From its micro-campus in Johannesburg, JIAS offers writers and researchers space to develop new ideas and projects, free from the ordinary obligations of academic and professional life. As an institute for advanced study, JIAS is committed to cultivating ground-breaking research from across the Global South, incorporating the humanities, social sciences, arts and natural sciences.
JIAS Creative Writing Workshop for Emerging Writers
Applications Now Open | Deadline: 30 July 2025
The Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS) invites applications for the 2025 Creative Writing Workshop—a six-week, fully funded residency for emerging African writers working in poetry and the short story.
Running from 15 September to 31 October 2025, the workshop will host six writers at our micro-campus in Johannesburg. Travel, accommodation, and a stipend are included.
Facilitated by acclaimed poet, short story writer, and anthologist Makhosazana Xaba, the programme supports creative growth through collective dialogue, close reading, and experimentation. Participants will write, read, and reflect across genres, guided by this year’s theme: Exploring the Ordinary in Our Lives
Each week introduces sub-themes that draw on memory, imagination, and research—expanding craft through mentorship and peer exchange.
Rooted in care, critique, and creative freedom, the JIAS Creative Writing Workshop offers writers a space to think, experiment, and build lasting community across borders.
Learn more here: https://linktr.ee/JIAS_UJ
2025 JIAS Writing Fellowship
Following an open call released last year, JIAS received nearly 600 applications for the 2025 Writing Fellowship. Submissions poured in from across the African continent and the Global South — a remarkable response that speaks to the urgency and vitality of contemporary thought and creative work. The breadth and brilliance of the applications were humbling, and we remain truly grateful to every writer, scholar, and artist who shared their work with us.
After a rigorous and thoughtful selection process, we are proud to welcome a new cohort of Writing Fellows to Johannesburg this April.
The 2025 Fellows are:
Keguro Macharia — Scholar of intimacy, freedom, and Black aesthetics
Katucha Bento — Afro-Brazilian feminist sociologist and decolonial writer
Candice Jansen — Researcher of Black image archives and photographic memory
Sarah Lubala — Poet of exile, matriarchy, and memory
We are also pleased to welcome two deferred fellows:
Mosa Phadi — Sociologist examining Black class formations and the resonance of Du Bois in South Africa
Dee Marco — Creative scholar working across sound, memory, and feminist storytelling
This year’s Fellowship centers on the theme of Global Blackness. At JIAS, we use the term “global Blackness” to signal our investment in exploring the multiplicity of Black experience, intellectual traditions, and perspectives as well as modes of Black theory.
We ask: What are the geographies, practices, and theories of Blackness with which we work? How is Blackness instantiated in different spacetimes?
Contact us.
jiasinfo@uj.ac.za
+27 (0)11 559 7530
1 Tolip Street, Westdene
PO Box 524, Auckland Park, 2006,
Johannesburg, South Africa