Anisha Namutow and Rigwell Addison Asiedu were named the recipients of The Literary Laddership for Emerging African Authors 2025 on Tuesday, June 3, 2025.
In 2022, Nigerian fantasy, science fiction, and speculative writer and academic Suyi Davies Okungbowa announced “The Literary Laddership for Emerging African Authors” fellowship. 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.” Previous winners have been Olaposi Halim and Davina Kawuma, Gabrielle Emem Harry and Yanjanani L. Banda, and Habiba Dokubo-Asari and Chimezie Chika.
The 2025 edition received 107 applications from writers in 15 African countries: Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. From these, the following were selected as fellows;
- Anisha Namutowe (Zambia) – an award-winning Zambian writer whose work has been featured in local and international media. Her creative range spans both fiction and nonfiction. In fiction, she’s drawn to romance, psychological thrillers, and fantasy. Her nonfiction explores psychology, politics, law, feminism, and the curious contradictions of culture and religion.
Jury comments, “Language was such a weapon in this one. Short sentences, long sentences, pauses, and other stylistic choices all seemed to enhance what the author was trying to deliver with great emotional depth. Every word choice felt intentional. Not for fluff. There was a mixture of beautiful language and punch-in-the-gut kind of lines that balanced one another out very well.” - Rigwell Addison Asiedu (Ghana) – a Ghanaian writer whose work has been longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (2025), Afritondo Short Story Prize (2025), and African Writers Awards (2022). An alumnus of the 2024 CANEX Book Factory Workshop, his writing has appeared in several literary magazines and anthologies.
Jury comments, “The [work] is compelling—even ominous, for the right reasons—instantly drawing the reader in, and never letting them go until they discover the “big reveal”, which is not even stuffed in a single paragraph but distributed almost evenly across. This writer is adept at uprooting language from its most basic form and moulding it into something lyrical and poetic.”
For three months (starting in mid-June 2025), 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 with previous fellows, sharing craft lessons, best practices, insider publishing knowledge, amongst 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 submission and publication of their work.
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