The Abebi AfroNonfiction Foundation has announced the inaugural Abebi AfroNonfiction Fellowship, a new pan-African writing initiative for women working in creative nonfiction. The fellowship brings together ten writers from across the continent for six weeks of virtual workshops, craft classes, and editorial masterclasses, culminating in a Lagos residency and a shared anthology. Applications open August 8, 2026, and close September 12, 2026.

The fellowship builds on work the Foundation has been doing since 2023, when it launched as the Abebi Award in AfroNonfiction, a Nigerian prize that has since run three cohorts and published winning essays through longtime partner Isele Magazine, covering ground as varied as grief, memory, motherhood, the body, migration, identity, and family. This new fellowship marks the Foundation’s first major expansion beyond Nigeria, opening the programme to women writers across the entire African continent for the first time.

Fellows will spend six weeks developing original essays while engaging with African literary and feminist thought alongside writers from different geographical and cultural backgrounds. The programme’s thematic scope is intentionally wide, welcoming work on memory, migration, faith, illness, embodiment, intimacy, class, technology, ecology, political belonging, tradition, and joy — any lens through which a writer might explore what it means to live as a woman on the continent today. The fellowship closes with a three-day in-person residency in Lagos from December 8–13, 2026, ending in a public reading and literary symposium on December 12, where fellows will share work from the forthcoming anthology.

“The idea behind Abebi was always simple: gather African women writers and share the power of creative nonfiction,” said Mofiyinfoluwa O., founder of the Abebi AfroNonfiction Foundation. “Give them the tools, time and resources they need to create work that sings with truth and power. What began in Nigeria has shown us what is possible when women are given the space to write and to be held in community by their words. This fellowship is our next step: creating that space across the continent.” Fellows will be selected by a pan-African panel comprising Ama Asentewa Daiaka (Ghana), Gloria Mwaniga (Kenya), Mubanga Kalimamukwento (Zambia), and Mofiyinfoluwa O. (Nigeria), with support from the Open Society Foundation.

The fellowship is open to women writers aged 18 and above currently resident on the African continent; previous publication is not required. Applicants must submit a proposal for a creative nonfiction essay alongside a 2,500-word writing sample. Full application guidelines are available at theabebifoundation.com.