Morland Writing Scholarships 2019 judges announced.

The judges for the Morland Writing Scholarships 2019 Muthoni Garland, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, and Otosirieze Obi-Young were announced today, May 1, 2019.

The Morland Writing Scholarship, a project of the Miles Morland Foundation, is an award given annually to African writers to enable them to work on a manuscript over a year without worrying about an income. Writers awarded a fiction scholarship will each receive £18,000, paid over the course of a year to allow them to take time off to write the book they have proposed. Non-fiction writers may be given £27,000 over the course of eighteen months if they need to do additional research.

Some of the previous recipients of the scholarship now in its fifth year include Elnathan John, Percy Zvomuya, Doreen Baingana, Abdul Adan, Noo Saro-Wiwa, and Lidudumalingani Mgqombothi. Of these, only four have produced work from their scholarship; Yewande Omotoso with The Women Next Door, Karen Jennings with Travel With My Father, Simone Haysom with The Last Words of Rowan Du Preez and Tony Mochama with 2063 – Last Mile Bet.

The judges for the 2019 edition for the prize have been announced and they are Muthoni Garland as chair alongside Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, and Otosirieze Obi-Young.

Muthoni Garland, who has been on the panel for four years, is a writer who has been shortlisted for the Caine Prize. The founder of Storymoja the publishing house and festival is considered to be the den mother of Kenyan literature today.

Bibi Bakare-Yusuf is co-founder of Cassava Republic Press, a leader of the new wave of African publishing houses. She is a Yale World Fellow, a Desmond Tutu Fellow, and an acute judge of African writing.

Otosirieze Obi-Young is Deputy Editor of the Brittle Paper, one of Africa’s most on the ball and talked-about literary publications. He is a discerning judge of cutting edge writing previously having performed a similar role at the Gerald Kraak Award.

Entries for this year’s Scholarships open on June 30th and close on Sep 30th 2019. They ask that you refrain sending your entries until the opening date is upon us.