Deadline: November 1, 2025
Applications are open for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2026. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is an annual award for unpublished short fiction administered and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation.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 started in 2012 with the launch of Commonwealth Writers. Free to enter and with a global reach across five continents, the Prize seeks out talented writers and brings stories from new and emerging voices to an international audience. Stories often come from countries with little or no publishing infrastructure and from places that are marked by geographical, geopolitical or economic isolation. The Prize now attracts between 6,000 and 7,000 entries each year from almost all of the 54 countries of the Commonwealth. It is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction.
Commonwealth Writers is the cultural initiative of the Commonwealth Foundation. They inspire and connect writers and storytellers across the world, bringing personal stories to a global audience.
Prizes
There will be five winners, one from each region. One regional winner will be selected as the overall winner.
- One of the regional winners is selected as the overall winner, who receives £5,000. The regional winners will receive £2,500.
- All five regional winning stories will be published on Granta.
Eligibility
- Entrants must be citizens of a Commonwealth country 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 November 1, 2025.
- 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. Entrants who have won the regional prize three times are also not eligible to submit to the prize.
- 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 2026.
- If your entry has been shortlisted or won a prize in other competitions, provided it has not been published, it is eligible.
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
Writers have until 11.59pm GMT on 1 November 2025 to enter their story.
Click here to submit your entry
For more information, visit Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
