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!).

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Mai Serhan is Rowayat’s Managing Editor.

She holds an MA in Arabic Literature from the American University in Cairo and an MSt in Creative Writing from the University of Oxford. She is the recipient of the Center for Book Arts Poetry Chapbook Award for, CAIRO: the undelivered letters, the Narratively Memoir Prize for The Renegades: a story of Palestinian diaspora, and the Master’s in Creative Writing F.H. Pasby Prize from the University of Oxford.

What she’s looking for

Work that is intentional and that inches quietly toward heat at every turn. Work with a strong subject matter that is unafraid to dig deep and crack open. Work that expands the limits of language, form and genre. Work that derives its power from simple, universal truths and that is capable of relaying truths in their simplest and most inventive form. She enjoys themes of diaspora, family gender politics, race, class, sexuality and mental health.

Fatima ElKalay is Rowayat’s Poetry Editor.

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.

What she’s looking for

Work that resonates truth and distills difficult, complex emotions. Some of her favorite themes are loss, displacement, death in its many forms, belonging, freedom and injustice. She loves when a writer takes an ordinary word on an extraordinary adventure that shocks, delights, or even scares us. She enjoys hybrid forms that challenge the reader and challenge what we know about form.

Nesma Gewily is Rowayat’s CNF and Literary Translation Editor

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 from the University of California in 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.

What she’s looking for

Work that is rooted in our capacity to live authentically, feel our emotions, think our ideas, and wonder about our own questions. This is a challenging task in a world that floods us with ready-made images and voices. She wants this space to be one where authentic voices meet; the voice of a writer who translates life into writing and the voice of a reader who translates writing into life.