Thank you for your interest in submitting work for consideration for the Blacklandia anthology on Black mental health edited by Romaine Washington
 

The goal of this anthology is to help destigmatize the topic of mental health in the Black community. We are looking for original, previously unpublished poems, essays, stories, and artwork on the theme of Black mental health in its various aspects. From seeking counseling to being a counselor, from having friends or relatives who struggle with mental wellness to personal struggles, we invite you to submit. Here are some topic examples, but it is not an exhaustive list, so if you have a topic and a story, poem, or essay, we want to hear from you. Topics may include anger management, post-traumatic slave syndrome, schizophrenia, depression, PTSD, ADHD, ADD, autism, suicide…

According to Pew Research, the suicide rate rose 144% among 10- to 17-year-olds who are Black, from 2007 to 2020. New federal data shows that the suicide rate among Black youth ages 10 to 19 surpassed that of their White peers for the first time in 2022. Increased suicide among the elderly is another crisis. In 2023 the U.S. surgeon General Loneliness and isolation are an epidemic. These are just some of the alarming statistics that indicate an urgent need to reach out and share our experiences.
 

Quality: We are looking for well-written, insightful, submissions. Vulnerability and honesty are important. No clichés, and no CHAT GPT generated stories, essays or poems. You will be asked to sign a form declaring the work you have submitted is your own original, personal writing.
 

Submission dates and details.

Submission opens March 1, 2025, and closes October 31, 2025. 

All work must be submitted through Submittable. No Submission Fee.

The proposed publication month is May 2026. 

Length: All submissions must be in Times New Roman 12 pt. font. 

5 poems or pages whichever comes first.

Stories, and essays length 7 pages. You can submit up to three essays or stories.

All work submitted must be original, no Chat GPT, AI… You must verify by declaring the work you have submitted is your own original work and there are no AI enhancements.

Call for submissions for the Inlandia Journal

Now accepting art, creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry for the Fall 2025 issue of Inlandia Institute’s online journal, Inlandia Journal. As part of Inlandia's mission to support regional writers and artists, we spotlight a creative with connections to inland Southern California (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties plus neighboring cities) every issue. We also feature Cover Artist interviews.

Deadline and Category Caps

The submission window opens August 15, 2025, and closes September 14, 2025, at midnight PDT. Please note that this issue we are capping submissions by category at 100 for art, 50 for creative nonfiction, 50 for fiction, and 100 for poetry. 

Guidelines for Submissions

• Editors evaluate only anonymized submissions. Please remove your name from the submission, including the file name.
• For art you may submit *each in its own submission* 1–5 digital photographs and/or digital images of work including but not limited to drawings, paintings, collages, ceramics, fiber art, sculpture, murals, metalwork, and comics. Each art submission should include the title, medium, and dimensions.
• For creative nonfiction there is no minimum word count. Essays, memoir, and narrative nonfiction should not exceed 3,000 words. Any topic is okay.
• For fiction there is no minimum word count. Stories should not exceed 5,000 words. Any genre is okay. If you are submitting an excerpt from a larger work, it must be self-contained with a beginning, middle, and end.
• For poetry you may submit *each in its own submission* 1–5 poems. Each poem should not exceed 100 lines.
• You may submit in more than one category, but do not submit more than once in any category except art and poetry as noted. (That means you could potentially submit 12 times: 5 works of art, 1 creative nonfiction piece, 1 fiction story, and 5 poems.)
• We recommend you choose the "Yes, I want to receive email notifications" under Submittable Settings and check the email connected to your Submittable account on a regular basis. If that’s not possible, you will need to check the Submittable website and/or app regularly to receive updates and communications from us regarding your submission.

FAQs

Where do I submit my work? We accept submissions only through the Inlandia Institute’s Submittable portal. We will not consider mailed or emailed submissions.

Is there a submission fee? No! Submissions are free.

How should I format my written work?

1. Font and Point Size: something standard such as 12-point Times New Roman.
2. Spacing: double space your work unless it is poetry, which is at the poet's discretion.
3. Margins: 1 inch on all sides.
4. Header: include the title of your work and page numbers if more than a single page.
5. Please remove your name from the submission AND the file name.

What file type should I use for my submission? For creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, submit as a DOCX, DOC, or RTF file. For art only, submit as a JPG, JPEG, or PNG file. We cannot consider links to google docs, dropbox, or other sharing platforms.

Anything else to submit? We request a biographical statement (up to 75 words) written in the third person (she/he/they). Bios should include your name as you want it to appear if your submission is accepted. Note: Bios are concealed from screeners.

Are there types of work you don’t want?

• Do not submit pornographic material, content containing gratuitous violence, hate speech, or work that degrades any gender, race, religion, ability level, etc. In other words, nothing demeaning to others.
• Do not submit AI-generated or AI-assisted work.
• We do not want any work that you did not create yourself. Do not plagiarize. By submitting your work, you are verifying that it is solely your creation.

When will I know if my work has been accepted? Please be patient as we review and seriously consider every submission. It may be late October before you receive a response.

If my submission is accepted for publication, will my work still be mine? Writers and artists retain rights. Please credit us if your work is republished, and be sure to let us know so we can celebrate your achievement!

Additional Information

Do you allow simultaneous submissions? Simultaneous submissions are okay but please notify us and withdraw any work accepted elsewhere promptly.

Do you allow reprints? Previously curated works — in books, magazines, journals, anthologies, online or in print — by writers and artists who have republication rights are okay to submit with proper attribution/credit. 

Do you allow non-English submissions? Unfortunately, at this time, we can only review submissions primarily in English or translated into English (with written permission).

Do you allow translations? Translations are okay to submit with permission of both author and translator. Please include the English as well as native-language version of the work along with third-person bios for both author and translator.

If I have a question that is not answered here, who do I ask? Please email your question to the managing editor of Inlandia Journal, Erin Michaela Sweeney (she/her), at JournalEditor@InlandiaInstitute.org.