The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is an annual award for unpublished short fiction administered and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation. 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 It is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words).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 the additional prize money.

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 1 November 2022.
• 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• Entries must be unpublished and remain unpublished in any language until 1 May 2023.

Timeline

November 1, 2022: The application portal closes.

How to Apply

If you check all criteria boxes, begin your application online before the Commonwealth Short Story Prize closes on Tuesday,  November 1, 2022

Author: whewowin