Writer Macheso nominated for global award
Local author Wesley Macheso will be hoping the second time is the charm as he competes for the 2022 Morland Writing Scholarship award.
The local author was first nominated in 2020, but missed out on the award.
Macheso has been shortlisted alongside 18 published authors drawn from different African countries such as Nigeria, Tanzania, Gambia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya from the over 500 entries the organisers received.
Macheso, a lecturer in literature and creative writing at the University of Malawi, said he feels honoured to be among the few African writers that were shortlisted for the prestigious award.
“I think this is a vote of confidence in my work. Having been shortlisted before, I am confident that this may be my turn to bag the award,” he said in an interview.
The writer said to earn the shortlist, he submitted a proposal for the fiction category to write a novel that explores life in the streets and back alleys of Malawi where gangs of mostly street-connected children run affairs.
Macheso is an established writer who has published extensively on creative fiction, short stories, poetry and young adult novels. He has earned recognition on various regional platforms, having been shortlisted for the Short Story Day Africa Prize in 2015.
His short story, This Land Is Mine, is also published in the regional publication Water, which is a new short story fiction from Africa. He also won the 2015 Peer Gynt Literally Award for his children-centred book, Akuzike and The Gods.
He said: “Winning the award will depend on several factors, the most being creativity and the potential to complete the book project. I am confident I have these, but in the end, the judges will have to decide.”
In coming up with the list of the finalists, organisers say they send the initial list to an experienced writer who will review the entries with assistance from Mirles Moland Foundation staff.
The list is then sent to a team of readers, experienced agents, editors and publishers who assign numerical grades to the submissions.
The final shortlist is compiled purely on merit without regard to the status, nationality, gender, age, and colour of the entrants. The winner of the scholarship will be announced in London on November 24.
The foundation’s chairperson Muthoni Garland will sit on the panel of judges for the 2022 edition of the awards alongside Bibi Bakare-Yusuf and Chuma Nwokolo.
