The Commonwealth Short Story Prize started in 2012 with the launch of Commonwealth Writers. The prize seeks out talented writers and brings stories from new and emerging voices to an international audience. It is free to enter and has a global reach across five continents.
Apply Now: Commonwealth Youth Awards 2022/23
Stories are frequently submitted from countries with little or no publishing infrastructure and from areas marked by geographical, geopolitical, or economic isolation. The Prize now receives between 6,000 and 7,000 entries annually from nearly all of the Commonwealth’s 54 member countries. The prize is given to the best work of unpublished short fiction.
Commonwealth Writers is a Commonwealth Foundation cultural initiative. They motivate and connect writers and storytellers from all over the world, bringing personal experiences to a global audience.
| Key details |
|---|
| Host: Commonwealth Open to: Commonwealth member Countries Target: Writers Deadline: 1st November. 2022 |
Eligibility Criteria| Commonwealth Short Story Prize
- Entrants for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize must be at least 18 years old on November 1, 2022.
- Entries from previous Commonwealth Short Story Prize overall winners are ineligible.
- Previous regional winners’ entries are eligible.
- Entries from current Commonwealth Foundation employees are ineligible.
- Entries must be unpublished in any language and must remain unpublished until May 1, 2023.
- Stories are accepted in Bengali, Chinese, French, Greek, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan, Tamil, and Turkish, in addition to English. Translated entries from any language into English are also eligible. The translator receives additional prize money if the winning story is a translation.
- Entrants must be Commonwealth citizens or stateless people currently residing in a Commonwealth country. Before selecting winners, the Commonwealth Foundation will request proof of citizenship. Entries from non-Commonwealth citizens are not eligible.
- Entries will be judged regionally based on their country of citizenship. If a writer has dual citizenship (from two Commonwealth countries), the entry will be judged in the region where the writer is a permanent resident.
- There is no requirement for the writer to have a current residence in a Commonwealth country if they are a Commonwealth citizen.
Benefit
- Each regional winner gets £2,500, and their story is published online by Granta, a new writing magazine.
- The overall winner is chosen from among the regional winners and gets £5,000 – one of the highest amounts for an international prize for unpublished short stories.
Apply Now: Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance Scholarships for Africans 2022
Application Procedure
Entries for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize must be submitted via:
CommonWealth on www.commonwealthwriters.org
NOTE: Entries must be submitted via the online entry form by November 1, 2022 (11.59 pm in any time zone). No entries will be considered if submitted after this date.
For more info, visit Commonwealth Short Story Prize