Editor Interview: The Shallow Tales Review

We curate African voices

The Republic Magazine, Lolwe Magazine, Parresia Publishers, The Kalahari Review

We publish writers who tell of the unique African experience and throw light on human conditions.

In every issue, we spotlight and interview a literary star in Africa who has published, at least, one book on creative African literature.

We also have one-minute podcasts for every work published on each issue of the magazine.

Feel free to break the rules of genre. Write, write, and write. We would love to hear your unique voice.

Our ideal submissions are critical and creative pieces of African literature from writers from Africa or African writers in the Diaspora.
Accepted pieces must have great promise and meet our aesthetic taste on both creative and critical levels.

Usually, our submission periods. Many contributors send their works outside the submission window.

As much as we love to know about our contributors, entries are judged objectively by the editors who receive them.
Previous publications in magazines serve as an exciting prospect to us, but they do not affect our negotiation with the quality of the pieces.

Generally, in my work as fiction editor and Editor-in-Chief, I am able to tell what works and what does not from the earliest paragraphs. However, it is always better, and we make it a point of duty, to read till the end of pieces in most cases.

The topicality and poignancy of titles is a major point of note.

The editors, first of all, prepare their mind for the pieces they receive every day.
When they get those pieces, they evaluate and judge on genresical and aesthetical criteria whether the work is good or not.
When a work is accepted, work goes into re-reading and evaluation for the elements of content.
After the content has been verified, we edit for form where we address structural and linguistic flaws.
After a final reading by the editors, the work is sent to the contributors for approval.

We do substantive, line, copy edits as well as basic proofreading on pieces after negotiating the quality of the content.
After our editing, we send to the contributors to accept or reject our recommendations. Then, we file for publication.

We haven't begun to nominate our published pieces yet for awards. However, some of our accepted works have been noticed on the magazine and recommended for prizes. We hope to start recommending soon.