Grief and loss are as universal as life and death. They are footnotes punctuating our moments of joy and happiness and love.
From Antigone to Things Fall Apart, from Beloved to An Equal Music, some of the world’s most searing stories have been written from nibs dipped in the ink of loss and grief.
And now, it’s your turn.
Thomas Hardy once wrote that “Happiness was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain.”
So, what losses have shaped you? What grief has remade you? What painful moments still throb beneath the surface, waiting to be named?
The Lagos Review invites you to write them – boldly, honestly, unflinchingly, powerfully.
We are calling for essays up to 1,500 words on loss and grief in all their forms. Not just the grief of death, but the grief of living:
- The loss of freedom through incarceration, kidnapping, or injustice
- The ache of migration: leaving home, losing home, searching for home
- The sting of missed opportunities, failed chances, vanished dreams
- The devastation of pregnancy loss, domestic or intimate partner violence
- Systemic discrimination based on race, tribe or ethnicity.
- The heartbreak of losing a parent, a child, a partner, a friend or even a stranger whose story pierced you
Grief is not small and neither is it polite. Grief is pain that has grown muscle.
And we want to read your essays forged in the smithy of loss and grief.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
- Maximum length: 1,500 words
- AI produced essays will not be considered
- Fiction will not be considered.
- Email submissions to: submissions@thelagosreview.ng
- Submissions will be received on a rolling basis from June to December 2026
- Payment: $250 per published essay (paid 1 month after publication)
- Additional opportunity: The top 12 published essays may be compiled into a collection and published in book form with a one-off royalty of $500 dollars.
Your story matters. So, hurry and send in your entry. We can’t wait to read and share your essay.
Editors.
