Rowayat seeks original writing for upcoming online publications. Submission categories are Fiction, CNF, Poetry, Flash Fiction, Comics, Art, Reviews and Interviews - in English or French or Arabic in translation. Contributors do not need to identify as Arab/SWANA descent, provided their work is in dialogue with the transnational social realities of the Afro/Arab regions and their diaspora communities. Contributors may also decide to expand this reality altogether.

Rowayat accepts unsolicited submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction during our reading periods. We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know as soon as your submission is accepted elsewhere. We aim to respond within 3 months.

Our review process is semi-anonymous (our readers do not know the names of submitters, and then they pass all submissions to the genre editors. You may submit to more than one genre (but only 1 submission per genre—thank you!).

Masthead

Meet Rowayat’s Guest Editors for Issue #7: Joy

Suad Kamardeen is Rowayat’s Managing Editor, suad@rowayat.org

Suad Kamardeen is a British-Nigerian Muslim writer, editor and photographer. She is a Founding Editor of WAYF Journal and Managing Editor of Rowayat. Her young adult novel, Never Enough, won the SI Leeds Literary Prize 2022, and her adult novel was shortlisted for the Stylist Prize for Feminist Fiction 2021.

Suad runs Qalb Writers Collective, a community to support Black and Muslim women writers with knowledge and resources. She is committed to bearing witness to the lives, histories and cultures of Black and Muslim women. Her work explores themes of female friendships, family, belonging, shame, identity, joy and love. She also co-hosts Ọrẹ Meji: Yoruba ni ṣoki, a podcast centred on embracing her mother tongue, Yoruba.

You can find her at suadkamardeen.com, and on Twitter and Instagram @suadkamardeen

Ibrahim Fawzy is Rowayat’s Editorial Assistant, ibrahim@rowayat.org

He is an Egyptian literary translator and academic who holds an MA in Comparative Literature. He was awarded a mentorship with the National Center for Writing, UK (2022/2023). His translations, reviews, interviews and articles have appeared or are forthcoming in ArabLit Quarterly, Words Without Borders, The Markaz Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal and elsewhere. He also podcasts at New Books Network. His debut book Belonging to Prison will be published by Cambridge Scholars this summer. 

Fatima ElKalay is Rowayat’s Poetry Editor, fatima@rowayat.org

She holds an M. Litt in Creative Writing from Central Queensland University. Her work has been shortlisted for the London Independent Story Prize and the ArabLit Story Prize for short fiction in translation. Her first collaborative collection, Dessert for Three combines fiction and memoir, and was published by Rowayat in 2022.

Majda Gama is Rowayat’s Poetry Editor, majda@rowayat.org

 Majda Gama is the author of the forthcoming chapbook "The Call of Paradise" selected by Diane Seuss as winner of the 2022 Two Sylvias chapbook prize. Poems have recently appeared in The Adroit Journal, Four Way Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, POETRY Magazine, and are forthcoming from Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, and “We Call to the Eye & the Night” (Persea, 2023) an anthology of love poems by Arab-Anglophone poets edited by Hala Alyan and Zeina Hashem Beck. Majda's poems have been nominated multiple times for Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and the Pushcart Prize, and her debut manuscript was a finalist for the 2020 New Issues Poetry Prize. Born in Beirut, Majda was raised in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and the United States and is now based in the DC suburbs where she has roots in the underground music scene. She is currently a co-host of the Café Muse literary salon online.

Eman Quotah is Rowayat’s Fiction Editor, eman@rowayat.org

Eman Quotah’s debut novel, Bride of the Sea, won the Arab American Book Award for fiction in 2022. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, USA Today, Guernica, Necessary Fiction, Witness, The Rumpus, Jellyfish Review, Kweli, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, ArabLit Quarterly, The Markaz Review and other publications. 

When she’s not writing fiction or essays, Eman is a communications consultant and ghost writer for nonprofit and business leaders. She lives with her family near Washington, D.C.

Omar Al Jadhee is Rowayat’s Fiction Reader, omar@rowayat.org

Omar Al Jadhee is a storyteller and editor from Saudi Arabia. His stories were published in Sard Adabi, Al Arabi, Akhbar El Adab, Arablit Quarterly and Guernica. He won the second place in Stories in The Air literary contest by Al Arabi Magazine and Monte Carlo Doualiya radio station. He worked as Trainer Assistant in a training camp for school students (short fiction division) as part of Cultural Talents Contest 2023  by the Ministries of Culture and Education.

Reem Gaafar is Rowayat’s Fiction Editor, reem@rowayat.org

Reem Gaafar is a public health physician, writer, researcher, and documentary filmmaker. Over the years she accumulated nearly two hundred publications including blog posts, peer-reviewed and magazine articles, short stories, policy briefs and book contributions. Her fiction and non-fiction writing has appeared in African Arguments, African Feminism, Teakisi Magazine, Andariya, 500 Words Magazine, International Health Policies and Health Systems Global. She was shortlisted for the Miles Morland Foundation Scholarship in 2020. Her short story “Light of the Desert” was published in the anthology “I Know Two Sudans” by Gippings Press, UK and was awarded an Honorable Mention, and her second short story “Finding Decartes” was published in the anthology “Relations: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices” by HarperVia. Her debut novel “A Mouth Full of Salt” won The Island Prize of 2023 and will be published by Saqi Books in Spring 2024.

Nesma Gewily is Rowayat’s CNF and Literary Translation Editor, nesma@rowayat.org

She holds an M.A. in Arabic Literature from the American University in Cairo and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the same field at the University of California, Berkeley. Her first travel memoir, Irth al-Hikãyah, was published by Dar Al-Shorouk in 2014. Her second book, a novel and a work in progress, traces the steps of her characters across continents and history.