Ellah P Wakatama to mentor new Scholarship for Black British writers

The Literary Consultancy Scholarship (TLC) for Black British writers, with Ellah P Wakatama as mentor, is set to launch in August.

The Literary Consultancy (TLC) was set up as the first editorial consultancy of its kind, offering professional feedback to writers at all levels through our core manuscript assessment service in the UK in 1996. Since then, they have sent detailed feedback reports to thousands of writers on a range of writing projects: across novels, memoir, poetry, short stories, and scripts, from beginner writers to well-known names.

The consultancy is partnering with Ellah P Wakatama, editor-at-large at Canongate, to launch the TLC Scholarship. Submissions for 2020’s scholarship are open exclusively to black British writers, after which applications will be accepted each year over a three-week period “from writers on low-income and/or from communities currently under-represented in publishing”.

One writer will be selected for a place on TLC’s year-long Premium Chapter & Verse mentoring programme with a publishing industry editor, working one-on-one to develop their writing, attending an industry day with a literary agent and publisher, and receiving a full manuscript assessment report once the book is complete. They will additionally receive one year’s free access to TLC’s new Being A Writer programme, an online membership community that focuses on cultivating creativity and building resilience, with online courses, downloadable resources, and “Creativity Pills”, mini creativity boosters curated in partnership with the Poetry Pharmacy.

Submissions open on Monday, August 3, 2020, and close on Friday, August 21, 2020, with further details on applying available on the TLC website. Unpublished and previously published writers can apply, and there is no upper age limit.

For more information, please check out this report at our friends at The Bookseller.

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