Malorie Blackman Scholarships

City Lit’s Malorie Blackman Scholarships for Unheard Voices provide three annual awards to fund one year’s study within the Creative Writing department at City Lit.

The awards seek to support and encourage the creative and professional development of ‘unheard voices’.

The final award winners are selected by acclaimed writer, City Lit fellow and Patron of the School of Culture and Communication, Malorie Blackman OBE.

Cropped photo of Malorie Blackman smiling and holding a book

2024-25 Scholarships

As of 1 February 2024, applications for our 2024-25 Malorie Blackman Scholarships are now closed. Thank you so much to the record number of writers who applied this year - we can't wait to read your work and learn more about your stories!

Our 2024-25 Malorie Blackman Scholars will be announced later this year.

2025-26 Scholarships

Details of how to apply for the 2025-26 scholarship programme will be published on this webpage towards the end of 2024. In the meantime, please see further information below. If you have any queries, please contact writing@citylit.ac.uk.

The award

The award, worth up to £1,000 for each successful applicant, is to be spent on creative writing courses within one academic year, and can be used against a single course or group of courses appropriate to the award recipient’s creative and learning aims. Award recipients will have the opportunity to speak to a member of the Writing team who will advise and help organise a study plan to best support the development of their writing.

Selection criteria

• The scholarship award is open to all who have a strong interest in writing and who demonstrate talent and potential in their writing skills. You do not need to be a current or former City Lit student in order to apply for this award.
• The award welcomes applications from ‘Unheard Voices’, and in particular from students who identify as belonging to under-represented groups. This includes (but is not exclusive to) those with disabilities, people from minority backgrounds and communities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and BAME writers.
• The longlisting and shortlisting process will be conducted by a panel consisting of members of the City Lit Writing team, and will take into account 1) the quality and potential of the writing, and 2) the extent to which the panel agrees that the applicant meets the selection criteria.
• Award patron Malorie Blackman who will decide the final award winners from a shortlist of ten applications.

About Malorie

Malorie Blackman has a long connection with City Lit as a former student attending diverse courses since the late 1980s. Having written over fifty books, Malorie is acknowledged, as one of today’s most imaginative and convincing writers for young readers; works which further translate into captivating stories for fans of all ages on the small screen.

She has been recognised with numerous honours for her work and in 2008 received an OBE for her services to children’s literature. Malorie was the Children’s Laureate between 2013 and 2015 and her autobiography will be published on Stormzy’s Merky Books imprint in 2022.