Director, Miles Morland
The Miles Morland Foundation (MMF) is now accepting entries from individuals who can write in the English language for its writing fellowship aimed at supporting Africans to get their voices heard.
Particularly interested in supporting African writing and African literature, the MMF annually awards a small number of Morland Writing Scholarships, with the aim of allowing each Scholar the time to produce the first draft of a completed book.
Scholars writing fiction will receive a grant of £18,000, paid monthly over twelve months but at the discretion of the Foundation, Scholars writing non-fiction, who require additional research time, could receive an additional grant, paid for up to eighteen months.
At the end of each month, scholars must send the Foundation 10,000 new words that they will have written over 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, serialisations 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.
To apply 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, with clear evidence that the piece uploaded as part of the application process has been published and offered for sale.
The application should also include all six things on the checklist below:
- A submission of 2,000 to 5,000 words as a Word document of work that has been published and offered for sale. Please send proof of publication.
- Proof of publication and proof of sale.
- A description of 400 – 1,000 words about the new book you intend to write.
- A scan of an official document showing that you, or both of your parents, were born in Africa.
- A brief bio of between 200 – 300 words.
- Applicants should tell the Foundation how they heard about the Morland Writing Scholarships.
The application will be evaluated by a panel of readers and judges set up by the MMF purely on literary merit. The Scholarship does not 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.
If shortlisted for a Morland Writing Scholarship, scholars will be required to send a 3,000 – 4,000 word “chapter” of the book they are proposing to write on their scholarship year to help the judges assess their ability. Writers will be notified that they are on the shortlist at the end of October. Those shortlisted will then have 15 days to return the sample “chapter”. In view of that, entrants are advised to do some advance thinking about the sample “chapter” they will have to provide if shortlisted.
The Foundation welcomes both fiction and non-fiction proposals. They are aware that non-fiction Scholars may need extra time for research, so the Foundation may exercise its discretion to offer non-fiction writers a longer Scholarship period of up to 18 months.
The Scholars may elect to start at any time between January and June in the year following the Scholarship Award. Their payments and the 10,000 word monthly submission requirement will start at the same time.
The Scholarships are meant for full-length works of adult fiction or non-fiction. Poetry, plays, film scripts, children’s books, and short story collections do not qualify.
Applications will be received between July 1, 2022 and September 18, 2022. Applications submitted outside that period will not be looked at.
For further details about the scholarship and to apply, please visit https://milesmorlandfoundation.com/entry-requirements/. In order to apply, please click on the blue box that appears on any page of the website, entitled: ‘Morland Writing Scholarship Application’.
All enquiries relating to the Morland Scholarships should be directed to scholarships@milesmorlandfoundation.com.
