PRESS RELEASE
The winners each receive a grant of ₤18,000 to allow them to take a year off to write a book. The awards are based on submissions which include a book proposal and an excerpt of published writing
WE are pleased to announce that we have four brilliant new Morland Writing Scholars for 2025. We had over 800 entries this year, all from published authors, from across Africa and the diaspora. Competition was tough and the judges had a difficult decision to make. But they were all in agreement that the four writers listed below should become the new MMF scholars. We’re very happy to have them.
The 2025 Morland Writing Scholars are:
Adeola Opeyemi, Nigeria
Carlo Saio, Kenya
Chinelo Onwualu, Nigeria
Monique Eleanor Kwachou, Cameroon
The winners each receive a grant of ₤18,000 to allow them to take a year off to write a book. The awards are based on submissions which include a book proposal and an excerpt of published writing.
Miles Morland commented, “As we move into the second decade of our African Writing Scholarships, I am amazed every year by the diversity, wit, imagination, and energy coming out of African writing. I have a feeling these new scholars are all going to write books you will want to read.”
Muthoni Garland, head judge, had the following to say:
“Selected for this year’s Morland African Writers’ Scholarships are four writers whose projects showcase literary ambition and cultural depth. Adeola Opeyemi (Nigeria): Her multigenerational Nigerian novel explores inherited silence and male fragility through the lens of a family haunted by their matriarch’s mysterious 1967 disappearance. Carlo Saio (Kenya): His 7,500 km walking memoir traces ancient Bantu migration routes across Sub-Saharan Africa while documenting a personal journey of healing. Chinelo Onwualu (Nigeria): Her West African climate-fiction novel reimagines “first contact” from the perspective of an isolated community that possesses foreknowledge of the impact of colonialism. Monique Eleanor Kwachou (Cameroon): Her memoir, spanning early years between Cameroon and the United States and her return home at thirteen, tells of a childhood shaped by separation, diaspora, and self-making, and promises work of real moral complexity.
The judges are honoured to have engaged with their work, and it affirms that the continent’s literary future is in capable hands. — Muthoni Garland, Chief Judge.”
The MMF will announce in the New Year the rules and dates for the 2026 Scholarships. You can find information relating to the scholarships on our website: www.milesmorlandfoundation.com
Meanwhile, please spread the word by posting the news of the 2025 Scholarship awards on social media. If you have questions, please contact Mathilda Edwards on [email protected]