New Contrast needs your help

How you can help New Contrast

We have a number of our 50th birthday issues left over. It is a bumper issue with some of the original poets of the 1960s (Nadine Gordimer, Jack Cope, Etienne LeRoux, Ingrid Jonker, Uys Krige and more) as well as more contemporary poets and writers. If we could sell these issues would be great = R100 (local) R130 (International). We believe a bit of Africana and part of our heritage.

Have a look on our blog at New Contrast 50th Birthday-bash for a write-up of the event.


We have an article that we would like to get into newspapers both local and national if possible, or even magazines would be great. If you can help us here I will forward it to you.

Another way to help is to get a collection going to sponsor back-copies or a subscription of new contrast to get into your local schools in the hope of them subscribing next year.

Also very few of our local libraries stock New Contrast. If we can get it into all local libraries would also be fantastic. So if we knew who the people were to contact (the ones that make the decisions) would also help.

Give a family member or a friend a gift subscription of New Contrast for their birthday or for Christmas.

Have a look at our New Contrast website by clicking on the underlined link below:
New Contrast website link

Steps in automated submission process

Steps to use in Automated submission process

INSTRUCTIONS to submit in Submishmash

Submit literature to New Contrast

In the Submission manager

Scroll down till you find the type of submission you want to make e.g.

• Afrikaanse kortverhale
• English Poetry
• English Prose
• English Review
• African Flash Fiction
• Etc

Select the one you want by clicking on the Submit button.

This will bring you to a new screen where you need to type in your details (only the first time)

Your name, surname, e-mail

Choose a username this can be a nom-de-plume, nickname, your name and surname strung together, just about anything goes.

Choose a password that you will remember (it needs to be at least 6 characters).

Click the Create account and continue button

Once you are in, it will ask you for your physical address – so that we can send you your complimentary copy, the biography comes later.

Once you have completed this form, click the save address and continue button at the bottom of the page.

Don’t fill in the state/province (this is only for USA)

Type in the name/title of your work; poetry/review/prose/etc

Click the Select File button and browse for your document in your file folders. Click on your work (one poem per submission please, unless it has multiple parts). This will upload it.

Below this there is another link that looks like this

Trouble uploading? Try the basic upload form.

It uses the more basic browser form as an alternative. You can use either method.

Please add you biography

You can cut and paste it from an existing document too.

Once you have uploaded your document with your poetry, prose, etc. from your computer, a Submit to the South African literary journal - New Contrast button will appear. Click this.

You will have submitted your first work. You can submit more by using the blue underlined links that says submit again

Next time you will only need to log in with your username and password. Please keep it in a safe place.

Links to related blog posts for Contributors about Submissions

Get Published in New Contrast

Contributions to New Contrast need to use Automated Process

Contributors need to be subscribed to New Contrast

Contributors can have their own webpage on New Contrast Website

Automate Contribution Process

New Contrast Submission Process has been automated

Only submissions received from the automated system will be considered for inclusion in New Contrast in future.

Contributors receive a complimentary copy when their work is included in an issue.

Note: Contributors need to subscribe!

There are 2 options:

• Paper subscription
• Electronic subscription R100

Subscribe to New Contrast

Buy a Single Copy of New Contrast

Buy the 50th Birthday Issue

Submit your short story, flash fiction, poetry, essay, review, or other literary work to New Contrast

Links to other web blog pages for submissions and contributors

Get Published in New Contrast

Contributions to New Contrast need to use Automated Process

Contributors need to be subscribed to New Contrast

Contributors can have their own webpage on New Contrast Website


Thanks for visiting the South African Literary Journal blog

How to get your work Published

What editors want and look for in writing

Of paramount importance in writing if you want your work published: the subject matter needs originality and needs to get past certain tired subjects...

If anything, the market for short stories is tinier than for poetry, which means it is truly microscopic. Yet that mote does nothing to dissuade writers who bombard me, as an editor, with wonderful stories. I probably receive two or three new stories every week. So what is it that persuades writers to bash out short stories when the prospect of fame and fortune is, really, pretty remote? I like to think that these writers are the great purists who write for "love", who are compelled, obsessed and addicted to the written word. They write in notepads, the back of envelopes, in exercise books, serviettes, Apple Macs (of course), down-market PCs, iPads, mobile phones and even toilet doors. They are not reasonable people!

And Africa, O Beloved! - what richness here: mountains of stories, great forests, deserts, lakes, rivers of stories. Stories worked from the raw rock, gems of stories, golden stories. Stories carved, stories cast in iron, stories battered on the anvil of legend and myth, lost stories, stories found in the nets of fishermen, stories heard round the fireside, in the deep night, in the silence of the grave. Stories that weep, that mourn, stories that steal, steal your heart, stories that kiss your lips, that touch the stars. These stories of Africa.

I always loved reading to my children; I'm looking forward to my grandchildren's eyes, the little finger pointing to the page. We start there, don't we, with short stories: all the world is fresh and new, the dew is cool and the grass green. But when I became a man I put away childish things, for now we see through a glass darkly: now I need variations on the ancient story. I need spin, revitalised perspective, experiments with voice and tense. I need you to engage with confidence and confide in me, to show me the unique in you so that I too resonate with your music, your song. So that I can sing along, that the child in me feels your embrace.

by Hugh Hodge editor of New Contrast The South African Literary Journal

Follow the following link to...Get your work published!

and... Workshop for Creative Writing

How to submit your work to me

How to submit your work for New Contrast

June 15th, 2008 by Hugh

I only accept electronic submissions unless you have a very good reason for sending me paper. A very good reason would be that you are in prison.

Otherwise, send me your work as an email attachment to newcontrasted@gmail.com. The attachment must be one of three types of document: DOC (Microsoft Word and other programs), RTF (any word processor), TXT (any PC).

If the document is more than a page long, number the pages. Print your name, postal address, email address, telephone number, and a brief bio on the first page. Your name must appear on every page.

Spell and grammar check your document - any English grammar is acceptable (UK, US, SA etc.). If there is a form you want to use that is a spelling or grammar mistake, justify it as a note to me - I will be sympathetic.

Send no more than six poems or one prose work at a time, no more than twice a year. Each piece of work must be in a separate document. You can zip all the documents and send as a single attachment.

Be patient: I work alone and will look at your work as quickly as I can. Do not enquire more than once a month. Please.

Enjoy your writing and I will enjoy reading it.