What happens after?
After the goodbye. After the celebration. After childhood innocence is stolen. After the rain. After love. After loss. After death. After leaving. After the war. After years have passed. After loving who/what you are not supposed to love. After leaving home. After returning home. After the funeral. After migration. After the family secret is finally out. After the country you knew begins to change. After the old house is demolished. After the dream becomes true. After the friendship ends. After the tragic accident. After old love rekindles.
The list is endless.
For Issue 4, the Hummingbird Journal invites writers and artists and photographers to explore afters.
Yes, there is always an after. And sometimes, the after is where the real story begins. We are interested in the moments that follow the moments we usually write about and the possibilities that can emerge in the wake of an event. After is not necessarily about endings. It can be a beginning that comes after an ending, the silence after noise, the freedom after confinement, the relief after fear, the discovery after loss, or the person we become after we have changed.
Get bold, get creative. Your after can be personal or collective, intimate, political or historical, ordinary or extraordinary. Above all else, it should be literary.
We welcome poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, visual art, photography, and other hybrid forms responding to the theme.
Eligibility
- This is open only to Ghanaian writers.
At The Hummingbird, we use ‘Ghanaian’ broadly and inclusively. You are welcome to submit if you:
- Are a Ghanaian citizen, whether living in Ghana or abroad
- Are of Ghanaian heritage or descent (including mixed heritage)
- Are a non-Ghanaian who has a strong and lived connection to Ghana, for example, by being born in Ghana and living here all your life or having had a long-term residence.
2. You must be 18 years or older.
3. Writers published in Issues 2 and 3 are not eligible to submit.
4. We do not accept works generated in whole or in part with AI tools. We have a strong anti-AI policy. We live for the nuances of human creativity. Look elsewhere if you cannot write your work yourself!
5. We do not accept previously published work. This includes blogs, self-published pieces, or any publication that retains public access.
DEADLINE: Submissions Close on September 30.
Works submitted after this day would not be considered.
READ FULL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES HERE. You would also find the submission link there.
If you have any queries, click here to send them and the team will get back to you.
Photo by Юрий Прокофьев from Pexels