Every press begins with a question it cannot stop asking. Ours was simple: why are so many of the most urgent, most original voices in African writing still waiting to be published?
We know the writers are there. We encounter them in workshops, in magazine submissions, in the DMs of literary journals, in the careful, quiet labour of people working on manuscripts with no guarantee that any door will open. The manuscripts exist. The ambition is there. What is missing, too often, is a system. A system willing to commit — editorially, financially, and over the long term — to what those writers are making.
Open Arts Publishing is our answer to that question. We believe that publishing is act of belief
We are based in Abuja because this is where we are rooted, and because we believe that literary infrastructure should exist across Nigeria, not only in Lagos. We are focused on Africa because this is the market we know and the readership we want to build. We are acquiring African rights because African stories belong, first, to African readers.
We will publish one title in our first year. One title, in paperback, ebook, and tentatively audiobook, with a serious advance, serious editorial attention, and serious ambition for its reception. We are not in a hurry. We are building something that we want to last.
What we are looking for
We are looking for writers who are not waiting to be given permission. Writers working in fiction, creative non-fiction, and essays who have something urgent on the page. We are particularly interested in voices that have been underrepresented in the existing African publishing ecosystem — writers from marginalised gender identities, sexual orientations, class backgrounds, ethnic minorities, and disability communities.
If that is you, or someone you know, our submissions will open soon. The link is in the navigation above. We read everything.
