Guidelines for Contributors
BLK Voices Magazine is a quarterly that aims to amplify the collective Black experience through art, culture and community. We are seeking personal essays, poetry, prose, articles, reviews (book/music/film/tv), interviews, artwork, photography, short scripts and short stories that center the Black/Afrikan experience. This platform was created with the intention of providing people of the African Diaspora a platform to express ourselves into healing and liberation. It is a place where we can write our truths and be. There are 4 sections in BLK Voices: Empower, Educate, Elevate and Amplify. More information on each section can be found below.
We aim to publish works that are written in the style of creative nonfiction or fiction. Creative nonfiction is a form of storytelling that employs the creative writing techniques of literature to retell a true story. Learn more about creative nonfiction here Writing Creative Nonfiction « Find Your Creative Muse (wordpress.com) .
We are also seeking unique photography, art, poetry, short stories (fiction/non-fiction) and scripts.
EMPOWER
Think about what you would say to a younger you, a family member or a friend to motivate or push them through another day. Think about obstacles you've overcome or obstacles you're still navigating and share your experience. What have you learned? What tools did you use? What did you do great? What could you have done better? What empowers you? Share affirmations you live by or affirmations you were taught. This section is meant to inspire the reader to keep their crown up! 800-1500 words
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EDUCATE
Do you have an informed perspective or commentary on a topic that affects the Black community? Do you have in-depth knowledge of a topic from a lived experience? Is there a person, place or event, past or present, you feel our readers should know more about? Perspective articles are generally based on constructive criticism and should be backed by evidence. Commentaries draw attention to a topic often using the findings as a call to action or to highlight a few points of wider relevance to the field. Commentaries do not include original data and are heavily dependent on the author’s perspective or anecdotal evidence from the author’s personal experience to support the argument. The Educate section is intended to give our readers insight on interesting topics while providing facts to validate the information provided. This section is great to dive deeper into current events, history and our future. 1500-2000 words
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ELEVATE
The ELEVATE section provides insight on topics that feed the mind, body, soul and community as a whole. Topics can include but are not limited to: personal essays detailing self-care practices and tips (mind/body), spiritual insight on current events or past events, spiritual experiences, explorations or stories (soul), business insight, highlights of businesses with a social mission and personal stories/experiences that highlight elevation: mentally, spiritually, economically, emotionally etc. 1000-2000 words
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AMPLIFY
In AMPLIFY, we highlight Black culture and creativity. Poems, short stories, artwork/photography features, prose and scripts will be featured in this section. We are seeking Black travel stories, reviews, reflections and travel recommendations. Submissions will be considered based on any topic considered “4 the Culture” including: music, food, movie, TV or book reviews and reactions. 1000-1500 words. You may submit up to four poems, photos or art pieces.
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All written uploads should be submitted in .doc or .docx format (no PDFs). Art and photography submissions should be 300 dpi. Each submission should be saved as your name and title of work.
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Submission must be ready to publish. All submissions must be appropriately formatted, contain unique and correctly cited images, and have engaging and descriptive titles. Writers are expected to fully edit and vet all pieces before submitting them for publication.
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Stories must be free of spelling and grammatical issues.