The Literary Laddership for Emerging African Authors has selected Anisha Namutowe from Lusaka, Zambia, and Rigwell Addison Asiedu from Accra, Ghana, as its 2025 fellows.
Chosen from 107 applicants across 15 African countries, the two writers stood out in a highly competitive process; this year’s applications came from Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Suyi Davies Okungbowa, program director, said:
“While we received many impressive, interesting and exciting submissions from clearly talented applicants, we sadly can only award the fellowship to two candidates. 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. My sincere congratulations to Anisha and Rigwell. I look forward to working with them in the coming months.”
Meet The Fellows
Anisha Namutowe (Lusaka, Zambia)
Anisha Namutowe is 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.
From the reader-judges:
“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 (Accra, Ghana)
Rigwell Addison Asiedu is 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.
From the reader-judges:
“ 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.
Congratulations, Anisha Namutowe and Rigwell Addison Asiedu!
Bakare Oluwatobiloba
I write to educate, motivate and define history with literature. Just being me!
