Aplly before August  14

Common Ground Fellowship 2026

Applications are now open for the inaugural Common Ground Fellowship, a three-month editorial fellowship for emerging writers and photographers based in Freetown.

The fellowship emerges from a simple belief: meaningful stories take time to create. They come from observation, research, conversation, revision, and care, and yet chances to develop work in this way are rare. Most practitioners work alone, without access to editors, critical feedback, or the kind of collaborative spaces where ideas are nurtured from inception to completion.

The Common Ground Fellowship opens up Muyu Journal’s editorial process to six emerging practitioners, offering mentorship, collaborative research, editorial critique, and publication. We’re not looking for finished projects; we’re looking for people with curiosity, commitment, and ideas worth developing. Recipients of the fellowship will work alongside editors, mentors, guest practitioners, and peers to turn an early idea into a published piece for Issue 02: Common Ground.

❋ About the Theme

Common Ground explores the threads that connect us across West Africa  – the shared spaces, histories, tensions, and connections that bring people together, or reveal the rifts that exist between us.

We’re not searching for a singular identity. We’re more interested in the overlaps, frictions, memories, and everyday realities that make up contemporary West African life.

We want work that’s thoughtful, grounded, and considered. We welcome stories rooted in lived experiences, memory, inquiry and imagination.

❋ What You’ll Do

Over three months, fellows will be guided through Muyu Journal’s editorial process. Together, we’ll research, draft work, edit, interrogate and revise before finally publishing.

  • The programme includes:

    • One-to-one editorial sessions and mentorship (or should we say bi-weekly editorial sessions here)

    • One-to-one editorial feedback

    • Peer critique and collaborative exercises

    • Cross-disciplinary collaboration between writers and photographers (Will love to experiment with this)

    • Guest workshops with artists, editors, curators, and cultural practitioners

    • Support with field research and independent project development

    • Publication in Muyu Journal Issue 02

    • Participation in exhibitions, conversations, readings, and the journal launch

    • Membership to the Muyu Fellowship alumni network

❋ Support

  • Editorial mentorship throughout the programme

  • Access to guest practitioners and Muyu’s editorial network

  • Publication opportunities

  • Camera loans where needed

Subject to funding, production grants may also be available to support selected projects.

❋ What We’re Looking For

We’re looking for six emerging practitioners based in Freetown. Ideally, the cohort will be three writers and three photographers, though that may shift depending on the strength of applications.

You don’t need an extensive portfolio, and you don’t need to have been published before. What we’re looking for is curiosity: people who are open to collaboration and genuinely excited by the editorial process itself.

Whether you’re documenting your neighbourhood, writing poems or personal essays, digging through archives, making photographs, or just beginning to shape a longer-term project, we want to hear from you.

❋ Who Should Apply

Successful applicants will show:

  • Curiosity, and a willingness to research deeply

  • A strong interest in visual or written storytelling

  • Openness to feedback and collaboration

  • Commitment to the full programme (need to find a way to stress this more)

  • A real desire to develop an original project over three months

We’re weighing potential just as much as experience.

A Final Note

This fellowship isn’t a competition to find finished work. It’s an invitation to build something together.

If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to develop an idea, ask difficult questions, get honest editorial feedback, and become part of a growing community of writers, photographers, and editors, we’d love to hear from you.

The programme operates in a hybrid format, combining in-person residency periods in Freetown with flexible remote engagement, allowing artists to participate while remaining connected to their own communities and contexts. Though we value flexibility and will do our best to work around fellows’ existing commitments, we urge you not to apply if you’re unable to dedicate the necessary time and focus required over the full course of the programme.

We are not accepting AI-generated submissions. The submitting artist or writer must create all writing or photography work.

❋ Before You Apply

  • Before starting your application, please have the following ready:

    • A short statement introducing yourself

    • A brief description of the story or project you’d like to develop

    • Writers: Upload 2 writing samples (PDF preferred)
      Photographers: Upload 5–10 photographs in a PDF with titles
      Both: Upload whichever best represents your current practice.

    The application takes approximately 15 minutes to complete.

❋ Key Dates

  • Applications open: 24 July 2026

  • Applications close: 14 August 2026

  • Cohort announced: 21 August 2026

Publication: Muyu Journal Issue 02, Common Ground

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