In a bid to continue in their commitment to foster editorial talent in Africa, A Long House is putting out a call for the 2025 Rajat Neogy Editorial Fellowship, the third edition since the fellowship was founded in 2021. The fellowship hopes to keep developing and expanding through the years, inspiring and nurturing a robust community of editors in Africa and its diaspora.
And so again, Africans who care about literature and quality editing are encouraged to apply.
How it works:
- Applications are open from October 5th – 30th, 2024.
- Fellows for the 2025 tenure will be announced in December 2024.
- There will be a $1000 award for the fellowship, a tote bag of books, and a period of mentorship with a select writer or editor of repute.
- Fellows will work with A Long House throughout the one year tenure of the fellowship, at the end of which theyʼll be expected to produce a chapbook of no more than 35 pages.
- The chapbook will be conceived and edited by the fellows, and it could be a work of essays, poems, or fiction, or a creative blend of all of these. The fellows will edit, not write the chapbooks. For the chapbooks, the fellows will be allowed creative freedom. This means they can have the chapbooks incorporate or make it as its subject criticism, theory, photography, or art.
Eligibility
All who are applying:
- Should be between 18 – 40 years old.
- Should be an African residing in Africa.
- Must demonstrate a deep interest in African literature and the ecosystems that nurture it
Responsibilities of Fellows
- Work with founding editors on editing works of contributors.
- Manage communication with contributors.
- Oversee publication schedule and curate a monthly newsletter.
- Suggest and reach out to new contributors.
- Work with founding editors on themed issues.
- Work with A Long House team on the Long Talk and A Short Talk series.
About the Fellowship
A Long House considers editing a vital part of a vibrant literary ecosystem, as great editors not only polish writing but also elevate and define it. The fellowship will help writers see more clearly the paths their work is skirting or vaguely gesturing at, surrounded, in a manner of speaking, by jungly growth, and help them cut through with greater dexterity. It will leave any piece of writing wiser, richer, and more capacious, able to hold within it the largeness and complexity of experience. This is work that must be undertaken with the utmost seriousness, itʼs a space whose filling must not be abandoned to the arbitrary flow of things.
A Long House encourages Africans who love literature and the art and discipline of editing to apply for the 2025 Rajat Neogy Editorial Fellowship. And it is instructive that for the fellowship, it follows in one of the finest traditions and lineages of editing on the continent, begun by Rajat Neogy, the founder and editor of Transition, one of the most reputable literary magazines to come out of Africa. Founded in Uganda in 1961 when he was only 22, Transition, under the editorial guidance of Rajat Neogy, went on to publish some of the finest writers from Africa—Chinua Achebe, Es’kia Mphalele, Wole Soyinka, Bessie Head, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, among others—sometimes for the very first time.
How to submit
To apply, please upload a motivation letter of not more than 500 words along with your CV as a single pdf on Submittable.
Best of luck to all those applying!
Bongiwe T. Maphosa
Bongiwe Maphosa is a budding author with a passion for storytelling. With her thought-provoking narratives, she takes her readers on a literary adventure. Bongiwe's works on the human condition from a fresh perspective have earned her recognition and publications in the Avbob Poetry Anthology of 2019, The Writer's Club of South Africa 2021, and JAY Lit in 2021. She hopes to cement her place in the literary community.
