture’ and its troubled heartbeat(s) take on; changing cultural expectations among the youth & brewing tensions with the older generation; the cultures we create for ourselves to accentuate our  identity and belonging; what is in the way of our expression and our ability to live a full life; how we have coped, or are coping; the apprehension these cultures we have created for ourselves attract or have attracted.

Poems of all forms and styles are acceptable.

Format Guidelines

  1. Submissions should be sent to suppressedrealities@gmail.com and cc: hisiayard@gmail.com. The email subject line should be: Suppressed Realities, Poem Title, Name eg: Suppressed Realities: What Strength Lives in Poetry: Michael Imossan. If you are sending multiple poems, input the title of your first poem.
  2.  Use a 12-point serif font. Single spaced lines, double spaced stanzas.
  3. Submit 1-3 poems. Poems should be attached as a doc., docx., pdf.  
  4. DO NOT copy and paste your work in the body of the email.
  5. Each poem should start on a new page.
  6. We prefer to read blindly. Do not put your name or bio information in the submission document containing your poems.
  7. Each poem should have a clear title.
  8. Annotate the event that you are responding to at the beginning of the poem. An example of how you can approach this, is a poem by Michael Imossan: ‘What Strength Lives in Poetry,’ responding to: Unknown Gunmen Shoot 5 in Imo Community [Leadership Newspaper, June 2022]
  9. In the body of the email, provide a short bio with contact details (phone number & email address) and your country of origin.
  10. We will not accept poems that have previously been published. Your poem should be your original work in response to this theme.
  11. We will provide a general compensation for all work Accepted in exchange for assignment of exclusive rights for a limited period of time.
  12. Please send us your best work, but do not self-reject. That is, if you doubt that the poem is your best work, submit anyway, it may be just what we are looking for. Explore the theme and sub-themes as widely as possible.
  13.  We will notify you if your poem(s) is/are selected. For further inquiries, contact us at  suppressedrealities@gmail.com.

Eligibility

  • Poets from the greater East Africa region.

Compensation

We will provide a general compensation of (Ksh. 1500) for all work accepted in exchange for assignment of exclusive rights for a limited period of time (Until 1st January 2025).

Submission Deadline

20th September 2024.

Additional Info on curating team

FRANK NJUGI ( He/ Him) is a Kenyan self-taught Writer, Page Poet, Culture Journalist and Critic living in Nairobi. Some of his accolades include being a Pushcart Prize Nominee 2023, being named runners-up in the 2023 ILS – Fence Fellowship seminar and appearing in the Longlist of the inaugural Akachi Chukwuemeka prize for literature. In early 2024, he was among the recipients of the inaugural Sevhage-Agema Founder’s Prize. An alumnus of the Nairobi Writing Academy, he currently serves as the East African correspondent for African and Black Media Publication, Afrocritik.

NAOMI NDUTA WAWERU (she/her) is a writer and poet from Nairobi, Kenya. Her short story “Sanctum” was published in Lolwe and reprinted in the Best Spiritual Literature 2023 Anthology by Orison Books. She was longlisted for the 2023 Kikwetu Flash Fiction Contest for two flash fictions. Her poems and non-fiction have appeared and are forthcoming in Ubwali, The How to Fall in Love Again Anthology by Inkspired, Clerestory, The Tribe, Delicate Friend, Afroliterary, Poems for the Start of the World Anthology by Paza Sauti, Asphyxia by DRR and elsewhere. She is an Alumnus of the Nairobi Writing Academy. Reach her on Twitter and Instagram @_ndutawaweru.

MWENDE MAKULU is a Nairobi-based writer. Her short stories have been featured in the 2018 Africa Book anthology “The Wrong Patient and Other Stories from Africa”, the Kalahari Review, In the Sand of Time (A Toyin Falola Prize Anthology), and Brittle Paper. She is a recent alumnus of the Nairobi Writing Academy. Find her on X @MakuluDiana.

LENA ANYUOLO (she/they) is a writer, and author of the collection, ‘Rage & Bloom’. Their fiction and poetry also appears in Jalada ‘After + Life’ anthology and Writers’ Space Africa. They are an alumnus of Nairobi Writing Academy 2023.

BRIAN MURAYA is a poet, writing from Nairobi, Kenya.

Hannah Omokafe Dennis
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Hannah Omokafe Dennis Is A 24-year-old Journalist, Voice-Over artist and UNFPA Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health Rights Advocate Living In Nigeria. She Currently Serves As A Community Manager In Konya Shamsrumi And Has Some Of Her Written Works Published On Writer's Space Africa and audio stories on Genti media. She Enjoys Using Words And Her Voice To Tell Stories. She Tweets @Omokafe_forite.
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