The Miles Morland Foundation, which runs an annual scholarship, has announced a new award: The Morland Travel Award. Three writers will receive £6,000 each “to take a trip to somewhere off the wall, off the map, different, and interesting.” The trip should last between two weeks and one month.
The result of that trip should be a piece of writing, a series of photographs, some paintings, or something else tangible that shows the impact the trip has made on the award winner. It is possible that the recipients will arrange to get the results of their trip published or exhibited. That is up to them. From our point of view, the pleasure will be from learning how the recipients have been changed by their award trip.
Our travel awards will be open to anyone over 23 who is resident in England and is not a student in full-time education.
Resident is defined as having spent at least six of the last twelve months in England and having submitted a UK tax return in the latest year.
Our awards are about travel changing you, not you changing the places you go to. Entries where the entrant wants to meet unusual people and find out stuff we don’t know
will be at the front of the queue.
Requirements
1. Send the MMF a Word doc with two elements. First, a 200 to 300 word bio including your address and telephone number and finishing with “I confirm that I am not a full-time student.” Secondly, a piece of under 2000 words saying, if you win a Travel Award, where you would go, when, how long for, why you have chosen that place, and what the result of your journey would be. The result should be something
tangible such as a piece of writing or a series of paintings or photographs. Within one month of your return you may be asked to present this to the MMF. You can also, if you wish, not compulsory, attach a link to work you have already done to show your ability.
2. A scan of the information page of your passport.
3. Convincing evidence that you have lived in England for at least six of the past twelve months. Don’t fib about this because if you get short-listed for an award we may ask to see your passport to check entries and exits.
4. A scan of the cover page of your latest UK tax return (which shows us nothing apart from your address).
These should be emailed to Mathilda Edwards, using travel@milesmorlandfoundation.com.
More Information
Please don’t ask questions about what constitutes “convincing evidence” of residence. It’s up
to you to convince us.
The MMF does not have a big enough staff to deal with queries. Entries that lack any of the
four elements above will go in the bin.
Please also note we won’t be able to help winners with their travel or visa arrangements. We suggest they get insurance.
Entries must reach us by June 30, 2023. Be aware that we may cut off entries earlier if we are swamped so get your entry in earlyish. We guarantee that we will not close to entries before May 15.
We may ask certain entrants supplementary questions to help us decide (that’s why we need your phone number).
We will announce the winners on July 1.
The travel grants will be made on Sep 1, 2023.
Your travel should be completed by Dec 31, 2024.
Award winners should be ready to present the product of their trip to the MMF Trustees in London within one month of their return.
We will announce the names of the winners but we don’t have the resources to inform those who did not get an award.