Closing Date: 20 September 2024
Miles Morland African Writing Scholarships 2024 (up to £18,000)
Background
Miles Morland African Writing Scholarships set up the foundation which bears his name in 2013, after a career investing in Africa via two companies he created, Blakeney Management and DPI (Development Partners International). Based in London, the Miles Morland Foundation (MMF) is a UK registered charity which makes grants in areas reflecting its founder’s interests. The Foundation’s main aim is to support entities in Africa which allow Africans to get their voices better heard. It is particularly interested in supporting African writing and African literature.
Morland African Writing Scholarships 2024
The Miles Morland Foundation is pleased to announce that the 2024 Morland Writing Scholarships for African writers openened for entries on Monday 1st July. The deadline for submissions is Friday 20th September. The MMF has supported literary festivals in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Somaliland, cultural initiatives in east, west, central and southern Africa, London’s Film Africa festival, the Caine Prize for African Writing, several African educational initiatives and the new Rhodes scholarships for Africans.
The foundation
The Foundation runs a yearly African writing scholarship scheme, which aims to give writers of both fiction and non-fiction the financial freedom to complete an English-language book. The Foundation has also supported several human rights organisations, an array of London theatres, Oxford University women’s lightweight rowing, projects in Haiti and Palestine, a literacy initiative in London’s Shoreditch, plus several schemes which help recovering addicts and detained prisoners in the UK. Only one of the Foundation’s staff works fulltime. The organisation’s minimal infrastructure means glossy brochures, unsolicited letters and mass-mailed appeals for money are automatically filed in the bin.
Entry Requirements
It can be difficult for writers, before they become established, to write while simultaneously earning a living. To help meet this need the MMF annually awards a small number of Morland Writing Scholarships, with the aim being to allow each Scholar the time to produce the first draft of a completed book. The Scholarships are open to anyone writing in the English language who was born in Africa, or both of whose parents were born in Africa.
Grant
Scholars will receive a grant of £18,000, paid monthly over the course of twelve months. At the discretion of the Foundation, Scholars writing non-fiction, who require additional research time, could receive an additional grant, paid over a period of up to eighteen months.
Scholar’s Undertaking
At the end of each month scholars must send the Foundation 10,000 new words that they will have written over the course of the month. Scholars are also asked to donate to the MMF 20% of whatever they subsequently receive from the book they write during the period of their Scholarship. This includes revenues as a result of film rights, serializations or other ancillary revenues arising from the book written during the Scholarship period. These funds will be used to support other promising writers. The 20% return obligation should be considered a debt of honour rather than a legally binding obligation.
Qualifications
To qualify for the Scholarship a candidate must submit an excerpt from a piece of work of between 2,000 – 5,000 words, written in English that has been published and offered for sale, you must send clear evidence that the piece you upload as part of your application has been both published and offered for sale. Your submission will be evaluated by a panel of readers and judges set up by the MMF. The work submitted will be judged purely on literary merit. It is not the purpose of the Scholarships to support academic or scientific research, or works of special interest such as religious or political writings. Submissions or proposals of this nature do not qualify.
Scholarship Requirement
The only condition imposed on the Scholars during the year of their Scholarship is that they must write. They will be asked to submit by email at least 10,000 new words every month until they have finished their book, or their Scholarship term has ended. If the first draft of the book is completed before the year is up, payments will continue while the Scholar edits and refines their work.
Proposed Work
The candidates should submit a description of between 400 – 1,000 words of the work they intend to write. The proposal must be for a full length book of no fewer than 80,000 words. The MMF does not accept proposals for collaborative writing or short story collections. The proposal should be for a new work, not a work in progress, and must be in English.
Please note that if you are shortlisted for a Morland Writing Scholarship, you will be asked to send a 3,000 – 4,000 word “chapter” of the book you are proposing to write on your scholarship year to help the judges assess your ability. Writers will be notified that they are on the shortlist at the end of October. Shortlisters will then have 15 days to return the sample “chapter”. In view of that, please do some advance thinking about the sample “chapter” you will have to provide if you are shortlisted.
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