Your stories

INVITATION TO SUBMIT CHILDREN’S STORIES 

Nal’ibali is calling on writers to submit new, original children’s stories in all South African languages! 

Below are some guidelines on the kind of stories that we are looking for, and how to submit them. 

1. You may submit as many stories as you want to. 
2. Your stories need to be enjoyable for children aged between 5 and 8 years. We share these stories on radio, in our story books and newspaper supplements. Nal’ibali aims to grow children’s love of stories,rather than to teach them educational concepts or content they learn at school. We want children to link stories to pleasure! 
3. Please only submit original stories that have never been published before. 
4. You must be the copyright holder of any story that you submit. In other words, you need to own all rights to the story. 
5. You may submit stories in English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Xitsonga, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, Tshivenda, Ndebele and siSwati. 
6. If you are submitting a story in a language other than English, please also send a summary of the story in English (maximum 50 to 100 words). Also indicate which language you are writing in. 
7. Unfortunately, we cannot accept handwritten stories. Each story must be submitted as a separate MS Word document via e-mail. Please remember to include your full name, contact number and a physical address where we can contact you.  
8. Your stories must be between 775 and 900 words. 
9. All stories will be translated into the other South African official languages. So, one of the selection criteria is that a story must be equally satisfying to listen to in its original language and in translation. 
10. You can listen to some of the radio stories from previous seasons here: https://nalibali.org/story-library/audio-stories 
11. Please submit your stories via email to: stories@nalibali.org 
12. These stories will be a donation to Nal’ibali, to help children fall in love with stories and promote and elevate all our national languages. You will be acknowledged as the author for the story, whether on radio or print.  

       Please note: All stories submitted via the portal are delivered to the content team. You will be contacted directly once your story is selected for a project.

Thank you, in advance, for your submissions!