Call for Submissions

Magma 97: Diasporic Dialogues

Submissions window open 1st July – 31st July 2026

***********************************************************************

DIASPORIC DIALOGUES

The West in me wants the mansion

to last. The African knows it cannot.

— Nicole Sealey

This issue of Magma aims to highlight and celebrate the best of Black poetry in the UK and across the African diaspora. By creating a space solely for Black poets, we want to demolish any imagined boxes that Black writers might feel they must create within. What we are asking for is relatively simple: we want your best.  

We want poems that centre Black perspectives and that are in dialogue with: the legacies, consequences and lived experiences of those in Africa and the diaspora. We welcome poems across time periods and temporalities that express the under-explored breadth and depth of Black experiences. There are some great poets out there waiting for an opportunity to be seen; here’s your chance.

i knew your name before you had a name

i learnt all of your bars even the freestyles the leaks test me

— Gboyega Odubanjo

So, send them. send your thoughtful political poems, your angry eco-poetry, your surreal lyrics and everything in between — send us your best. Send us the best that the continent and diaspora has to offer. We can't wait to see the rich work that you’re crafting. 

The 97th issue of Magma Poetry, edited by Zakia Carpenter-Hall, Elontra Hall, and Nick Makoha PhD, is in partnership with the Obsidian Foundation and focuses on Black poets from across Africa and the diaspora. 

We welcome poems from writers of Black African, Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, and African American heritage, including those of mixed-Black heritage.  

Editors Magma 97: Diasporic Dialogues

Elontra Hall, a Black-American poet based in Northampton, centres much of his work around fatherhood, basketball, relationships and identity. He has been published in HeadFake, Butcher’s Dog (16), Magma (82, 87), Propel (6) Shō (5), Prairie Schooner and had work broadcast on BBC 4’s Poetry Please (Christmas 2022). 

Zakia Carpenter-Hall is a writer, tutor, editor and critic who has received fellowships from Obsidian Foundation and Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference. She was on the editorial teams of Magma 82 and Poetry Wales 60.2. Her poetry pamphlet is Into the Same Sound Twice (Seren, 2023). She’s currently a Poet in Residence with Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre.

Nick Makoha, PhD, is a Ugandan poet, playwright, and founder of the Obsidian Foundation. His collections include The New Carthaginians (Penguin, 2025) and Kingdom of Gravity (Peepal Tree, 2017). He has won the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, Ivan Juritz Prize, Poetry London Prize, and the Cholmondeley Award (Society of Authors, 2026), and is based in London.

HOW TO SUBMIT 

• The submissions window for ‘Diasporic Dialogues' is open 1st July – 31st July 2026
• We welcome poems that have not been previously published in print, online, or broadcast.
• We accept simultaneous submissions, but please withdraw your submission or contact us if it is accepted for publication somewhere else first.
• You may submit up to 4 previously unpublished poems: ONLINE via Submittable in a single Word document, OR BY POST to Magma 97 Submissions, 23 Pine Walk, Carshalton, SM5 4ES. Postal submissions are accepted from the UK and Ireland only. Postal submissions are not acknowledged until a decision is made.