Gazelles is the flagship project of Konya Shamsrumi’s new Digital Editions project headed by the Nigerian writer Carl Terver. It is a monthly publication of 50 poems organized into five “gazelles,” accompanied by an audio (EP) of 10 poems accessible on Anchor/Spotify and Soundcloud. All gazelles will be available from www.digital.shamsrumi.org at a nominal price of $1 (N460/ 126.9 KES/ 620.3 CFA) per download across Africa.
Terver said, “A gazelle is a pamphlet of ten poems, much shorter than the chapbook. Its name implies beauty and alertness, vigilance, and agility, which we believe a compact collection of ten sharp poems fulfils. We expect to publish gazelles by both new, unpublished poets who are looking for a place to showcase their works, and already-published poets who wish to re-introduce their poetry to newer readers. Poems can be selected from a forthcoming collection or an already published collection, respectively, as long as poets in the second category own republishing rights. In other words, the gazelle is a means for poets to advertise their original full-length collection to readers or buyers. We encourage all African poets to submit.”
Submission Guidelines
Send submissions to terver.ksr@gmail.com.
Submissions should be in MS Doc of 12-15 poems, formatted to 12pt TNR font, single-spaced.
The email title should be Gaz[MONTH], E.g. “GazAPR.” In the body of the email, include your name, nationality, and a short bio.
To help facilitate our publication process every month, entries are received between the 1st and 10th of the penultimate month. That is, if you wish to be published in April, for example, submit during March 1-10. Only submissions made during this window will be considered.
The project was created to put money in our poets’ pockets while building a vibrant African poetry community by exploiting modern and digital-savvy means of appreciating, consuming, and distributing poetry. We also wish to build a database of African poetry lovers with the project.
Before the publication of each month’s gazelles, pre-order links attached to the gazelles to be published will be provided. The audio version of 10 poems selected across the five gazelles will be free-to-listen/download.