Out Of Africa: Abebi AfroNonfiction Foundation Invites African Women Writers To Apply For Inaugural 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 […]
Black News 
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, the Foundation is 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.
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- Have a demonstrated interest in creative nonfiction, whether published or unpublished.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- Submit original, unpublished work.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. The Fellowship welcomes applications from emerging, mid-career, and established writers whose work demonstrates literary promise and a commitment to nonfiction as a form of inquiry.
Submissions for the Abebi AfroNonfiction Fellowship close on 12 September, 2026. Find out more and APPLY HERE.
