A Word for Haiti – a Call for Submissions

Thursday 28th January 2010 saw the launch of the Black Londoners Appeal, an initiative by the Black Londoners Meetup Group and supported by various London based Afro/Caribbean centric grassroots groups and organisations. The aim of this initiative is to help provide much-needed support to the people of Haiti.

The initial focus of the appeal is to develop a year-long assistance program aimed at:
•    Raising funds for the appeal’s chosen Haitian charitable organisation, the Lambi Fund
•    Raising awareness of the historic significance of Haiti in world events
•    Promoting the Haitian cultural experience

A Word for Haiti – A Call for Submissions

A call for submissions is open to poets, writers, journalists and graphic artists from all backgrounds and origins.  We invite you to write in solidarity for Haiti. You can send us poems, song lyrics, short stories, opinion pieces, drawings, paintings or photographs. The work must be about or inspired by Haiti, its people and its culture. Also, when you submit your work, please tell us where you initially heard about the Black Londoners Appeal.

The entries shortlisted will be compiled into an anthology. Proceeds of the book sales will be donated to the Lambi Haiti Fund. A book launch will take place in London, with writers and poets invited to read excerpts of the book.

Submission deadline: Thursday 18 March

Guidelines

–          Please send poems of 1000 words max. Short pieces of prose should be 2,500 words max. Include a short bio about yourself and / or a link to your blog. Documents must be sent as an attachment in .doc format. You can submit up to 3 different pieces

–          Drawings / paintings / photographs: send a high resolution picture in a jpeg or gif format. They can be in colour or in Black and White. B&W will be used in the internal pages of the book. The cover will be in colour.

–          Upon agreeing to publication, catchavibe.co.uk and Black Londoners will acquire first rights and retain the right to archive the work for an indefinite period. The author retains all the rights upon publication.

–          We’ll accept only original, non published work, no reprints.

All submissions and info requests must be sent to: wordforhaiti@googlemail.com

There is no fee involved as this is a charity project.  Submission deadline: Thursday 18 March.

A Call for Volunteers

We need a number of skills in order to produce this anthology:

–          Researcher: to identify writers or artists we could contact directly, plus the different networks where we could promote the project

 –          Editorial Assistant: to shortlist and edit the submissions received. An experience in publishing would be preferable

 –          Admin Assistant: to manage our incoming messages

 –          Desktop Publishing Specialist: to help us produce the final book

 –          Publicist: to manage contacts with the media and create a buzz around the project

Please send an email to wordforhaiti@googlemail.com and we will send you more information about the different roles