Guest Editor: Kéchi Nne Nomu
In the annals of history, the narratives of women have been one of resilience and transformation. Yet, even as we record incremental and significant shifts in how women function within societies, their lived experiences are still largely unexplored, untold, and contested. What does it mean to be a woman in today’s world? How have the definitions and expectations evolved? What does it mean to anthologize the stories that matter to women today?
In this issue, we are interested in the possibilities that the term connotes as a social expression, as lived experience that is shaped by culture and place, as discovery, as process, and as journey. When we say “Woman,” we speak of a know-how that encompasses the joys and sorrows, the triumphs and trials, the love and pain. We speak of motherhood and sisterhood, dreams and despair, battles won, and challenges turned inwards. It’s about identity, sexuality, vulnerability, and empowerment. It’s about breaking barriers and setting new standards. It’s about finding oneself amidst societal expectations and forging a path. Primarily, it’s about being human, that widely complex thing with rights to history-making and storytelling.
For this special issue, we are honored to have Kéchi Nne Nomu as our guest editor. Kéchi Nne Nomu is a Warri-born Nigerian writer. She is a finalist in Narrative Magazine’s Fourteenth Annual Poetry Contest and a finalist for The Adroit Journal’s 2023 Gregory Djanikian Scholars in Poetry. Her work has been published or honorably mentioned in Best American Essays, 2020, The Sun Magazine, Narrative Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in poetry from New York University, where she received support as a Stein/Brodey Fellow. She is a 2023-24 Fine Arts Work Center Writing Fellow in Provincetown. She has taught most recently at the University of Virginia.
The editors of Agbowó magazine, along with Kéchi Nne Nomu, invite you to delve deep into the essence of “Woman” for our upcoming issue.
To submit your work for Agbowó magazine’s “Woman” issue, please send your prose, non-fiction, poetry, or visual arts/photography and plays submissions as MS Word attachments or high-resolution images to prose.agbowo@gmail.com, essays.agbowo@gmail.com, poetry.agbowo@gmail.com, visualarts.agbowo@gmail.com, and drama.agbowo@gmail.com respectively. Go to agbowo.org/submissions for guidelines for each genre.
Please use “Woman Issue” as the subject line of your submission. Along with your submission, please include a brief bio about yourself.
This issue accepts submissions only from women.
We welcome at most three poems, one-act plays, one short story or essay, or five artworks for consideration.
The deadline for submissions is 1st October 2023.
