Sanina L. Clark

Black Dawn

My Manuscript Wish List®

Sanina L. Clark is the editor of Out of Salem by Hal Schrieve (longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature) and All City by Alex DiFrancesco (2020 Ohioana Book Awards Finalist in Fiction). Though they have worked on various kinds of books, they prioritize acquiring texts written by or about people who are queer, trans, women, or POC. They have worked with authors like adrienne maree brown, Aric McBay, Chavisa Woods, Khary Lazarre-White, and Luis J. Rodriguez.

Fun facts about me:

Clark’s bookcase is filled with YA, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, horror, plays and queer literature. They are also involved in performance art and cosplay and can often be found purchasing large quantities of fake blood and tulle. They’ve stage managed shows at SUNY Purchase, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and the Lee Strasberg Theatre. They’re addicted to ramen, cat photos, tea, and Doctor Who paraphernalia. A perfect day to Clark involves lots of green tea while relaxing with a good book or anime and cuddling one of their three cats. They really love cats.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be emailed to fictionsubmissions@akpress.org

Honoring anarchist traditions while also remembering the great Octavia E. Butler, Black Dawn seeks to explore themes that do not reinforce dependency on oppressive forces (the State, police, capitalism, elected officials) and will generally express the values of antiracism, feminism, anticolonialism, and anti-capitalism. We are for queerness, Blackness, antifascism, and for both dreaming and building better worlds. We believe the voices of the disenfranchised MUST be heard and are essential in establishing a society in which no one is allowed or desires to be placed in positions of power over others. With its natural creation of alternate universes and world-building, speculative fiction acts as a perfect tool for imagining various avenues that can be pursued to bring forth a just and free world.

Agents and authors are encouraged to submit science fiction, fantasy, steampunk, horror, and mystery works of 25,000 to 55,000 words to fictionsubmissions@akpress.org. Welcome, friends, to Black Dawn!

—Sanina L. Clark, series editor

Guidelines & Details