CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
The Inaugural Abebi AfroNonfiction Fellowship
The Abebi AfroNonfiction Foundation is delighted to invite applications for the inaugural Abebi AfroNonfiction Fellowship, a six-week pan-African fellowship for women writers working in creative nonfiction.
Since 2023, Abebi has championed the work of African women through the Abebi AfroNonfiction Award, publishing essays that explore memory, migration, motherhood, grief, identity, technology, faith, embodiment, and belonging. This year, we are expanding beyond Nigeria to create a continental fellowship that brings together women writers from across Africa to think, write, and build community together.
The fellowship is designed for writers who are interested in exploring African womanhood through creative nonfiction with depth, originality, and literary ambition. Rather than rewarding completed work alone, the programme creates the conditions for new work to emerge through workshops, conversations, editorial mentorship, and engagement with African feminist thought.
Over six weeks, Fellows will participate in weekly seminars, craft workshops, reading discussions, and editorial sessions led by some of Africa’s leading writers, editors, and scholars.
The fellowship will culminate in:
- A three-day residency in Lagos, Nigeria
- A public reading and literary symposium
- Publication in the inaugural Abebi AfroNonfiction Fellowship Anthology
We are looking for writers who are curious, generous, intellectually engaged, and committed to developing bold creative nonfiction that contributes meaningfully to contemporary conversations about African life.
Applications open: 8th August, 2026 and Applications close: 12 September 2026.
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants must:
- Identify as a woman.
- Be 18 years of age or older at the time of application.
- Be currently resident in an African country.
- Be available to participate fully in the six-week virtual fellowship.
- Be willing and able to travel to Lagos, Nigeria, for the three-day residency (subject to visa requirements and programme funding).
- Have a demonstrated interest in creative nonfiction, whether published or unpublished.
- Be able to communicate and write in English, as the fellowship will be conducted in English.
- Submit original, unpublished work. Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but applicants should notify the Foundation immediately if the submitted writing sample is accepted elsewhere.
- Submit only one application.
Previous publication is not required. We welcome applications from emerging, mid-career, and established writers whose work demonstrates literary promise and a commitment to nonfiction as a form of inquiry.
Submission Guidelines
Applications must include the following:
1. Essay Proposal (500 words)
Tell us about the essay you hope to write during the fellowship.
Rather than a synopsis, we are interested in the questions your essay hopes to explore. What compels this story? Why does it matter now? What intellectual, emotional, or cultural territory do you hope to investigate?
We are particularly interested in essays that offer fresh, nuanced perspectives on African womanhood through the lens of creative nonfiction.
Possible areas of exploration include (but are not limited to):
- Memory and inheritance
- Family and intergenerational relationships
- Migration and belonging
- Faith and spirituality
- Motherhood and caregiving
- Illness, disability, and the body
- Work, labour, and ambition
- Love, intimacy, and desire
- Language and identity
- Home and displacement
- Class and social mobility
- Friendship and community
- Education
- Technology and digital life
- Climate and ecology
- Political life and citizenship
- Tradition and cultural inheritance
- Joy, pleasure, and celebration
- Silence and voice
These themes are intended as points of departure rather than limitations. We welcome proposals that surprise us.
2. Writing Sample (Maximum 1000 words)
Submit one piece of creative nonfiction that best represents your writing.
This may be:
- a personal essay
- a memoir excerpt
- a lyric essay
- a braided essay
- a reported personal narrative
- or another work of literary creative nonfiction.
The writing sample does not need to be related to your proposed fellowship project.
3. Short Biography
Please include a biography of no more than 150 words.
4. Statement of Commitment
In no more than 250 words, tell us why you would like to participate in the fellowship and what you hope to contribute to the cohort.
Selection Criteria
Applications will be assessed on:
- Literary quality
- Originality of thought
- Strength and feasibility of the proposed essay
- Curiosity and intellectual ambition
- Potential to contribute meaningfully to the fellowship community
The Fellowship will comprise ten writers. Three places will be reserved for Nigerian writers. The remaining places will be awarded through an open continental selection process, with the Selection Committee aiming to build a cohort that reflects the geographical diversity of the African continent, including West, East, Central, Southern, and North Africa.