Adedeji among Morland Writing Scholarship winners

The managing editor of Pay Stack, Ope Adedeji is among the winners of the 2021 Morland Writing Scholarships. 

Adedeji is a writer and was a finalist for the 2020 US National Magazine Award in Fiction. She won the 2019 Brittle Paper Award for African Fiction. 

The 2021 Morland Writing Scholars are Ope Adedeji (Nigeria), Asiya Gaildon (Somalia), Refilwe Mofokeng (South Africa) and Tinashe Mushakanvanhu (Zimbabwe). 

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. 

The Morland Writing Scholarships for African Writers popularly referred to as the Morland Writing Scholarship, is an opportunity to allow writers to finish a manuscript. 

This year the award is judged by Muthoni Garland who is the chair, assisted by Bibi Bakare-Yusuf and Chuma Nwokolo. 

The judges said of Adedeji entry was “With humour and delicacy, Ope Adedeji reveals and revels in the nexus of technology, religion, and tradition that shapes the lives of three generations of women, their complex and intertwined experience of girlhood, lying pastors, friendship, love and insanity.” 

From the 572 applications from across the continent, the panel announced the finalists on October 11 before announcing the winners. 

Past winners of the scholarship included Yewande Omotoso, Noo Saro-Wiwa, Ayesha Harruna Attah, Gloria Mwaniga Odari, Hawa Jande Golakai, Nnamdi Oguike, and Parsalelo ole Kantai.