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Regional Winners of Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2023
The Commonwealth Foundation has announced that five ‘gripping’ stories tackling ‘difficult metaphysical and historical questions’ have won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, the world’s most global literary prize. The writers—who hail from Jamaica, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and the United Kingdom—are recognised for stories which range from literary fiction to historical and speculative fiction. The stories address a rich diversity of themes: from exploitation to subversive acts of rebellion, cultural displacement, the balance of life and death, the world of adults as viewed by children, and the pull of family ties across the globe and through the generations. The judges remarked on the strong sense of place in all the stories—with locations featuring a building site in Britain, a German oncology clinic ‘oceans away’ from the narrator’s homeland, and a war-torn town in Sri Lanka. Two stories are based on historical events: ‘Ocoee’ is named after a town in Florida where, in November 1920, a group of African Americans were massacred in a brutal, racially aggravated attack. ‘Kilinochchi’ in northern Sri Lanka is the setting for a story in which a mother searches for her son who is fighting in the Sri Lankan civil war. These stories tackle painful themes unflinchingly and show how love and human warmth can thrive in the most unlikely of places. Chair of the Judges Bilal Tanweer had this to say about the judging process: ‘It was both an agony and a pleasure to choose the overall winner from each region. All the winning stories demonstrated impressive ambition, an intimate understanding of place and a real mastery of the craft. The judges were unanimous in their admiration of these stories and how they sought to tackle difficult metaphysical and historical questions.’ The international judging panel chose the five winning stories from a shortlist of 28. Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from any of the Commonwealth’s 56 Member States. This year’s award saw a total of 6,642 entries including, for the first time, Togo, and Gabon—the very newest Member States of the Commonwealth. The prize is the most accessible and international of all writing competitions: in addition to English, entries can be submitted in Bengali, Chinese, Creole, French, Greek, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan, Swahili, Tamil, and Turkish. Such linguistic diversity in a short story prize in part reflects the richness of the Commonwealth, not least its many and varied literary traditions. In 2023, 475 entries were submitted in languages other than English. The winning stories are: Africa: ‘The Undertaker's Apprentice’ by Hana
Gammon (South Africa)
‘The Undertaker's Apprentice’ by Hana Gammon (South Africa) ‘The Undertaker's Apprentice’ follows a group of children in a small town, relaying their interactions with the town's sombre but kind mortician. As the children grow up, they are forced to question issues of growth, decay, and exchange between different states of being. About the author: 20-year-old student Hana Gammon was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and has had a love for writing ever since she could first pick up a pen. She is currently studying for a BA in Language and Culture at the University of Stellenbosch.
‘Oceans Away from my Homeland’ by Agnes Chew (Singapore) ‘Oceans Away from my Homeland’ is about a woman’s struggle to confront the perceived changes in her life—both of and beyond her own making. About the author: 34-year-old Agnes Chew is the author of Eternal Summer of My Homeland (forthcoming from Epigram Books) and The Desire for Elsewhere (Math Paper Press, 2016). Her work has appeared in Necessary Fiction, Wildness Journal, and NonBinary Review, among others. She holds a Master’s degree in international development from the London School of Economics. Born and raised in Singapore, she is currently based in Germany.
‘Lech, Prince, and the Nice Things’ by Rue Baldry (UK) A young Black plasterer, drawn to committing petty acts of revenge against his employer’s neglected possessions, risks becoming more diminished than those status symbols. About the author: Rue Baldry is a British author. She lives in York, has a Creative Writing MA from Leeds University, was a Bridge Awards Emerging Writer, Jerwood/Arvon mentee and Women's Prize Discoveries longlistee. She has published stories in Ambit, Mslexia, Fairlight Shorts, Litro, Honest Ulsterman, MIR, and The First Line. Her work has placed in several competitions, including coming second in the Yeovil Prize. Her debut novel, Dwell, is currently on submission.
‘Ocoee’ by Kwame McPherson (Jamaica) The story is an interweaving of African American reality and history, and Caribbean folklore. About the author: a past student at London Metropolitan University and University of Westminster, Kwame McPherson is a 2007 Poetic Soul winner and was the first Jamaican Flash Fiction Bursary Awardee for The Bridport Prize: International Creative Writing Competition in 2020. A prolific writer, Kwame is a recent and successful contributor to Flame Tree Publishing’s (UK) diverse-writing anthologies and a contributor to ‘The Heart of a Black Man’ anthology to be published in Los Angeles, which tells personal, inspiring, uplifting, and empowering stories from influential and powerful Black men.
‘Kilinochchi’ by Himali McInnes (New Zealand) ‘Kilinochchi’ is set during an especially bloody time in Sri Lanka's civil war. The protagonist, an up-country Tamil tea-picker, comes from a long line of indentured labourers. About the author: Himali McInnes works as a family doctor in a busy Auckland practice and in the prison system. She is a constant gardener, a chicken farmer, and a beekeeper. Himali writes short stories, essays, flash fiction and poetry, and has been published in various journals and anthologies. Her non-fiction book The Unexpected Patient was published in 2021.
Download authors’ photographs and biographies here Bilal Tanweer chairs this year’s panel of judges, each representing the five regions of the Commonwealth. These are Rwandan-born writer, photographer, and editor, Rémy Ngamije (Africa), Sri Lankan author and publisher Ameena Hussein (Asia), British-Canadian author Katrina Best (Canada and Europe), Saint Lucian poet and novelist Mac Donald Dixon (Caribbean), and New Zealand’s former Poet Laureate, Dr. Selina Tusitala Marsh (Pacific). Download judges’ photographs and biographies here The five regional winners’ stories will be published online by the literary magazine Granta, ahead of the announcement of the overall winner. Granta’s Deputy Editor and Managing Director Luke Neima says, ‘We're thrilled to be publishing the regional winners of the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize at Granta. Year after year the prize has put a spotlight on extraordinary new talents working across the Commonwealth, and this cohort is one of exceptional promise and talent.' As part of the Commonwealth Foundation’s partnership with The London Library, the overall winner receives two years’ Full Membership to the Library and the regional winners receive a year’s Full Membership.
Be the first to know the overall winner of the prize by following @cwfcreatives on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and keep up to date with the prize via commonwealthfoundation.com/short-story-prize/
ENDS
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is administered by the Commonwealth Foundation. The prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2000-5000 words). Regional winners receive £2,500 GBP and the overall winner receives £5,000 GBP. Short stories translated into English from other languages are also eligible.
About the Commonwealth Foundation The Commonwealth Foundation is an intergovernmental organisation established by Heads of Government in support of the belief that the Commonwealth is as much an association of peoples as it is of governments. It is the Commonwealth agency for civil society; an organisation dedicated to strengthening people’s participation in all aspects of public dialogue, so they can act together and learn from each other to build free, open and democratic societies. commonwealthfoundation.com |
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