The Literary Laddership for Emerging African Authors

by Suyi Davies Okungbowa.

A three-component writing fellowship to support, elevate and connect emerging fiction authors of African descent writing from Africa.

 

  • Provide fellows with funds to buy time, space and resources to create new work or complete an existing one.

  • A private online community of fellows and other emerging authors alongside writing professionals sharing craft lessons, best practices and creating new knowledge.

  • Support fellows with the necessary resources to aid submission and publication of their work, educate fellows on various publishing routes, and offer access to publishing professionals (agents, editors, etc).

Why I started this fellowship.

As an author born and raised in Benin City, Nigeria, I am particularly understanding of and sympathetic to the myriad of issues that plague many talented writers residing on the African continent. Though I have managed to make a global career for myself, I have witnessed equally talented and ambitious peers living in Africa be defeated by the paucity of support infrastructure. Sure, various contests, prizes, grants and fellowships do exist to support continental writers, but aside being few and far between, most offer only a temporary reprieve from financial hardship and access.

Accolades and brief recognition are important, but they constitute only one step in the writer’s long road to professional publication. Their inertia must be connected to a sustainable pathway to community and a support network that helps set the tone for a longer-term career. Currently, only authors with the privilege of access and connection may convert this inertia into published work. Without this continued support, most end up putting writing away in favour of other endeavours.

I've put together this literary “laddership” with the aim of forming stronger connections between initial support and paths to publication by offering African writers with minimal privilege access to community and network. Emergent writers will be placed on a true path of growth with the aim of offering both funding and accessibility that barely exists naturally on the continent.

You can read more about my personal journey to finding this fellowship’s mission and inspiration.

The Laddership Solution

  • The purpose of a digital residency component is to provide emerging writers on the African continent with funds to buy time, space and resources to:

    • create new work or complete an existing one (write, plan, experiment—whatever “creating” or “completion” entails); and/or

    • study (read, research, attend relevant workshops, trainings and/or events, etc).

    The residency, in general, aims to give writers the opportunity to complete/finish their writing projects to the point of submission/query. It will be a 3-month endeavour, with a cohort of 2 writers in each instance. Each writer will receive a grant of $500 each, paid out a third each month, with writers demonstrating progress in their work at the end of each month. Writers are encouraged to employ residency funds toward attending workshops (physical or virtual), renting work spaces and/or gaining access to the resources they need to create.

    This program covers all sub-genres of fiction (literary, science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, thriller/mystery, etc). Creative nonfiction, poetry or other genres of writing do not qualify at this time.

  • This is a private, invite-only online community where fellows and other emerging authors discuss and engage with industry veterans who in turn share craft lessons and best practices from their professional career.

    • A moderated online peer-to-peer community that brings together current and past fellows to share and learn from one another, as well as other stakeholders and interested parties

    • Private workshops, panels, Q&As for fellows

    The goal of the CoP is to create a breeding ground for new talent from the continent that is sustainable and efficient. Virtual community apps like Zoom, Slack, Meet, etc. are used to facilitate all aspects of the community's activities. The CoP continues to exist outside of the duration of the digital residency.

  • Fellows will be guided through various publishing routes and connected to professionals based on the work produced during the digital residency. A few of such opportunties include:

    • Sponsoring attending memberships for global conferences & festivals

    • Guiding fellows toward the tools needed to boost their portfolios and get good publishing deals.

    • Introducing fellows to agents/editors, who may take them on as clients

    • Offering fellows submission guidance and support (for pitches and queries, as well as programs like #PITMAD, #DIVPIT, etc)

    • Continued general support for fellows in their publishing journey (visibility, reviews, word-of-mouth, etc)

Eligibility and definition of terms

  • This expression is our attempt to combine the ethos of two terms: “ladder” and “fellowship”.

    Fellowships are an established approach to funding artists and creators globally, with the aim of buying them time and space to create, as well as fold them into a community of learning and practice.

    This program is based on the writing fellowship model, but with one marked difference: we are invested in the continuous act of “sending the ladder down.” Our community is built by working writers and professionals for those who aspire to break into writing professionally.

    We retain an awareness of the privileges and inequities resident in communities built on traditional institutions like publishing. The literary “laddership” is our way of building a fellowship that pays attention to these inequities and designs systems to alleviate them.

  • Our aim at this time is to provide support to writers of prose fiction. This may be interpreted to include hybrid forms like fiction in verse, but the submitted work must be fiction-based storytelling with a narrative arc in any genre and for any audience.

    We do not currently accept submissions in other literary forms (creative nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, etc). If this policy changes at any point in the future, we will announce said changes.

  • At this time, we are most interested in considering authors who write original works in English. Works in translation are currently ineligible. When this policy changes in the future, we will announce it.

  • In order to address the historical inequity and lack of access to writing education, community and publishing opportunities, we are at this time focused on providing this fellowship to writers who are Black and/or of African descent.

    As both these terms are interpreted differently globally (and because we cannot legally request evidence of an applicant’s heritage), we ask that applicants pair this eligibility requirement with that of continental citizenship and primary residency as described below.

  • We intend for all fellows to hail from a nation or territory within the continental area of Africa. (In the future, we hope to include eligible authors from the West Indies, Central and South America writing in English).

    Applicants who possess multi-citizenships may be eligible, so long as ALL regions of their citizenship and/or permanent residence fall within the African continent. (For instance, all applicants with North American, European, Australian or Asian citizenship or permanent residence, alone or in combination, are ineligible.)

    In addition to being citizens of African nations, applicants must also be primarily resident on the African continent at the time of applying.

    For example, a Kenyan citizen primarily resident in Kenya or any other African country is eligible. A Kenyan citizen primarily resident in England is ineligible. A British-Kenyan is also ineligible, regardless of their place of residence.

How To Apply

APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED until mid-2025. Check this page periodically for updates (or follow Suyi on Instagram and/or sign up for the After Five newsletter). For any questions or queries, email fellowship(at)suyidavies.com.

Application Deadline: TBA

To apply, submit the following information to: fellowship(at)suyidavies.com. (Kindly ensure that no name or identifying information is present in the submission documents/materials. Such information may be present in the email body).

  1. Cover letter: In the email body, briefly describe your basis for meeting the eligibility criteria.

  2. Writing sample: A sample of 3,000 words max (doc, docx, pdf), across 2 different works, split however the author wishes. We will receive any kind of work, but excerpts from a lengthy work-in-progress (novel or novella) are recommended over shorter fiction (flash, short stories, novelette). Please do not send in one work of 3,000 words. Judges would like to see how authors work across different pieces.

  3. Project description, fellowship plan, budget: A separate document (2 pages max, single spaced) detailing:

  • why you should get this fellowship

  • what you will be working on while here

  • how you will spend the funds to achieve this plan

NOTE: The proposed work in your plan MUST be a manuscript of minimum novella-length (i.e. 17,500 - 40,000 words) or novel length (i.e. 40,000+ words). All applicants must be aged 18 and above.

Response time: *Selected fellows will be announced (and contacted) between 30-90 days from the application deadline.

*Note that we reserve the right to not select any fellows.

Judging Criteria

An *anonymous, independent team of judges will assess all applications and sample writing based on the following criteria:

  • Storytelling: Applicant’s story is compelling on both story and craft levels. Characters, plot/narrative arc, setting, description, dialogue, point-of-view, voice/tone/mood—all/most are at high levels of quality and/or demonstrate mastery of these storytelling elements

  • Language and story structure: Applicant’s writing is compelling and confident at the sentence and structural levels, and demonstrates that the applicant is a keen student of language use and storytelling craft

  • Style/Approach/Themes: Applicant’s work is risky, subversive, crosses borders and/or attempts to bring something new/fresh/different to the literary field, without being gimmicky

  • Genre: Applicant demonstrates clear understanding and mastery of the requirements and conventions of the sub-genre of fiction in which they’re writing

  • Project plan: Applicant demonstrates their suitability and preparedness for the requirements of the fellowship, and has a clear plan for project completion

*The independent team of judges (not the same as the group of advisors, who are excluded from the selection process) will change for each fellowship round.

 

Advisors

A project such as this requires a wealth of knowledge, all of which we do not always have. We have therefore called on friends, fellow artists, colleagues and professionals in writing and publishing, and other parties of interest in the creative ecosystem—both on the African continent and in its diasporas—to be this fount of knowledge. This motley group of advisors serve to keep our work here honest, as well as offer guidance and advice for the future of this project. They will at no point be involved in the day-to-day running of this program.

Please do not contact any advisor for information about this program. For contact information, look under “How To Apply” above.

  • Dhonielle Clayton

    Dhonielle Clayton is a New York Times Bestselling author of The Belles series, Shattered Midnight, co-author of Blackout, and the co-author of the Tiny Pretty Things duology, a Netflix original series. She hails from the Washington, D.C. suburbs on the Maryland side. She taught secondary school for several years, and is a former elementary and middle school librarian. She is COO of the non-profit We Need Diverse Books, and President of Cake Creative, an IP story kitchen dedicated to diverse books for all ages. She’s an avid traveler, and always on the hunt for magic and mischief. Up next: The Marvellers, her middle grade fantasy debut. You can find her on social media @brownbookworm.

  • Tade Thompson

    Tade Thompson is the author of numerous novels, including the critically acclaimed sci-fi novel Rosewater, the first in his award winning WORMWOOD TRILOGY, Making Wolf, and most recently Far From the Heaven, as well as the Molly Southbourne series of novellas and several short stories. He has won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Nommo Award, the Kitschies Golden Tentacle award, and the Julia Verlange award, and been shortlisted for the Hugo Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, the British Science Fiction Association Award, and the Shirley Jackson Prize, among others. Many of his titles are currently in development for film and TV adaptation. Born in London to Yoruba parents, he lives and works on the south coast of England where he battles an addiction to books.

  • Makena Onjerika

    Makena Onjerika won the 2018 Caine Prize for African Writing. Between 2018 and 2020, she taught short fiction classes at the Nairobi Writing Academy and collaborated with other writers to offer classes in poetry, novel writing, screenwriting and creative non-fiction. She edited and published two short story collections featuring her class participants: Digital Bedbugs and Equipoise. She remains committed to helping build a strong literary ecosystem across Africa. To read her published work, please visit makenaonjerika.com

  • Ukamaka Olisakwe

    Ukamaka Olisakwe is the author of Ogadinma. In 2014, she was named one of the continent’s most promising writers under the age of 40 by the UNESCO World Book Capital for the Africa39 project. In 2016, she was awarded an honorary fellowship in Writing from the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. In 2018, she won the Vermont College of Fine Arts’ Emerging Writer Scholarship. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the Brittle Paper Award for Creative Nonfiction. In 2021, she won the SpringNG Women Authors Prize for her novel, Ogadinma. A finalist for the Miles Morland Writing Scholarship, her work has appeared in the New York Times, Granta, Longreads, The Rumpus, Catapult, etc. She is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Isele Magazine.

  • Kwame Mbalia

    Kwame is a husband, father, writer, a New York Times bestselling author, and a former pharmaceutical metrologist in that order. His debut middle-grade novel, TRISTAN STRONG PUNCHES A HOLE IN THE SKY was awarded a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, and it—along with the sequels TRISTAN STRONG DESTROYS THE WORLD and TRISTAN STRONG KEEPS PUNCHING, out October 5th—is published by Rick Riordan Presents/Disney-Hyperion. He is the co-author of LAST GATE OF THE EMPEROR with Prince Joel Makonnen, from Scholastic Books, and the editor of the #1 New York Times bestselling anthology BLACK BOY JOY, published by Delacourte Press. A Howard University graduate and a Midwesterner now in North Carolina, he survives on Dad jokes and Cheezits.

  • Wale Lawal

    Wale is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Republic, an award-winning magazine and platform offering smart journalism for Africa-curious online audiences. He is an ex-KPMG management consultant and an alumnus of the University of Oxford, where he studied technology, politics and economic development in Africa and graduated top of his class. Wale has extensive experience working with and advising African governments, global newsrooms and leading institutions including the UN and Harvard University. In 2019, Wale was selected by Quartz as one of Africa’s top 30 innovators. In 2021, Wale was selected by Reuters as a global thought leader, alongside leaders such as Google CEO, Sundar Pichai. He is also a Forbes 30 Under 30 alum.

  • Alexander Cochran

    Alexander Cochran is a literary agent at C&W, one of the UKs foremost literary agencies. He represents a diverse list of prize winning authors across numerous genres, including speculative fiction, crime and thriller, literary fiction and non-fiction.

 This fellowship is funded solely via personal means. We welcome (and encourage) support from willing readers, writers, publishing professionals, and other members of the public who are keen on seeing emerging African authors thrive.

All such support will go to increasing the amount each new fellowship cohort receives,  sponsoring their attendance of conferences and workshops, and managing and maintaining the community of practice.