Submissions
All submissions need to be made through the submissions manager — Submittable. Email submissions won’t be considered.
New Contrast is calling for submissions for Issue 213, entitled HOLY F*CK!
Centred around the intersection between the Erotic/Eros and the Divine/Sublime, we seek provocative prose, poetry, reviews, art, and criticism to reclaim, reimagine, and celebrate desire in all its forms.
We want bold voices – fresh takes on love, passion, pleasure, divinity and intimacy.
We invite submissions that delight in the messy, the sweaty, the carnal, the ravenous, the transcendent and the damned.
We also invite submissions that do not shy away from our reality as a country (and world) besieged by sexual violence. A world that weaponises the Erotic and the Divine for domination and expansion.
There is pain and there is pleasure here. Gods and devils and demons and horny, half-human half-goats. Take us by the hand and show us the Erotic in the Divine and the Divine in the Erotic
Submissions for will be open for ISSUE 213 HOLY F*CK until 21st September 2026.
Guidelines
- Preferred file formats: DOC or DOCX.
- For images: Submit JPEG files with a minimum size of 2MB.
- Poetry submissions: Submit up to 3 poems, with a maximum of 65 lines per poem.
- Prose submissions: Alternatively, you may submit one piece of short story, non-fiction, or a novel extract (up to 4,000 words).
- Other submissions: Please submit a review, memoir, essay, criticism, or reflective/opinion piece (up to 1,500 words).
- Cover letter: Every submission must include a cover letter. Tell us a bit about yourself and your work, and please include a 50-word author bio written in the third-person.
- Email: Please ensure your email address is included somewhere in the document.
- Simultaneous submissions: If your submission is being considered by another publication, please mention this in your cover letter or email.
Also remember that if you would like to submit material, it would be to your advantage to read a couple of issues of New Contrast to get some idea of what we have published in terms of length, style and quality. In particular, we refer you to the following extracts from the Notes of New Contrast № 157 (March 2012).
“We would like to see the conscious indication of the craft of poetry, the use of poetics to give a particular quality to the material presented. This should be more than just stream of consciousness writing, with strong lines being used to drive home the ideas or insights which the work presents. Above all, the poems must say something which applies to more than just the writer, something which speaks to the wider band of readers who will read the work. As far as the short story, or short fiction goes, the writing must be clear and vigorous; it must engage the reader and through the building of tension create a satisfying or challenging resolution of tension by the end of the piece. We concentrate on publishing primary material and not secondary criticism or theoretical or philosophical arguments. We favour material which addresses the South African context, or our Africanness, but ‘quality’ remains the first tickbox for whatever the context or location of the narrative or reflection might be.“
Response times
As we only publish three times a year, understand that anything from three to six months might elapse before a decision is made on the work you have submitted.
Our readership is primarily English, Afrikaans or isiXhosa speaking, so we accept submissions in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa. We will consider submissions in other languages if they are accompanied by a translation.
Length
Short stories must contain not more than 4000 words and individual poems not more than 65 lines.