Nigerian writer Olakunle Ologunro has been awarded the Olive B. O’Connor Fellowship in Creative Writing at Colgate University for the 2025-2026 academic year.

The fellowship is considered one of the most prestigious opportunities for emerging writers in the United States. It provides a generous stipend of $58,800, office space, and an intellectual community for recipients completing their first books. In exchange, fellows teach one multigenre creative writing workshop per semester and give a public reading of their work during their year-long residency.

Ologunro, who holds an MFA from The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, joins a distinguished lineage of Nigerian writers who have held the fellowship at the start of their careers and gone on to become household names. Past Nigerian fellows include Chinelo Okparanta, author of Happiness, Like Water and Under The Udala Trees; poet Ajibola Tolase, author of 2000 Blacks; and Gbenga Adesina, author of Death Does Not End At The Sea.

Ologunro’s work has garnered significant recognition. He has received an Elizabeth George Foundation grant, a Tennessee Williams Scholarship for the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and a Juniper Summer Workshop Scholarship. His writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has received support from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, and Aspen Words, where he was named a 2025 Emerging Writer Fellow in Fiction.

His stories have appeared in Story Magazine, Lolwe, the Queer Africa anthology, the Feel Good anthology, and other publications.

Joining Ologunro as the 2025-2026 Olive B. O’Connor Fellow is poet Ziyuan Tang from Beijing, who earned her MFA in Poetry from Boston University, where she was awarded the Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship.

The Olive B. O’Connor Fellowship is open to writers completing their first books across all genres. Applications for the 2026-2027 fellowship is currently open and will close on January 12, 2026. Writers interested in applying can find more information and updates on the Colgate University Creative Writing Fellowship page.

Congratulations to Olakunle Ologunro!