Applications are now open the
Morland Scholarship for Writers for 2015. Three scholarships of £18,000
(US $30,000) each will be awarded to writers who were born in Africa or
whose parents were born in Africa. The 2014 scholarship attracted over
350 applications.
About the Scholarship
This scholarship is sponsored by the Miles Morland Foundation. The foundation’s focus is culture and education with a particular interest in writing. Other projects supported by the foundation include the Caine Prize for African Writing.
The three successful applicants will each receive a grant of £18,000,
paid monthly over the course of the 2015 calendar year. Each of the
scholarship recipients will also have the opportunity to be mentored
by an established author or publisher.
The
scholarship is intended for writers who want to write a full-length book
of 80,000 words or more. To this end, the writers will be asked to
submit via email 10,000 new words every month until they have finished
their book. The scholarship will terminate if a writer fails to submit
the required work on time without prior authorisation.
Another, somewhat unusual, requirement is that the three writers are
expected to donate back to the Miles Morland Foundation 20 per cent of
the subsequent earnings from what they write during their scholarship
year. This is not a legally binding condition, as it was in 2014, but
instead viewed as a ‘debt of honour’.
Applications
are judged on literary merit. Proposed books can be on any subject
though the judges will show preference to works which relate to Africa.
Who Can Apply
The Morland
Scholarship for Writers is open to anyone who was born in Africa or both
of whose parents were born in Africa. If a writer was not born in
Africa and only one of their parents was born in Africa, they are still
eligible to apply provided they can prove they are a full-time African
residents, defined as having spent at least nine of the past twelve
months in Africa.
In order to complete
the application process, applicants must include in their application a
published piece of writing. For the purposes of this scholarship
published is defined as writing that has appeared in a printed book, journal or magazine that has been offered for sale.
Both fiction and non-fiction writers can apply, though the organisers
express some concern about the ability of non-fiction writers to meet
the monthly word limit requirement outlined above. Writers wishing to
undertake projects in the fields of poetry, playwriting, academic
writing and scientific research are not eligible for this scholarship.
How to Apply
To apply for the Morland Scholarship 2015 writers must provide via email:
A sample piece of published prose between 2000 and 5000 words. This can be an individual piece or an extract from a longer work.
A
description between 200 and 500 words of the project they would
complete if successful in their application. This must be a new work,
not a work in progress.
A
brief biography up to 300 words. The organisers advise to include in
this ‘anything in your background suggesting that you have the ability
and discipline to write a full-length book.’
Applications close on 31 October 2014. The successful writers will be announced in December and commence their scholarship in 2015. For full entry details visit the Miles Morland Foundation website.
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