The shortlist for the 2020 Morland Writing Scholarship has just been announced, and there are 19 writers on the list. The Miles Morland Writing Scholarship offers a fiction scholarship of £18,000 to two or three writers over the course of twelve months and a nonfiction scholarship of £27,000 to a single writer over the course of eighteen months. This financial support gives writers the time, space and resources required to work on a proposed book.

The 2020 shortlist was selected from 992 entries from across the continent, a significant increase from last year’s 687. The list appears evenly spread across the continent with Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa leading with 3 candidates each, followed by Ghana with 2. Writers from Botswana, Cameroon, Libya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda and Zambia are also represented.

We are particularly excited about this year’s shortlist because Brittle Paper staff writer Chukwuebuka Ibeh is one of the three Nigerian writers the list. Congrats to Chukwuebuka!

Here are the shortlisted writers:

  • Gothataone Moeng, Botswana
  • Howard Meh-Buh, Cameroon
  • Aba Asibon, Ghana
  • Kobina Ankomah-Graham, Ghana
  • Wairimu Muriithi, Kenya
  • Ivy Nyayieka, Kenya
  • Okwiri Oduor, Kenya
  • Sarah Uheida, Libya
  • Wesley Macheso, Malawi
  • Chukwuebuka Ibeh, Nigeria
  • Pearl Osibu, Nigeria
  • Temitope Owolabi, Nigeria
  • Rémy Ngamije, Rwanda
  • Lynsey Chutel, South Africa
  • Fred Khumalo, South Africa
  • Megan Ross, South Africa
  • Reem Gaafar, Sudan
  • Ernest Bazanye, Uganda
  • Bwanga Kapumpa, Zambia

The judging panel, chaired by Kenyan author Muthoni Garland and made up of Cassava Republic Press publisher Bibi-Bakare Yusuf and Nigerian author Chuma Nwokolo noted that while the list was decided on a combination of literary merit and the book proposal, they also, “when deciding between submissions of equal merit, try to favour writers at an early stage in their careers over established writers.”

The judges will meet on 23rd November to select the four winners who would then be announced soon afterwards.

Congratulations to the shortlisted writers!