In celebration of 25 years since New Coin’s collection on women’s poetry (December 1999), guest edited by Marion Baxter to usher in editor Joan Metelerkamp, we are seeking poetry from Black and Brown women – cis, trans, and non-binary – from and/or living in Southern Africa for our forthcoming edition (December 2025). Under the theme, this body cannot forget, we receive your stories of resistance, care, pleasure, illness, identity and memory. We move with Baxter’s words all those years ago: “I have become aware that there are indeed many women in South Africa for whom poetry-writing is an important mode of self-expression, and a way to keep moderately sane, given the many pressures and challenges of the age in which we live.” This issue seeks to bring into the fold writers and readers who have not always been deliberately considered while expanding the many conversations poetry facilitates on this southern tip of earth’s heart.

After all, what was it the late Lindiwe Mabuza wrote?

“But since you promise no paradise / Except the one we / Build together / Every day passing is a new marvel

Anchoring desire / With the tenacity of / Willow roots”

Submissions open 01 September 2025 - 15 October 2025.

https://www.ru.ac.za/isea/publications/journals/newcoinpoetry/guidelinesforcontributors/?fbclid=IwY2xjawM066tleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETEwMjlVcFpCTkNJYlFNZG5KAR6mek_O2ahjYw7y03tS6Bi9PD7IwB8MJDH8HrRjUgvx8oEQrYzzXUhCO7FXnA_aem_52MdQVYFXfnN9opNH1pAmg

Last Modified: Mon, 15 Sep 2025 14:55:02 SAST