The recipient of the Bloomsbury Academic Writing Fellowship 2024 has been announced.
Morategi Kale, who recently completed her PhD in the Geographies of Youth in Africa at the University of Oxford, has been awarded the Bloomsbury Academic Writing Fellowship 2024.
Morategi is a researcher interested in young people's everyday experiences of socioeconomic change by exploring themes such as relationships, emotions, and time. Her submission, which has a working title of 'What Now?: Experiences of Everyday Unemployment among Black Graduates in South Africa' was selected by a judging panel comprising author and lecturer Dr. Kadian Pow, lecturers Dr. Aleida Borges and Dr. Constantino Dumangane, Jr., associate literary agent Eli Keren, commissioning editor Nayiri Kendir, and global editorial director David Avital.
In being selected as the 2024 Fellow, Morategi 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 - Aisling Serrant for her work on cultural heritage, Caribbean carnival culture and dress, and Lina Lucumi-Mosquera for her work on the journey of African-descendant cocoa farmers in Colombia. Both Aisling and Lina 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.
Bloomsbury Academic Writing Fellowship 2024 judging panel: (l-r) David Avital, Dr. Aleida Borges, Constantino Dumangane, Jr., Nayiri Kendir, Eli Keren, Dr. Kadian Pow.
“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?
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 2025 are expected to be announced on this site later this year
Comments