Championing Keletso's Amazing Talent

Hi there! My name is Bianca Marais, and I'm an author, creative writing instructor and podcast host who originally hails from South Africa.

I’d like to tell you about Keletso Mopai who is an incredibly talented South African writer whose work has been published in numerous publications since she began her writing journey almost seven years ago. Her debut collection of stories was published in 2019 to critical acclaim, and some of her stories are used as course content at South African universities.

Keletso completed her studies in geology for her undergraduate and honors, however, she has a passion for storytelling, and she would like to pursue it academically. A master's degree in creative writing would give her the necessary training to become a creative writing professional, and she plans to use the role to pay it forward by imparting her knowledge and love for literature to future Black youth.

Since 2018, Keletso has been offered various opportunities to study at several prestigious universities abroad, including the University of East Anglia, Edinburgh University, Birkbeck University, SOAS University, and recently at the University of Kent’s Paris School of Arts and Culture, as well as the University of Cape Town.

Unfortunately, due to lack of funding and sponsorship, Keletso had to let go of some of those offers.

Because of the high youth unemployment rate in South Africa, she has been unable to afford the required fees as she has been without work for over two years despite her best efforts at finding employment.

Keletso has been offered a spot to do her MA in Creative Writing at Kent University Paris School of Arts and Culture (MA in Creative Writing) in France. But since the fees will be €18 750, she’s given up on that dream entirely.

The University of Cape Town has also accepted her for an MA in Creative Writing in South Africa and the two years of study will be approximately US $ 14 000 which is the least expensive of all the offers.

I’m trying to raise funds for Keletso’s first year of study (including her residence fees) as part of the Eunice Ngogodo Own Voices Initiative. We need more young Black women telling their own stories, and the only way to make that happen is to champion them and remove barriers to entry, including financial ones.

Please consider donating.

If you're a writer, for each $20 you donate, you'll get one ticket into a draw to have a full manuscript evaluation done by me. I'll do one draw when we hit our 50% goal and another when we reach the full goal. So that's two full manuscript evaluations up for grabs! If you donate $100, you'll get 5 tickets into the draw, etc.