The judges met yesterday to decide on the four new Morland Writing Scholars for 2018 out of a shortlist of twenty. We had slightly in excess of last year’s record entry of 550 submissions.
Our 2018 Morland Writing Scholars are:
Edwige Renee Dro – Cote d’Ivoire
Kola Tubosun – Nigeria
Sibabalwe Oscar Masinyana – South Africa
Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu – Zimbabwe
The winners each receive a grant of ₤18,000 to allow them to take a year off to write a book. The awards are based on submissions which include a book proposal and an excerpt of published writing.
Miles Morland commented, “All twenty people on the shortlist are capable of writing terrific books. The four judges have chosen are special. I’m delighted that all four winners live in Africa and all four book proposals are books about Africa. Africa is a continent of stories and few people can tell them better than our new Scholars. I also want to say a special thankyou to our three judges, Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, Muthoni Garland, and Femi Terry. They look under the surface in making their choices and Ellah is a brilliant chair.”
Below are Ellah’s comments on the new Scholars.
“This was perhaps the most challenging – and most rewarding – judging panel we’ve had, with a wide range of submissions that reflected astonishing imagination, dedication to craft and breadth of subject matter of approach. The four Scholars we have chosen each promise books that will be read across Africa and beyond.
Kola Tubosun will follow in the footsteps of a giant with “Soyinka in the Bush”, a genre-bending biography of the Nigerian Nobel laureate that will focus on Soyinka’s love of nature and his work in restoring natural habitats, all the while paying tribute to the great body of work Soyinka has gifted the world.
Sibabalwe Oscar Masinyana’s novel “The House of the Apostate” will be an exploration of faith, identity and love set in South Africa. His proposal promises a literary novel of ambition and courage.
Edwidge Renée Dro’s non-fiction book will bring to the world the extraordinary life of anti-colonial fighter Marie Sery Kore. In this book about a heroine with a complicated history, Dro will tell a pivotal point in the history of Cote D’Ivoire.
Siphiwe Ndlovu will write “The Murder of Emile Coetzee”. In this crime novel, the writer delicately dissects the brutal realities of the third Chimurenga and promises us an introduction to a black detective, a tangled mystery, and nuanced reflection on motivation and loyalty in a time of conflict.”
We are likely to make some changes to the structure of the Scholarships for 2019. We will be making an announcement on this soon so please do not send any entries for next year until we announce that we are ready to receive them.
The new rules will be posted on our website www.milesmorlandfoundation.com or contact Mathilda Leigh on +44 20 7349 5030 or ml@milesmorlandfoundation.com
Nov 27th 2018
