Submissions

Submissions are currently closed. We will open for submissions in mid-2016.

General 

We love great storytelling. We believe that stories are important in shaping a society, but we also believe that for a story to have a great impact on its audience, it must be highly entertaining. We will not publish a story merely for the message in it. We want to thrill the readers, to leave them breathless, to print stories that will be talked about long after we are all dead and gone.

We publish all genres, as long as the story is great. We are especially fond of tales that cross genres, that are difficult to classify. Think of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. Send us work that fit the literary genre, but we love speculative fiction, including sci-fi, horror, fantasy, and crime. We will give these a great priority. We enjoy romance and chic lit. We however frown upon profanity, gore that serves no purpose, nudity and pornography that do not advance the plot. 

We prefer previously unpublished work, but we shall be glad to look at reprints, provided the writer has the rights to it, and the story is not accessible in another website. 

Simultaneous submissions are welcome, provided you let us know as soon as possible if the work has been accepted elsewhere.

We shall endeavor to respond to all submissions within three months. If you have not heard from us after three months, please send a query letter.

Short fiction

All stories must adhere to the standard formatting guidelines. Please follow this link to read more. http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html If your story is not properly formatted it will be returned unread. Stories should particularly be in Times New Roman font, 12 point size, double spaced, indent first line and no space between paragraphs.

All short stories must be between 3,000 and 5,000 words. We are not very strict on the word count, but stories that go way above the maximum will be returned unread.

Please do not submit more than one story at the same time. Wait until you hear from us before you submit another story.

Short stories should be submitted to lawino-magazine@dilstories.com. Send as attachment in .doc, .docx or .rtf format. Ensure that your name and contact details appear on the first page. Include a brief bio in the body of the email. Please include the following in the subject line Fiction Submission - (author name) - (title of story)

Poetry

Poems should be as wildly imaginative as possible. If it doesn't tear your guts apart, it’s not ready. Poems are open-themed, share about something we don’t know, and use poetic license. Seek inspiration in unconventional ways, speak to the rain for example, until it speaks back to you and then send the poem. 

Please submit poems of not more than 40 lines, single-spaced, 12 point size in Calibri or Times New Roman.

Poems may be in any language with English translations alongside.

All poetry should be submitted to lawino-magazine@dilstories.com. Send as attachment in .doc, .docx or .rtf format. Ensure that your name and contact details appear on the first page. Include a brief bio in the body of the email. Please include the following in the subject line Poetry Submission - (author name)

Spoken Word Poetry

We are experimenting with turning spoken word poetry into short films, and podcasts. We have already adapted a couple of poems into short films. Please watch here Rashida Namulondo in this poem, The Lonely Girl. 

We shall cater for all expenses involved in making the film, or the podcast. Due to limited resources, we can only accept spoken word submissions from Uganda.

We seek poems that are no more than seven minutes. Poems can be of any subject and genre.

Should a poet be unable to perform his or her own poetry, for whatever reason, we shall hire actors to do the job.

To  be considered, poets should submit written versions of their poetry as attachment in .doc, .docx, or .rtf, to  lawino-magazine@dilstories.com. Ensure that your name and contact details appear on the first page. Include a brief bio in the body of the email. Please include the following in the subject line Spoken Word Poetry Submission - (author name)

Deadlines

There will be four issues in a year. 

For the February issue, the deadline is 1st January. 

For the  May issue, the deadline is 1st April

For the August issue, the deadline is 1st July,

For the November issue, the deadline is 1st October.

All submissions received after the deadline will be considered in the next issue. 

Payments

We would like to pay our authors, since we too are writers first and publishers second. But at the moment, Lawino Magazine is unable to offer financial compensation to its writers. 

However, we shall be publishing an anthology, The Best of Lawino, periodically, and if your work is selected to appear in this anthology, you will be financially compensated. The amount will be determined at the time of publication.

The rewards to the writer are mostly non-monetary, and include editorial advice, mentorship, and publicity. Besides, we shall actively promote all stories we publish by submitting them to eligible prizes and competitions.

Rights

Writers will grant us permission to publish their work in our magazine, website, and in a periodical anthology. We ask for exclusive electronic rights for one year, after which all rights will revert to the writer. Please note that other publications may not accept a story that is already in print.

By submitting a story, the writer warrants that the work is original and does not, in whole or in part, infringe on the copyright of others.