Deadline: 1 November 2018.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words) in English. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000. Translated entries are also eligible, as are stories written in the original Bengali, Chinese, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan and Tamil. The competition is free to enter.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is an annual award for unpublished short fiction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 initiative of
the Commonwealth Foundation.
The prize covers the Commonwealth regions of 1. Africa, 2. Asia, 3. Canada and Europe, 4.Caribbean and 5. Pacific.
The international judging panel comprises one judge from each of the five regions. Please note
that while the entries will be judged regionally, all judges will read and deliberate on entries
from all regions.
Benefits:
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.
The final selection will be judged by an international judging panel; experienced readers will
assist the named judges in selecting the longlist.
Eligibility:
- Entrants must be citizens of a Commonwealth country – please see Section 4 for the list of Commonwealth countries. The Commonwealth Foundation will request verification of citizenship before winners are selected. Entries from writers from non-Commonwealth countries (including the Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe) are not eligible.
- For regional purposes, entries will be judged by country of citizenship. Where the writer has dual citizenship, 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 they are a citizen of a Commonwealth country.
- Entrants must be aged 18 years or over on 1 November 2018.
- 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 2019.
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, 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, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint 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 Territory: Pitcairn.
For enquiries:
For any entry or eligibility queries not covered below, please email [email protected] for
clarification before submitting an entry
How to apply:
