Elnathan John, 4 Other Writers Win 2017 Morland Writing Scholarship
Five Winners have been announced for the 2017 Morland
Writing Scholarship with two Nigerian writers making the list. The announcement
came after the panel of judges met on Monday, December 4 to decide on four winners
but ended up picking five because of the high standard and of proposals
submitted, setting a record for the first time when Miles Morland would be
awarding scholarship to five entrants since the commencement of the award in
2013.
The winners are Elnathan John and Eloghosa Osunde from
Nigeria. Others were Alemseged Tesfai
(Eritrea), Bryony Rheam (Zimbabwe) and Fatima Kola from South Africa.
Organizers said 550 entry submissions were received from nine
African countries and from which a short-list of 21 was recently released. However,
due to the fierce competition this year which made it difficult for the judges to arrive at the best
four entries, they agreed to award five Scholarships in 2017 as against the
normal tradition of four annually.
Elnathan John |
The Chair of the panel of Judges, Ellah Wakatama Allfrey remarked
that “In this 5 year of the Morland Writing Scholarships, it was hugely
gratifying to see such an upswing in the number of submissions. We considered a
21-person shortlist with applicants from nine African countries. We were
delighted by the range in choice of subject and approach and deeply impressed
by the writing skill and ambition this shortlist represented”.
He added that “we focused on the potential each application
promised. Faced with excellence on all fronts, we found ourselves focused on
several key questions. Is this a book that will achieve publication and find
readers across the continent and beyond? Does the subject matter feel urgent
and necessary? Has the author found the best form for the telling of this
story? Does the submission show innovation and ambition?”
The four fiction winners each will receive a grant of
₤18,000 to allow them to take a year off to write a book. Alemseged Tesfai of
Eritrea won a non-fiction award of £22,500 to be paid over fifteen months to
allow him three extra months for research. His winning was exceptional as the
oldest of the past and current winners – at 73 years. This did not miss
mentioning in Mile Morland remarks who gushed “First I want to congratulate my
fellow 73 year-old, Alemseged Tesfai. Septuagenarians rock”.
The awards are based on submissions which include a book
proposal and an excerpt of published writing.
Alemseged Tesfai of Eritrea is expected to write a single
volume of the history of his country, Eritrea – challenging conventional
scholarship on the subject and drawing from rich personal experience while Fatima
Kola of South Africa will work on a fantasy novel in which her dual African and
Asian cultural inheritance is the inspiration for world-building and the
exploration of universal themes of friendship, love and the imperfection of
moral choice.
Nigeria’s Elnathan John’s proposed historical novel is set
in the Sokoto Caliphate – a challenging story in which the past is used to
explore urgent contemporary themes of identity, sexuality, faith and tolerance
while another Nigerian, Eloghosa Osunde, will write a novel about two school
friends – each harbouring a secret that could destroy their lives – who decide
to join forces and create a home together in the face of a hostile society.
The Zimbabwean Bryony Rheam’s proposal is to write an
historical crime fiction featuring Ingutsheni, a psychiatric hospital in
Bulawayo, in which she explores the treatment of those suffering mental illness
and the complex dynamics of power, colonial society and migration.
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