Deadline: November 1, 2018
Applications are open for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2019. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is an annual award for unpublished short fiction administered and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation. The Prize is run by Commonwealth Writers, the cultural initiative of the Commonwealth Foundation.
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. e. 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. f. The final selection will be judged by an international judging panel; experienced readers will assist the named judges in selecting the longlist.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words) in English.
Prizes
Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000.
Eligibility
- Open to young writers who must be citizens of a Commonwealth country:
- 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 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.
- 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
Entry Rules
- The story must be the entrant’s own work
- Entries must be unpublished and remain unpublished in any language until 1 May 2019.
- Entries must be 2,000 words minimum, 5,000 words maximum (not including title).
- Entries should be submitted in English, with the following exceptions: entries from Commonwealth citizens who write in Bengali, Chinese, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan and Tamil and who do not have an English translation of their story, may submit their stories in the original language.
- Entries should be uploaded in a PDF document. Please save your document as a PDF and use the title of the story as the file name. Please note the story must not be saved as ‘Commonwealth Story’, ‘Short Story’ or any other generic title.
- The author’s details should be included on the entry form. They must not be given anywhere on the uploaded document. All entries are judged anonymously.
- All entries should be submitted in Arial 12-point font and double line spacing. All pages should be numbered and include a header with the title of the story.
- The story should be adult fiction and must not have been written for children alone
Application
The competition is free to enter.
For more information, visit Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
