Àrokò Anthology: Call for submissions

ÀROKÒ ANTHOLOGY NO.1: FOLKLORE FROM AFRICA & THE DIASPORA

Curated and edited by Aishatu Ado

DEADLINE

12.31.25 // Submit to: contact@aroko.coop

THEME

We invite fiction that breathes new life into folklore from Africa and the African Diaspora. Send us stories that draw from folktales, myths, fables, legends, and folkloric figures—whether reimagined, adapted, or wholly invented.

We want spirits and tricksters: Anansi and Pomba Gira, Papa Legba and Tokoloshe, La Diablesse and the Soucouyant, Nommo and the Boo Hag. Ancestral whispers in the form of abiku children, duppies, and the lwa. Folklore that remembers and reinvents itself across oceans: hybrid monsters, sacred rivers, haunted crossroads, and living landscapes where the mythic walks alongside the everyday.

We welcome stories rooted in history as much as those that look toward the present and the future. From the epics and oral traditions to colonial-era hauntings and resistance myths, folklore is a living archive, passed down and transformed across generations.

This anthology seeks narratives in the spirit of Africanfuturism, not merely African settings in Western frameworks, but stories rooted in African and Afro-diasporic cosmologies, philosophies, and lived experiences. We seek folklore that breathes with its own lungs: stories where African and diasporic traditions aren’t museum pieces but living technologies.

Bring us genre-bending narratives infused with juju, hoodoo, and santería. Myths born from contemporary wounds—creation stories from refugee camps, trickster tales where Tortoise outsmarts border patrol drones, praise songs for the disappeared and the data-mined. Stories where tradition transforms—not preserved in amber, but alive, adaptive, revolutionary.

All proceeds from the anthology will be donated to support survivors of the Darfuri genocide.

ELIGIBILITY

This anthology is a space for self-identified writers from the African continent and the African diaspora. We are committed to addressing the systemic discrimination that many of these storytellers face, including, but not limited to, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ writers, women, and neurodivergent creators.

If you carry a story shaped by these intersectional lineages—by diaspora, by survival, by imagination—then this call is for you.

GUIDELINES

• Word range: Fiction 2,000 – 7,000
• Submit to: contact@aroko.coop
• Stories should be in Modern Manuscript Format, attached as .RTF, .DOC, or .DOCX
• Include your name, email, and pronouns (optional) in the upper-left corner of your manuscript
• Multiple submissions are welcome, but each must be sent in a separate email
• The subject line must be the story title
• The file name must match the story title
• In the body of your email, include a short third-person bio, and attach your story
• We value the creativity, imagination, and craft of human authors. Submissions generated by artificial intelligence, whether in whole or in part, will not be considered.

CONTRIBUTOR COMPENSATION

As a community-focused cooperative, we are currently unable to offer monetary payment for contributions. Accepted contributors will receive one (1) complimentary copies of the print anthology and one (1) complimentary digital copy upon publication. Contributors will also be offered the opportunity to purchase additional copies at a significant author discount.

Àrokò Cooperative is a multidisciplinary community of creative practitioners committed to divesting from systems of harm, and building toward collective liberation through design. More at: aroko.coop

RIGHTS 

By submitting, you grant Àrokò Cooperative permission to publish your story in Àrokò Anthology No.1 (print, digital, and audio). We also request permission to archive your work on our websites and to include it in future non-exclusive anthologies (print, digital, audio). We ask for six months of exclusivity (for both text and audio) from the date of publication. After this period, you are free to republish your story elsewhere. You retain your copyright and all rights to any other use of your work.