Submit to Illino!
What kind of work are we looking for?
This cycle, we’re looking for submissions that push the bounds of language and indigenous stories! What does it mean to really represent African thought in English? What does it mean to expand local folklore, proverbs, and riddles through your writing? If your work is linguistically innovative, if it plays on commonly told stories, or if it sits on the fringe of familiar and new, then send it our way! Submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis.
Here’s some of our work that plays around with language and folklore:
All Genres are Welcome!
Final Notes
Compensation
Compensation for work starts at $20.
Submission Formatting
Learn more about how you can format your short story submission using this online article
Please contact us with any questions you have
We look forward to receiving your submission!
Modesta has spent her life shielding her family from misfortune, so when a troubling dream unsettles her, she rushes to the city to care for her pregnant daughter. Two years later, when it’s time to return home, she boards a bus and is never seen again. Her children search, but the bus seems to have never existed. As whispers spread and grief festers, Modesta begins appearing in dreams, pleading for burial. But how do you lay to rest someone you can’t find?