Submissions can be made in one of the 13 available languages, including Creole, Chinese, French, and Swahili.
By Helena Olori
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is currently open for submissions for the 2024 edition, with a submission deadline set for November 1, 2023.
The prestigious annual award, funded and administered by the Commonwealth Foundation, celebrates exceptional unpublished short fiction works from writers aged 18 and above from across Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
A panel of six judges, chaired by the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize overall winner, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, will assess the submissions. The Ugandan-British novelist is joined by Keletso Mopai for Africa Region, O Thiam Chin for the Asia, Shashi Bhat for Canada and Europe Region, Richard Georges for the Caribbean, and Melissa Lucashenko for the Pacific Region.
(Read also: South African Writer, Hana Gammon, Wins Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa Region)
A longlist of 200 entries will be announced after the submission deadline, followed by a shortlist of 20 stories. Five regional winners, as well as the overall winner, will be chosen from this shortlist with each regional winner receiving a cash prize of £2,500, while the overall winner takes home the grand prize of £5,000.
In addition, the winning stories will be published in Granta magazine and in a special print collection by Paper + Ink. All shortlisted stories will also feature in adda, the online literary magazine of the Commonwealth Foundation.
(Read also: Eswatini Writer, Ntsika Kota, Wins 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Makes History)
Interested participants can submit their entries in one of the 13 available languages, including Bengali, Chinese, Creole, English, French, Greek, Malay, Maltese, Portuguese, Samoan, Swahili, Tamil, and Turkish. Submissions translated into English from any language are also eligible, with an additional cash prize accruing to the translator of the winning story.
Eligible entries must be an unpublished fiction genre of 2000-5000 words submitted via this link on or before November 1, 2023.
Further details on eligibility and entry guidelines are available on the website.