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| Ugandan Writer, Doreen Baingana |
The Miles Morland Foundation is offering African scholars a grant of £18,000, paid monthly over the course of one year. This could be your chance to make the best of your writing skills joining the likes of former recipients such as Doreen Baingana, from Uganda, Tony Mochama, from Kenya, and Percy Zvomuya, from Zimbabwe.
See more details below:
Scholar’s Undertaking
In return for this it is expected that the Scholars will pay to the MMF 20% of whatever they subsequently receive from what they write during the year of their Scholarship. These funds will be used to support other promising writers. Last year the obligation to return 20% was a binding condition of accepting the Scholarship. For this year’s Scholars, and retro-actively for last year’s, the 20% return obligation should be considered a debt of honour rather than a legally binding obligation.
Qualifications
In return for this it is expected that the Scholars will pay to the MMF 20% of whatever they subsequently receive from what they write during the year of their Scholarship. These funds will be used to support other promising writers. Last year the obligation to return 20% was a binding condition of accepting the Scholarship. For this year’s Scholars, and retro-actively for last year’s, the 20% return obligation should be considered a debt of honour rather than a legally binding obligation.
Qualifications
To qualify for the Scholarship a candidate must submit a piece of published work, or an excerpt from a piece of published work (written in English), of between two and five thousand words to be evaluated by a panel of readers and judges set up by the MMF. The Scholarships will be awarded based on these submissions although the Foundation may also wish to question certain candidates or ask for other work. The work submitted will be judged purely on literary merit. It is not the purpose of the Scholarships to support academic or scientific research, or works of special interest such as religious or political writings. Submissions or proposals of this nature do not qualify.
The candidates should submit a brief description of the work they intend to write (200 – 500 words). It should be a new work, not a work in progress. The proposed work must be in English as must all submissions. Please also tell us in fewer than 300 words something about yourself and your background. Anything in your background suggesting that you have the ability and discipline to write a full-length book will be useful. Proposed works can be on any subject though the judges will show preference to works which relate to Africa. Academic work, medical and scientific research, and works on religious subjects will not be considered for an award.
Fiction or Non-Fiction
The Foundation therefore welcomes both fiction and non-fiction proposals but warns non-fiction applicants that they may have a difficult time keeping to the schedule. We are happy to grant a few months’ grace before the Scholarship payments start and the 10,000 words monthly requirement goes into effect to permit a non-fiction Scholar to do research before he or she starts writing.The Trustees are actively giving consideration to what they might do to promote non-fiction in Africa. We have not yet found the answer. Thoughts welcome.
Scholarship RequirementThe only condition imposed on the Scholars during the year of their Scholarship is that they must write. They will be asked to submit by e-mail at least 10,000 new words every month until they have finished their book. The Scholarship will terminate if a Scholar fails to submit the required work on time unless prior authorisation has been received. The Scholarship is intended for writers who want to write a full-length book of 80,000 words or more.
Applications must be sent by e-mail to MMF@blakeney.com. Please do not submit anything in hard copy or by terrestrial post.
The closing date for submissions for the 2014 Writing Scholarships is October 31st 2014. The Scholarships will be announced in December 2014 and will run for the whole of calendar 2015. The Trustees reserve the right to vary the terms and requirements of the Scholarships at their discretion.
For more information, log onto: milesmorlandfoundation.com