The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is an annual award for unpublished short fiction administered and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is run by Commonwealth Writers, the cultural programme of the Commonwealth Foundation. The prize covers the Commonwealth regions of 1. Africa, 2. Asia, 3. Canada and Europe, 4. Caribbean and 5. Pacific.
Eligibility
- Entrants must be citizens of a Commonwealth country – please see Section 5 for the list of Commonwealth countries – or stateless persons currently residing in a Commonwealth country. The Commonwealth Foundation will request verification of citizenship status before winners are selected. Entries from citizens of non-Commonwealth countries are not eligible.
- For regional purposes, entries will be judged by country of citizenship. Where the writer has dual citizenship (of two Commonwealth countries), the entry will be judged in the region where the writer is permanently resident.
- – There is no requirement for the writer to have current residence in a Commonwealth country,
providing that they are a citizen of a Commonwealth country. - – Entrants must be aged 18 years or over on 1 November 2021.
– All entries will be accepted at the discretion of the Commonwealth Foundation which will exercise its judgement, in consultation with the prize chair, in ruling on questions of eligibility. The ruling of the chair on questions of eligibility is final, and no further correspondence will be entered into.
– Entries from previous overall winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize are not eligible. Entries from previous regional winners are eligible.
– Entries from current members of staff at the Commonwealth Foundation are not eligible.
– Entries must be unpublished and remain unpublished in any language until 1 May 2022.
Requirements
- The prize is free to enter and open to any citizen of a Commonwealth country who is aged 18 and over.
- It is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words).
- As well as English, stories are accepted in the Bengali, Chinese, French, Greek, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan, Tamil and Turkish languages. Translated entries from any language into English are also eligible. If the winning story is a translation, the translator receives additional prize money.
Price
- Regional winners each receive £2,500 and the opportunity to be published online by Granta magazine, and the overall winner receives £5,000.
- There will be five winners, one from each region. One regional winner will be selected as the overall winner. The overall winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize will receive £5,000 and the remaining four regional winners £2,500.
- If the winning short story is a translation into English, the translator will receive additional prize money.
Prize regions
Africa: Botswana, Cameroon, eSwatini, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius,
Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania,
Uganda, Zambia. Overseas Territories: Saint Helena, Tristan Da Cunha, Ascension Island.
Asia: Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka
Canada and Europe: Canada, Cyprus, Malta, United Kingdom. Overseas Territories: Gibraltar,
Falkland Islands.
Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana,
Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago.
Overseas Territories: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Turks
and Caicos Islands.
Pacific: Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands,
Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu. Overseas Territories: Cook Islands, Niue, Pitcairn.
Application Deadline: 30 September 2021
