Nigerian writer Olakunle Ologunro has been awarded the prestigious $57,000 Olive B. O’Connor Fellowship in Fiction at Colgate University for the 2025-2026 session. This annual fellowship is recognized as one of the most highly rated creative writing fellowships in the U.S., selecting only two writers each year. Ologunro's selection highlights his burgeoning talent and significant achievements in the literary world.

The Olive B. O’Connor Fellowship is specifically designed to support writers in the crucial phase of completing their first books. It offers a generous stipend, dedicated office space, and an intellectual community for its recipients during their academic year at Colgate University. In return for this support, each fellow is required to teach one multigenre creative writing workshop per semester and deliver a public reading of their work, fostering both their own creative development and the university's literary environment.

Ologunro joins a distinguished list of Nigerian writers who have previously received this coveted fellowship, including Chinelo Okparanta (2012-2013), Gbenga Adesina (2019-2020), and Ajibola Tolase (2023-2024), underscoring the growing influence of Nigerian literary voices on the international stage.

Academically, Olakunle Ologunro holds an MFA in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University. During his time there, his story titled “Besties” received an honorable mention for the 2024 Benjamin T. Sankey fellowship. Judge Asali Solomon praised his work, describing it as “tragic and funny in equal measure, with effortlessly drawn complex and complete characters,” a testament to his nuanced storytelling ability.

Ologunro's literary career is marked by numerous accolades and significant support from various institutions. He has been honored with an Elizabeth George Foundation grant, a Tennessee Williams Scholarship for the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and a Juniper Summer Workshop Scholarship, in addition to being nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His writing has also received invaluable support from the Virginia Centre for the Creative Arts (VCCA), Vermont Studio Centre, and Aspen Words, where he was named a 2025 Emerging Writer Fellow in Fiction.

His fiction has found homes in reputable literary publications, appearing or forthcoming in Story Magazine, Lolwe, the Queer Africa anthology, the Feel Good anthology, the New England Review, and other notable platforms. Furthermore, Ologunro won the inaugural Kreative Diadem Prize and was a finalist for the 2017 Awele Creative Trust Award, the Gerald Kraak Award (for work addressing gender, social justice, and sexuality), and the Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship from One Story Magazine. His talent has also been recognized with longlistings for the 2024 Commonwealth Prize and the Miles Morland writing scholarship.

Beyond his prose, Olakunle Ologunro is an alumnus of the 2016 Farafina Trust Creative Writing Workshop, facilitated by the acclaimed Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. He is also an alumnus of the EbonyLife Creative Academy (ELCA), where he honed his skills in The Art of Screenwriting. His versatility extends to television, where he holds writing credits for popular AfricaMagic telenovelas such as Venge, Itura (which won the AMVCA Best Scripted Series in 2024), and Tinsel, Nigeria’s longest-running TV series.

The literary community eagerly anticipates the new works Olakunle Ologunro will create during his tenure at Colgate University, building upon his already impressive portfolio of achievements.