Kenechi Uzor founded Iskanchi Press and Magazine is here!

Iskanchi Press and Magazine, founded by publisher, journalist, and writer Kenechi Uzor, is here.

Kenechi Uzor has worked as the Kachifo/Farafina Enterprise Editor and the Farafina Trust General Manager. His writing has featured in Electric Literature, The Millions, Catapult, Litro Magazine, Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Blue Monday Review, Brittle Paper, Mount Island, and amongst others. He is a 2020 Tin House Scholar, a winner of the 2020 Scowcroft Prose prize, and has received residency and fellowship awards from Ebedi International Residency and the Dee Artists’ Colony.

Uzor, who teaches writing at the University of Utah, has founded a new publishing outfit in response to the dire need for more works by people of colour in the publishing industry. The new independent publishing house called Iskanchi Press is focused on fiction, essays, poetry, folklore and folktales, children’s books, books on African heroes, and history, as written by Africans.

Aside from the publication of books by African authors, the platform also houses the Iskanchi Literary Magazine. Inspired by “Iskanchi,” the Hausa word for mischief, irreverence, and craziness, Iskanchi Mag will seek out and publish wayward/experimental pieces by African writers. The idea is to showcase works that engage with and examine what the experimental form looks like in the African literary context. They are interested in pieces that disobey in form and content, in works that bother by being without borders. The new magazine is open for submissions, and they pay for published work. For details on how to submit, please visit the publisher’s website.