The Miles Morland Foundation has revealed the winners of the 2024 Morland Writing Scholarships. After reviewing nearly 500 entries from published authors across Africa and the diaspora, the judges selected four exceptional writers to receive the prestigious award.
This year’s winners are:
- Carey Baraka (Kenya)
- Fayssal Bensalah (Algeria)
- Yvette Ndlovu (Zimbabwe)
- Frances Ogamba (Nigeria)
About the Winners
Carey Baraka
He is a writer of fiction and nonfiction from Kisumu, Kenya. His writing about literary culture, food, sports, and politics, among other things, has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, Guardian Long Reads, Vogue Business, Financial Times, Literary Hub, The Johannesburg Review of Books, 1843 Magazine, The New York Times, Serious Eats, Foreign Policy, Lonely Planet, and Gay Magazine, among other places.
He has been supported by the Pulitzer Centre for Global Reporting and the Silvers Foundation and received fellowships from Macdowell and the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program (IWP).
Fayssal Bensalah
Born and raised in Algeria. Fayssal is a short story writer, novelist and academic. He holds a PhD in Critical and Creative Writing from Cardiff University. He was educated at Constantine 1 University (C1U) and graduated with an MA degree in Anglophone Literature. His novel, The Couscous Western, was the runner-up for the 2023 Graywolf African Fiction Prize.
His short story, The Last Shot of Ahmed Bey’s Cannon won the inaugural 2020 Toyin Falola Prize, and Citizen Sarah was longlisted for the 2023 Afritondo Short Story Prize.
Yvette Ndlovu
Yvette Lisa Ndlovu is a Zimbabwean sarungano (storyteller). Her debut short story collection Drinking from Graveyard Wells (University Press of Kentucky, Spring 2023) was selected for the 2021 UPK New Poetry & Prose Series. She received the 2017 Cornell University George Harmon Coxe Award for Poetry selected by Sally Wen Mao, and was the 2020 fiction winner of Columbia Journal’s Womxn History Month Special Issue and the 2021 Black Warrior Review Fiction Contest winner selected by K-Ming Chang.
She is the co-founder of the Voodoonauts Summer Workshop for Black SFF writers. Her work has been anthologized in African Risen (Tordotcom Publishing, 2022) and has appeared or is forthcoming in F&SF, Tor.com, FANTASY Magazine, Columbia Journal, Fiyah Literary Magazine, Mermaids Monthly, and Kweli Journal.
Frances Ogamba
Frances Ogamba is a Nigerian short story writer. In 2019, Ogamba’s nonfiction piece The Valley of Memories, won the Koffi Addo Prize for Creative Nonfiction. Her short story Ghana Boy, centring on the relationship between a young boy and his gang leader elder brother, was also shortlisted for the 2019 Writivism Short Story Prize. In 2020, her story My Husband’s Wife was the English-language winner of the inaugural Kalahari Short Story Prize.
In the words of Miles Morland, he says:
“Once more we have a diverse group of outstanding writers, one each from Nigeria, Algeria (our first Algerian scholar), Zimbabwe, and Kenya. They have very different stories to tell. Their subjects are fascinating, opening doors to areas most of us know nothing about. It looks like 2024 will be a vintage year.”
In her words of appreciation, the head judge, Muthoni Garland in says:
“Thank you, all, and Miles most of all, for making this happen. I am honoured to be a part of this process of giving this amazing opportunity to our best writers once again”.
Each scholar will receive a grant of £18,000 to support their writing for the next year.
Congratulations Baraka, Bensalah, Ndlovu, and Ogamba on this deserved win!
Bakare Oluwatobiloba
I write to educate, motivate and define history with literature. Just being me!
