The £5k Commonwealth Short Story Prize reveals 2024 shortlist
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize has announced a 23-strong shortlist (see below) selected from over 7,300 entries, a 10% rise on submissions from last year.
The £5,000 award is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from any of the Commonwealth’s 56 Member States.
This year’s shortlist hail from 13 countries across the Commonwealth, all but one of whom are shortlisted for the first time.
Stories range from romances and speculative fiction, to family dramas and coming-of-age tales, and address a range of topics from motherhood and bereavement to mental illness and forbidden love. While romance and thrillers feature prominently, nearly a quarter of the shortlisted stories are speculative fiction, prize organisers said.
Many of the stories are told through the eyes of children, five of the stories reflect on motherhood while other topics range from music, football, art, film, the impact of electricity arriving in a village and one woman’s passion for tea.
The stories were selected from a total of 7,359 entries, a 10% uplift on last year. Three small Commonwealth countries – Mauritius, Rwanda and St Kitts and Nevis are represented for the first time. The shortlisted writers– six men, 15 women and two who identify as non-binary – range in age from 26 to 70 with all but one never having been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize before.
Five judges from the five regions of the Commonwealth join author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi who is chairing: writers Keletso Mopai, O Thiam Chin, Shashi Bhat, Richard Georges and Melissa Lucashenko.
Makumbi said: “Whether reading stories from Africa and Asia, through Europe and Canada to the Caribbean Islands and the Pacific, you’ll be amazed and thrilled, startled and shocked, and heartbroken and humbled in equal measure by the skill and talent, imagination and creativity, by the flexibility of the form and what it is capable of, and by what the world is doing with the English language.”
Dr Anne T Gallagher, director-general of the Commonwealth Foundation, said: “The Short Story Prize is legendary for unearthing and nurturing the rich creative talent of our Commonwealth. This year is no exception and I have been overwhelmed by the depth and reach of the 2024 shortlist.”
The shortlisted stories will be published in the online magazine of the Commonwealth Foundation, adda, and the judges will choose a winner for each of the five regions. The regional winners will be announced on 29th May, each receiving £2,500, before being published online by the literary magazine Granta. The overall winner will be announced on 26th June, £5,000.
Jamaican writer Kwame McPherson won the prize last year after entering seven times in total.
The 2024 shortlist in full:
Africa
- “Fadi” by Azags Agandaa (Ghana)
- “Dite” by Reena (Mauritius)
- “House No 49” by Olajide Omojarabi (Nigeria)
- “The Goat” by Jean Pierre Nikuze (Rwanda)
- “A Song Sung in Secret” by Jayne Bauling (South Africa)
Asia
- “Mother May I” by Ajay Patri (India)
- “Thambi, Thambi” by Bharath Kumar (India)
- “Aishwarya Rai” by Sanjana Thakur (India)
- “The Woman Upstairs” by Audrey Tan (Singapore)
Canada and Europe
- “When Things End” by Sarah Balakrishnan (Canada)
- “What Burns” by Julie Bouchard (Canada) (translated by Arielle Aaronson from the French, Ce Qui Brûle)
- “Your Own Dear, Obedient Daughters” by F E Choe (Canada)
- “Milk” by Eaton Hamilton (Canada)
- “Sookie Woodrow Goes to Heaven” by Ceilidh Michelle (Canada)
Caribbean
- “You Had Me at Aloe” by Ark Ramsay (Barbados)
- “The Marriage Proposal” by Heather Archibald (Saint Kitts and Nevis)
- “Wrinkle Release” by Stefan Bindley-Taylor (Trinidad and Tobago)
- “Terre Brulée” by Celeste Mohammed (Trinidad and Tobago)
- “The Devil’s Son” by Portia Subran (Trinidad and Tobago)
Pacific
- “Nobody Owns a Fire” by Jennifer Severn (Australia)
- “Mananangal” by M Donato (New Zealand)
- “A River Then the Road” by Pip Robertson (New Zealand)
- “So Clean” by Anna Woods (New Zealand)
