The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is an annual award for unpublished short fiction administered and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation. The prize covers the Commonwealth regions of 1. Africa, 2. Asia, 3. Canada and Europe, 4. Caribbean and 5. Pacific. (See Section 5 for countries in each region).
Eligibility
a. 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 nonCommonwealth countries are not eligible.
b. 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.
c. 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.
d. Entrants must be aged 18 years or over on 1 November 2023.
e. 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.
f. Entries from previous overall winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize are not eligible. Entrants who have won the regional prize three times are also not eligible to submit to the prize.
g. Entries from current members of staff at the Commonwealth Foundation are not eligible.
h. Entries must be unpublished and remain unpublished in any language until 1 May 2024.
i. If your entry has been shortlisted or won a prize in other competitions, provided it has not been published, it is eligible.
Requirements
- The prize is free to enter and open to any citizen of a Commonwealth country aged 18 and over.
- It is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words).
- Submissions are accepted in Bengali, Chinese, Creole, English, French, Greek, Malay, Maltese, Portuguese, Samoan, Swahili, Tamil, and Turkish. Stories that have been translated into English from any language are also accepted and the translator of any winning story receives additional prize money.
Prizes
- The regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives a total of £5,000.
- The winning stories are published online by Granta and in a special print collection by Paper + Ink.
- The shortlisted stories are published in adda, the online literary magazine of the Commonwealth Foundation.
