Gabrielle Emem Harry, Yanjanani L. Banda are Literary Laddership 2023 Recipients

Gabrielle Emem Harry and Yanjanani L. Banda were named the recipients of The Literary Laddership for Emerging African Authors 2023 on Friday, June 2, 2023.

In 2022, Nigerian fantasy, science fiction, and speculative writer and academic Suyi Davies Okungbowa announced a new fellowship he called “The Literary Laddership for Emerging African Authors.” It was aimed at supporting, elevating and connecting emerging fiction authors of Black and/or African descent, based primarily on the African continent and writing in English. This “laddership” is named so because it is significantly invested in “the continuous act of sending the ladder down.” The first winners were Olaposi Halim (Nigeria) and Davina Kawuma (Uganda).

For 2023, the fellowship received 55 applications from writers in Malawi, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania. The jury spent a month reviewing with a focus on storytelling, language and structure, style/approach/themes, and genre. The winners for the year are;

• Gabrielle Emem Harry from Calabar, Nigeria
• Yanjanani L. Banda from Zomba, Malawi

Suyi Davies Okungbowa said, “While we received many impressive, interesting and exciting submissions from clearly talented applicants, we could only award the fellowship to two candidates, and the two fellows selected above have demonstrated a penchant for high quality prose, unique storytelling approaches, a strong commitment to the writing practice and the promise of similarly impressive work in the future.”

Here is information on the fellows;

Gabrielle Emem Harry is a Nigerian speculative fiction writer. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Efiko, Omenana, Kenga and PRIDE: An Anthology of Diverse Speculative Fiction.

Notes from the reader-judges: The writing is deft – that there is little exhibitionism about this deftness is, I feel, a plus. There is a simplicity here that is not simplistic – there is elegance to this simplicity, one which intimates that the writer is a keen observer of things and events. Although the narrative grapples with weighty subjects – belief, virtue, mortality, transgression, prejudice, the limits of humanity, etc. – it does so in a way that is humorously cheeky, and easy to understand; the writing is clear in its exploration of key ideas. I get the sense that this writer has sat with, and thought deeply about, these ideas (and their implications) for a while. (Perhaps this is why the narrator doesn’t always need too many words to achieve moments of extraordinary poignance.) This seems to me like a writer who can be relied on to take risks with subject matter.

Yanjanani L. Banda (Zomba, Malawi)

Yanjanani L. Banda is a writer from Malawi. Her work has appeared in the Bristol Short Story Prize 15th Anthology, Quilled Ink Review, Brittle Paper, Afritondo Magazine, Kalahari Review, African Writer, and Spillwords. Something about words & their malleability makes her a believer in their power to penetrate hearts and minds.

Notes from reader-judges: This reads like writing from an assured hand. Here is a writer who can express themselves and their ideas clearly.  The narrative is unhurried, but not in a way that suggests negligence or, even, say, a lack of knowledge of dictates like “start late and finish early.” If anything, the leisurely pace speaks to a kind of dignity and equilibrium – almost as if the writer knows that you know that they have adopted a more measured pace for a very good reason (which might take a while to discover but which you know you’ll stick around for). Although one might argue that corruption has been written about countless times, the sample gives me grounds to hope that the narrative will offer newness and surprise. There’s a subtleness to the exploration of difficult conversations that appeals to me.

For three months (starting in July 2023), these fellows will receive $500 to buy time, space and/or resources to create new work or complete their existing one. They will be given access to a private community of practice (that includes emerging and veteran authors sharing craft lessons, best practices, insider publishing knowledge, among other things). Upon completion of their work, fellows will be provided with the necessary guidance and education (and resources, where possible) to navigate the publishing industry and aid the submission and publication of their work.