Fire!!! Devoted to Younger African American Artists
One hundred years:
still, the fire burns.
In 1926, Wallace Thurman, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Aaron Douglas lit a match called FIRE!!, a journal by younger Black artists who refused to wait for permission.
It ran one issue. It changed everything.
Now, we strike the match, one century later.
FIRE!!! returns to publish twenty-one new pieces, paid, in the spirit of the original.
There are seats at this table for emerging African American writers, poets, photographers, makers, and artists.
ONE ISSUE, THREE FIRES. FIRE!!! will publish artwork, essays, poetry, photography, conversations, and short stories organized around three themes: Politics, Culture, and Identity.
Politics Organizing, economics, citizenship and the status of the Black political world.
Topics may include voting rights, economic justice, education, housing, healthcare, technology, activism, public policy, and social movements.
Culture Music, photography, film, art, performance, and the life of the Black American mind.
Topics may include music, art, fashion, language, foodways, digital culture, sports, faith traditions, and community life.
Identity Black selfhood, lineage, belonging, and determination through who we say we are. T
opics may include family, gender, sexuality, regional identity, class, spirituality, mental health, belonging, and memory.
THE ONE RULE ABSOLUTELY NO AI. NOT IN WRITING. NOT IN ART. Every accepted piece is read and made by people. FIRE!!! publishes work made by human hands, voices, and minds. Nothing else. We commission our art and draw on the public-domain 1926 issue. We do not generate it.
ELIGIBILITY WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR
01 Black or African American artists, in the tradition of the original FIRE!! — the direct descendants of African people enslaved in the United States.
02 Ages 18 to 35.
03 Your submitted work must be original and previously unpublished. It cannot have appeared in any magazine, journal, book, newspaper, or exhibition.
04 One piece per submission — but you may enter more than one work, each submitted separately.
HOW TO SUBMIT
01 Choose your section: Politics, Culture, or Identity, and the form your piece will take.
02 Write a short proposal. Please include: A) Who you are; B) What you’re making; C) Why it belongs in FIRE!!!; D) A link to a work sample.
03 Submit before the deadline. One piece per submission — submit additional works separately.
Please do not send a finished manuscript.
Key dates Proposals open · June 15, 2026 Deadline · August 15, 2026
Submit & questions submissions@firemag.org — and through the form at the FIRE!!! site.