Announcing the 2023 Recipient of the Bloomsbury Academic Writing Fellowship

Tionne Alliyah Parris, based at the University of Hertfordshire, has been announced as the first recipient of the Bloomsbury Academic Writing Fellowship, launched in partnership with Writers & Artists.

Tionne's submission, entitled '20th Century Black Radical Women Engaged in the Struggle for Black Liberation in the United States and Abroad' was selected by a judging panel comprising author Yassmin Abdel-Magied, lecturers Dr. Akin Iwilade and Dr. Kadian Pow, associate literary agent Eli Keren, Bloomsbury commissioning editor Lily Mac Mahon and David Avital, editorial director at Bloomsbury.

In being selected as the 2023 Fellow, Tionne will receive mentorship with dedicated Bloomsbury and Writers & Artists editors, £1,000 of financial support, access to Bloomsbury events and access to W&A/Bloomsbury books and resources. Also included is support and practical advice to develop the submission through to final manuscript stage, ready to approach and submit to a range of publishers in the academic space, including Bloomsbury

The judging panel also selected two runner-up authors - Jenessa Nicole Williams, based at the University of Leeds, with the submission ‘Music Fandom in the Age of #MeToo’ and Cherisse Valcia Francis, based at the University of Twickenham, with the submission, ‘Trafficking and Anti-Trafficking in the Anglophone Caribbean.’ Both Jenessa and Cherisse will receive £250 worth of Bloomsbury’s books, and free entry to a W&A evening masterclass plus a one-year subscription to W&A's Listings database.

What is the Bloomsbury Academic Writing Fellowship? 

The Fellowship, the first of its kind in the UK academic community, aims to uncover talent and new authors who have started their work but have not yet turned it into a proposal which is ready to submit to a publisher. The programme has been created to support particular areas of academic publishing where Bloomsbury would like to have better representation and more diverse opinions, stories and ideas. 

“Programmes like the Bloomsbury Academic Writing Fellowship take seriously that inequality is not just historical, but structural in the ways it is sustained. It takes institutions of all kinds to recognize that there are talented, brilliant researchers and writers out there who are overlooked through no fault of their own. It is my wish that Bloomsbury can be a leader in this industry.”
Dr Kadian Pow, Lecturer in Sociology and Black Studies, Birmingham City University
 

What next for the Fellowship? 

In this first year, applications were open to up and coming authors and researchers with African or African Caribbean Heritage, who were based in the UK. The future aim is to grow and develop the Bloomsbury Academic Writing Fellowship, expanding its remit so that it can be offered to many more underrepresented author groups within core academic fields of study. 

Further details on the Bloomsbury Academic Writing Fellowship 2024 are expected to be announced on this site later this year