Daily Trust Saturday

2017 Morland Writing Scholarshi­ps still open

- Nathaniel Bivan

The Graywolf Press Africa Prize, a new literary award, is offering $12, 000 and a publishing deal to the winner of its first novel manuscript contest.

Grawolf is looking for a first novel manuscript by an African author primarily residing in Africa, novels that are engaged with the current moment.

The inaugural prize will be judged by Igoni A. Barrett, author of the 2013 short story collection, ‘Love Is Power, or Something Like That’, and the 2015 novel ‘Blackass’, in conjunctio­n with the Graywolf editors.”

Founded in 1974 and located in Minneapoli­s, USA, the award-winning Graywolf Press is committed to the discovery and energetic publicatio­n of contempora­ry American and internatio­nal literature.

Graywolf Press is always looking for work that is distinctiv­e, artistical­ly singular, and of a high literary quality. For this prize,

Igoni A. Barrett, who lives in Nigeria, is a recipient of the Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefelle­r Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. Submission­s would open from The 2017 Morland Writing Scholarshi­ps to African writers is still open until October 31.

Annually, the Miles Morland Foundation (MMF) awards a small number of Morland Writing Scholarshi­ps to African writers. It opens the scholarshi­p to anyone born or whose parents were born in Africa.

The foundation helps selected scholars produce the first draft of their completed book. Also, Scholars must write in English and have a published work.

Scholars writing fiction will receive a grant of £18,000, paid monthly over the course of twelve months. At the discretion of the Foundation, scholars writing nonfiction may receive a grant of up to £27,000, paid over a period of up to eighteen months. The Foundation provides the scholarshi­ps for the production of full-length adult fiction or non-fiction. Poetry, plays, film October 1 and close on October 31 2017. scripts, children’s books, and short story collection­s do not qualify.

The Foundation welcomes only fiction and non-fiction proposals and not academic or scientific research, or works of special interest such as religious or political writings.

During the scholarshi­p, scholars are bound to submit by e-mail at least 10,000 new words every month until they complete their book or the scholarshi­p. 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.

Scholars will receive an opportunit­y to be mentored by an establishe­d author or publisher, often after the Scholarshi­p. MMF will not act as an editor or a publisher. Therefore, Scholars will need to find their own agents and publishers.

A panel of readers and judges will evaluate the submitted applicatio­ns. They will judge the works purely on literary merit.

 ??  ?? The inaugural prize will be judged by Igoni A. Barrett
The inaugural prize will be judged by Igoni A. Barrett

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Nigeria