Twenty-Five Thousand Rand Writing Grant Empowers Authors: Call For 2018 Applications

The Academic and Non-Fiction Authors’ Association of South Africa (ANFASA)  is currently accepting applications for its next round of the AGSA grant scheme to benefit authors of scholarly and general non-fiction works. Writers who are currently working on a book are encouraged to submit applications and the deadline is 30 September 2018.

The 2017 recipients of the grant include Bongani Ndodana-Breen for his work  “Mzansi’s Other Voices” which provides a historical survey of the pre-1994 era in South African art music, beginning by addressing examples of Afrikaner nationalism that manifested in music from the 1950s through to the 1980s; Dr Same Mdluli’s “Traversing the Rural: Revisiting the work of South African artist Johannes Segogela”  that considers the artist Johannes Segogela’s oeuvre and biography raising critical questions around the type of art produced by contemporary African artists and its placement within modernist history through certain exhibition practices, and scholar and political analyst Raymond Suttner’s “Memoirs”.

The grants are intended to provide a sum of around R25 000 to be used for an author to “buy time” – to take leave, for instance, and devote herself or himself to writing; or to travel in order to conduct research. The grants are for research and writing, and are not usually intended to cover the cost of publishing the manuscript although a grant could also be used to cover some editing costs, for instance, if properly motivated.

If you are currently working on a scholarly or a general non-fiction work, you are eligible to apply. However, if selected, only ANFASA members may actually receive an award.

What is a “general non-fiction work”? Just as an example, it could be a biography or an autobiography; a history of a town or a region or a religion; a book about music or sport or theatre; a political or social analysis; an account of everyday life in a township; a book about nursing, or cooking, or fashion, or fishes, or traditional medicines, or cars – those are just a few of the many topics supported by the ANFASA grant scheme in the past.

An independent committee will assess the applications and select the most deserving. The selection committee aims to offer awards to a wide-ranging group of authors and subjects, and the selection process will respect the need to treat new and experienced authors equally; to bear in mind authors writing in rural as well as urban locations; and to consider authors at all levels of education from the untutored to the degreed.

The ANFASA grant scheme especially encourages writing by new authors. Applications for books written in all the official languages will be equally considered.

Go to http://www.anfasa.org.za/anfasa-grant-scheme-for-authors-agsa-application-form-for-a-grant/ to apply online or send an e-mail to info@anfasa.org.za. The closing date for applications is 30 September, and the successful applications will be announced in December.

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Issued by JT Communication Solutions on behalf of ANFASA