Submissions are invited from eligible candidates for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2022.

About the Program

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.

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Eligibility

  • Entrants must be citizens of 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 1 November 2021.
  • 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. Entries from previous regional winners are eligible.
  • 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  • Entries must be unpublished and remain unpublished in any language until 1 May 2022.

Prizes

  • The prize is free to enter and open to any citizen of a Commonwealth country who is aged 18 and over.  It is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words). Regional winners each receive £2,500 and the opportunity to be published online by Granta magazine, and the overall winner receives £5,000.
  • As well as English, stories are accepted in the Bengali, Chinese, Creole, French, Greek, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan, Tamil and Turkish languages. Translated entries from any language into English are also eligible. If the winning story is a translation, the translator receives additional prize money.

How to Submit

Contact
  • Email: writers@commonwealth.int

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