SEVEN South African writers – Kurt Ellis, Amy Heydenrych, Mishka Hoosen, Karen Jennings, Kopano Mabaso, Megan Ross and Kagiso Lesego Molope – have made the shortlist for the Miles Morland Foundation’s 2015 Morland Writing Scholarships.
It’s the second big accolade for Ellis this year. His book By Any Means was recently long-listed for the Etisalat Prize for Literature.
Meanwhile, Holland Park Press has announced a French publishing deal for Jennings’ novel Finding Soutbek. Les éditions de l’Aube will produce the French language version of the novel, which was shortlisted for the inaugural Etisalat Prize for Literature.
Finding Soutbek, which was first published in June 2012, will be translated by Benoîte Dauvergne. The French version is set to be published in August 2016.
Jennings is also the winner of the 2009 Maskew Miller Longman Literature Award and was long-listed for the 2015 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. She edited the first Short Story Day Africa anthology, Feast, Famine and Potluck, in 2013. Her most recent book is a short story collection, Away from the Dead.
Heydenrych’s first short story appeared in People Opposing Women’s Abuse 2011, a women’s writing anthology published by Jacana. In 2012 she won the inaugural Short Story Day Africa fiction writing competition and in 2013, her short story, The First Case of the Year, was published in Bloody Satisfied, a crime writing anthology under publishers Two Dogs/Mercury.
Mabaso, a medical doctor, is the author of two published novels, Coconut (2007) and Spilt Milk (2009) and the winner of the European Union Literary Award 2007 and Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, 2010.
Molope’s first novel, Dancing in the Dust, was put on the IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) list for 2006, making her the first Black South African to make the list.
Her second novel, The Mending Season, set in South Africa in the early 1990s, was published in August 2005. Both books are read in schools across Southern Africa. In 2012, Molope published her third novel, This Book Betrays My Brother.
Ross’s short story Traces was on the shortlist for the 2015 Short Story Day Africa Prize; and Hoosen’s first full-length book, Call it a difficult night was published by Deep South Books in October 2015.
Other Africans on the Foundation’s shortlist are:
- Ayobami Adebayo, Akwaeke Emezi, Bolaji Odofin, Mary Ononokpono, Ladi Opaluwa and Noo Saro-Wiwa from Nigeria;
- Ayesha Harruna Attah, Cheryl Ntumy and Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond from Ghana; Beatrice Lamwaka and Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi from Uganda;
- Blessing-Miles Tendi from Zimbabwe;
- Wiam El-Tamami from Egypt; and
- Fatin Abbas from Sudan.
The Foundation received 345 entries for the prestigious scholarship this year.
In a statement, its literary director, Michela Wrong, said: “This was fewer than last year but I felt the overall standard was higher.
“Now that the scholarships are better known we are attracting some of the best African writers. Some of the entries left me almost breathless. I am confident our four scholarships will yield four outstanding books.”
Wrong added, however, that the foundation was disappointed not to receive entries from a greater variety of African countries.
“There are many talented writers in Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and other countries,” she said. “We did have entries from them but none that made the shortlist. We would encourage people writing in English from all over Africa to apply in future years.”
Judges Ellah Allfrey (chairperson), Olufemi Terry and Muthoni Garland will meet on December 14 to discuss the shortlist. Four winners will be announced shortly after this.
Scholarship winners writing fiction will receive a grant of £18 000 (about R380 000), paid over the course of 12 months. Scholars writing non-fiction will receive a grant of £27 000 (about R572 000), paid over the course of 18 months.
Previous winners of the Morland Writing Scholarship include Percy Zvomuya, Yewande Omotoso and Ahmed Khalifa.
ABOUT THE MILES MORLAND FOUNDATION
Miles Morland set up the foundation which bears his name in 2013, after a career investing in Africa via two companies he created, Blakeney Management and DPI (Development Partners International).
Based in London, the Miles Morland Foundation (MMF) is a British charity which makes grants in areas reflecting its founder’s interests.
The Foundation’s main aim is to support entities in Africa which allow Africans to get their voices better heard. It is particularly interested in supporting African writing and African literature.
Over the past two years it has supported literary festivals in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Somaliland; cultural initiatives in east, west, central and southern Africa; London’s Film Africa festival, the Caine Prize for African Writing, several African educational initiatives and the new Rhodes scholarships for Africans.
The Foundation runs a yearly African writing scholarship scheme, which aims to give three fiction writers and one non-fiction writer the financial freedom to complete an English-language book.
For more information go to http://www.milesmorlandfoundation.com/
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