Commonwealth literary competition opens
(CNS Local Life): The Commonwealth Short Story Prize – the flagship project of Commonwealth Writers and the world’s most global literary prize – is open for entries, with the closing date 1 November. Last year’s chair of judges, the British novelist Sarah Hall, said of the prize in a press release: “This is such a great, unique prize, one that seeks to uphold both literary community and particularity, crossing borders with the ambition of collating our common and unique stories.”
The prize is awarded to the best piece of unpublished short fiction. As well as being open to entries in English and translated into English from any language, it is the only literary prize in the world where entries can be submitted in Bengali, Chinese, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan, Swahili, and Tamil, said the release.
The judges choose a winner from each of the five Commonwealth regions – Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean and the Pacific – one of which is selected as the overall winner. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000.
All winners are published by Granta online, and selected shortlisted stories on adda, the Commonwealth Writers’ online magazine of international writing.
According to its website, Commonwealth Writers is the cultural initiative of the Commonwealth Foundation, set up in 2012 “to inspire and connect writers and storytellers across the world”, with the organisers adding “We believe that well-told stories can help people make sense of events, engage with others and take action to bring about change.”
Kevin Jared Hosein, winner of the 2018 short story prize, said, “The prize jump-started my literary career and for that I am extremely grateful. The entries that are lauded and selected are diverse in not just character, but style and genre. Entering the Commonwealth Short Story Prize is one of the best things you can do as an aspiring author.”
Writers who are Commonwealth citizens may enter their stories online here
Category: Language
