‘Dancing with Ma’, Harriet Anena (Uganda)
‘Matalasi’, Jenny Bennett-Tuionetoa (Samoa)
‘An Elephant in Kingston’, Marcus Bird (Jamaica)
‘Tahiti’, Brendan Bowles (Canada)
‘Ghillie’s Mum’, Lynda Clark (United Kingdom)
‘Goat’, Sally Craythorne (United Kingdom)
‘The Divine Pregnancy in a Twelve-Year-Old Woman’, Sagnik Datta (India)
‘Soundtracker’, Christopher Evans (Canada)
‘Passage’, Kevin Jared Hosein (Trinidad and Tobago)
‘Jyamitik Zadukor (The Geometric Wizard)’ by Imran Khan (Bangladesh),
translated by Arunava Sinha
‘Talk of The Town’, Fred Khumalo (South Africa)
‘Night Fishing’, Karen Kwek (Singapore)
‘Nobody’s Wife’, Chris Mansell (Australia)
‘The Boss’, Breanne Mc Ivor (Trinidad and Tobago)
‘Holding On, Letting Go’, Sandra Norsen (Australia)
‘Empathy’, Cheryl Ntumy (Ghana)
‘A Girl Called Wednesday’, Kritika Pandey (India)
‘Chicken Boy’, Lynne Robertson (New Zealand)
‘Hitler Hates You’, Michelle Sacks (South Africa)
‘After the Fall’, James Smart (United Kingdom)
‘Son Son’s Birthday’, Sharma Taylor (Jamaica)
‘Berlin Lends a Hand’, Jonathan Tel (United Kingdom)
‘True Happiness’, Efua Traoré (Nigeria)
‘Juju’, Obi Umeozor (Nigeria)
Now in its seventh year, the Prize is for the best piece of unpublished short fiction in English. 24 outstanding stories from fourteen countries have been selected by an international judging panel from 5182 entries from 48 Commonwealth countries.
Chair of the judges, novelist and short story writer Sarah Hall, said of this year’s shortlist:
‘The versatility and power of the short story is abundantly clear in this shortlist. With such a range of subject, style, language and imagination, it is clear what a culturally important and relevant form it is, facilitating many different creative approaches, many voices and versions of life.
With a panel of judges also spanning the globe there was a sense of depth and breadth to the selection process, and each commonwealth region showcases the very best of its traditions, adaptations, and contemporary approaches.
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. It is an enormous pleasure, and illuminating, to have been part of the reading process’.
The Prize is judged by an international panel of writers, representing each of the five regions of the Commonwealth. The 2018 judges are Damon Galgut (Africa), Sunila Galappatti (Asia), Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm (Canada and Europe), Mark McWatt (Caribbean) and Paula Morris (Pacific).
‘Dancing with Ma’, Harriet Anena, (Uganda)
Dancing with Ma’ is the story of Kec-kom, a teenager forced to become an adult when she grows up and realizes that her mother died while giving birth to her. The failure of her father to shield Kec-kom from mistreatment and abuse from her grandmother and aunt, forces the girl to take matters into her own hands. But it will take more than walking away for her to regain her freedom.
Their attention quickly shifted to you, the baby lying beside her, thumb trying to find mouth, tears dry on face like scales, legs kicking the air. When the thing between your legs confirmed that you were a girl, they named you Kec-kom.
Harriet Anena is a poet and short story writer from Uganda. She is the author of A Nation in Labour, a poetry collection. Anena’s short stories and poems have appeared or is forthcoming in the Caine Prize anthology, Jalada Africa, New Daughters of Africa, Short Story Day Africa’s I.D. anthology, Enkare Review, FEMRITE anthologies, Babishai Niwe Poetry anthologies, Writivism, among others.
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‘Matalasi’, Jenny Bennett-Tuionetoa (Samoa)
This is a story about difference, identity and the high cost of conformity. Set in a conservative Pacific Island society, ‘Matalasi’ plunges the reader into the inner world of an individual forced to choose between identity and survival.
Jenny Bennett-Tuionetoa is a human rights advocate who seeks to use writing as a means of raising awareness about LGBTQIA issues in the Pacific Islands. She was born and raised in Samoa where she currently lives with her two young daughters.
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‘An Elephant in Kingston’, Marcus Bird (Jamaica)
A disgruntled accountant finds himself obsessed with the origin of an Elephant which mysteriously appears in the city centre of Kingston, Jamaica.
Marcus Bird is a writer, filmmaker and photographer who was born in Kingston Jamaica. He received his B.A in Film Production from Howard University in 2008. He has written three books, which all draw from his time as a photographer, filmmaker and world traveler, to take his readers into social scenes and places often unvisited. He currently resides in Kingston, Jamaica.
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‘Tahiti’, Brendan Bowles (Canada)
Girl meets boy. In prison.
Brendan Bowles is from Toronto, Ontario. He holds an MA from the University of Toronto and an MFA in fiction from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He was one of two Canadian nominations for PEN International’s New Voices Award in 2013, won The Toronto Star Short Story Contest in 2014 and the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers from the Writers’ Trust of Canada in 2016. His work has been published and produced for stage and radio. He is currently a Fiction Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.
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‘Ghillie’s Mum’, Lynda Clark (United Kingdom)
Ghillie’s mum would be just like everyone else’s if she could only stop turning into animals.
Lynda Clark is a writer and former videogame producer. She’s currently combining these two interests by undertaking a PhD in interactive narrative at Nottingham Trent University. Her short stories often get described as ‘strange’ and have appeared in several collections from small independent presses. Most recently, her story ‘Grandma’s Feast Day’ was shortlisted for the 2017 Cambridge Short Story Prize.
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‘Goat’, Sally Craythorne (United Kingdom)
On the first day of the thaw, a brother and sister work to bury the latest body on a dying farm. But, death is an easy business when compared to the complications of life.
Her brother, Joe, took the brunt of the work, cut turf and hefted. Ma had chosen a place under the line of trees, a good fifty feet from the stables. Tree roots were a problem. Ellie drove the spade edge along the line of the cut. Joe glanced up, spat and nodded, before bending back to task.
Sally Craythorne lives on a smallholding in Norfolk with her family. She is a graduate of the MA Creative Writing at UEA. Her first novel, How You See Me, was published in 2015 by Myriad Editions. She is working on her second.
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‘The Divine Pregnancy in a Twelve-Year-Old Woman’, Sagnik Datta (India)
A twelve-year-old is pregnant with the child of God. The good villagers must overcome all the obstacles standing in the way of the divine birth, especially the mother.
For some of us, God was an old man. He had a bald head and a ridged face, and was dressed in a gown of fine gold silk with broad sleeves. Some saw Him as a set of flaming eyes with long masculine eyelashes suspended in air. For some, God was just a drop of light flickering in the wind of the table fan. For Isaac, the science teacher, God was invisible, but had the voice of a woodcutter.
Sagnik Datta is from Siliguri, India. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from University of Texas at Austin, and a degree in Engineering Physics from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (although he’s not sure where he has kept it). He’s currently working on a novel.
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‘Soundtracker’, Christopher Evans (Canada)
Single, depressed, and kicked out of his own band, Nate offers his services as a musician-for-hire and stumbles into an unusual partnership.
Soundtracker for hire. Multi-instrumentalist available to provide original musical accompaniment for special occasions or just hanging out at home. Make your wildest (musical) dreams come true. Competitive rates. Call anytime.
Christopher Evans is a writer and editor, based in Vancouver, Canada. His work has appeared in The New Quarterly, The Literary Review, Going Down Swinging, The Moth, Joyland, Takahe, EVENT, and others, and he is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program at the University of British Columbia. Christopher has recently worked as the Prose Editor of PRISM international magazine, and currently teaches poetry to children.
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‘Passage’, Kevin Jared Hosein (Trinidad and Tobago)
A man, going through a mid-life crisis, decides to hike up a mountain. Along the way, he finds the skull of a child near a mysterious house.
Kevin Jared Hosein is the author of three books, The Beast of Kukuyo (Burt Award for Caribbean Literature), The Repenters (OCM Bocas Prize for Fiction shortlist) and Littletown Secrets. He is the 2015 Caribbean regional winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and has been twice shortlisted for the Small Axe Prize for Prose. His work has been featured in numerous publications, such as Lightspeed, adda and most recently, We Mark Your Memory: Writing from the Descendants of Indenture.
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‘Jyamitik Zadukor’ (The Geometric Wizard) by Imran Khan (Bangladesh)
translated by Arunava Sinha
‘The Geometric Wizard’ depicts the pathos of partition of Bengal (1947), which left a deep wound on the breast of Bengal. Millions of people became homeless and took refuge. ‘The Geometric Wizard’ shows how an artist, being separated from his wife because of the partition, revolts artistically against the political business the capital of which is religion
Imran Khan was born in the Bagerhat district of Bangladesh. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate study in English Language and Literature at Jahangirnagar Univeristy, Bangladesh. Currently, he is working for the Department of English Language and Literature at Central Women’s University, Dhaka. He is a fiction writer who writes about contemporary society and its relationship with history.
Arunava Sinha
translates classic, modern and contemporary Bengali fiction and nonfiction into English. More than forty of his translations have been published so far. Besides India, his translations have been published in the UK and the US in English, and in several European and Asian countries through further translation. He was born and grew up in Kolkata, and lives and writes in New Delhi.
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‘Talk of The Town’, Fred Khumalo (South Africa)
Our 11-year-old narrator is on a two-pronged mission: to help his mother elude meddlesome debt collectors; and to save the picture of Jesus Christ that’s in the family lounge “from being stolen by visitors” with their hungry eyes. VISITORS, GO GET YOUR OWN JESUS!
The memories open their mouths and speak thusly: Mpumalanga township, KwaZulu Natal, circa 1979. You are 10 years of age. Your mother had the neighbours' mouths salivating when, at the end of October the previous year, she had delivered to the house a brand-new kitchen scheme from Ellerines. And a dining room suite from Town Talk.
Fred Khumalo is the award-winning author of the novels Dancing the Death Drill and Bitches’ Brew among other titles. With an MA in creative writing from Wits University, he is also a Nieman Fellow (Harvard University, 2011-2012). His short story “Legs of Thunder” was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2015. A stage adaptation of Death Drill will have its world premiere at Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, UK, 29 June to 14 July, 2018.
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‘Night Fishing’, Karen Kwek (Singapore)
A son and father navigate the channels, at once grandiose and fragile, of a lifelong bond.
Karen Kwek used to work as a book editor while dreaming about writing fiction herself, so it’s a gift for her to have had her short stories appear in recent local anthologies. Among her favourite short fiction writers are Flannery O’Connor and Alistair MacLeod. She enjoys her family, friends, good books and a great cup of tea, and is grateful when, occasionally, the fullness of life overflows into a story.
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‘Nobody’s Wife’, Chris Mansell (Australia)
From the dust-honey light of the pawn shop (in a good neighbourhood, our heroine affirms) to the wild streets, Mrs Bannerbain is in interested in the stories but is led astray.
Among Chris Mansell’s latest publications are Verge, Stung, Stung More, Spine Lingo, and Schadenvale Road – a collection of short stories published by IP, Brisbane. Seven Stations (a song cycle with music by Andrew Batt-Rawden) was released by Hospital Hill on CD. Her site is chrismansell.com.
She won the Queensland Premier’s Award for Poetry, Amelia Chapbook Award (USA) and the Meanjin Dorothy Porter Poetry Prize and has been short-listed for the National Book Council Award and the NSW Premier’s Award.
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‘The Boss’, Breanne Mc Ivor (Trinidad and Tobago)
A boy goes to a job interview with the CEO of SFK Advertising. At first, the CEO asks about his résumé; but then he asks what the boy knows about Sunny ‘The Boss’ Boodram, Trinidad’s most notorious drug lord.
“Nathan,” the boy says.
“Nathan what?”
The boy peers at the building behind the guard. It’s a three-storey crowned by the company’s logo: three arrows converging into a larger arrow. A light-up sign reads SFK ADVERTISING.
“Listen to me young man, no one goes in that building unless I write their name in this book.” The guard holds up a hardcover notebook with DENNIS written on the cover.
“Nathan Peters.”
Breanne Mc Ivor is a fiction writer from Diego Martin, Trinidad. She is a former national scholar who studied English at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh. In 2015, her story ‘Kristoff and Bonnie’ won The Caribbean Writer’s David Hough Literary Prize. Her work has appeared in Commonwealth Writers’ adda, Akashic Books’ Duppy Thursdays, Corvus Review, and elsewhere. Breanne is currently working on her first collection of short stories.
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‘Holding On, Letting Go’, Sandra Norsen (Australia)
Jim, a self-confessed bossy old coot, finds young Rosie on the side of a remote road and opens his home and his heart to her. Together they revisit painful experiences, trying to discover whether a relationship can be too badly broken to hold on to.
Sandra Norsen was born and raised in Tasmania, home of the Tasmanian devil and the only island state of Australia. She achieved a BA in Literary Studies whilst living in a double-decker bus in the bush, typing her assignments by candle light. Sandra currently lives in the historical goldfields of central Victoria, Australia and teaches English and Literature at a rural secondary college. Her writing has appeared in literary journals and online publications.
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‘Empathy,’ Cheryl S. Ntumy (Ghana)
A young fugitive has made it his mission to ease the suffering of others. His intentions are pure, but his methods are drastic – and dangerous.
It’s hard to know what is rumour and what is true. A girl is dead, that much is certain. I lie awake in the dark and try not to think of her body hanging from the rafters, of her terrified soul trying desperately to untether itself from that body, of the people she left behind.
That makes twelve now. Twelve deaths. Twelve suicides.
Cheryl S. Ntumy is a Ghanaian writer and literary and communications consultant. Her work includes several published short stories and novels in various genres, as well as media articles, scripts, story development and communications for creative public engagement projects. You can see samples of her work at https://thelitchicksite.wordpress.com/ or https://lettersfromthoth.wordpress.com/.
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‘A Girl Called Wednesday’, Kritika Pandey (India)
‘A Girl Called Wednesday’ is a story of female companionship against the backdrop of neoliberal governance and Maoist rebellion in Jharkhand, a mineral-rich state in Central India.
But underwear. A whole different story underwear is. Impossible to find right after you orgasm, before rushing back to the study table without Mummy or Papa suspecting that you’ve been sleeping with the househelp. Mostly before dinner we do this.
Kritika Pandey grew up in Ranchi, Jharkhand. She is a fiction candidate at the MFA for Poets & Writers, UMass Amherst, where she is working on her first novel. Her work was shortlisted for the 2016 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
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‘Chicken Boy’, Lynne Robertson (New Zealand)
We are all attracted to danger at some point in our lives and none so much as when we are children. Set in an abandoned quarry, ‘Chicken Boy’ is about three children, one of whom has a secret. The story unleashes the harshness and beauty of childhood.
‘It’s laughing at us. I hate it,’ David picks up a stone and chucks it at the seagull.
‘You have to throw it up higher if you want to hit it.’ Kate watches David’s stone vanish into nothingness at the bottom of the cliff.
David pulls down his hat. ‘I can’t get sunburnt. Mum says I’ve got beautiful skin.’
Lynne Robertson is recent graduate of the International Institute of Modern Letters creative writing course at Victoria University of Wellington. She is the recipient of a project scholarship which she is using to prepare her collection of short stories for publication. Her work has been published in Turbine and Radio New Zealand. Lynne is passionate about writing from the perspective of characters who are outsiders. She started writing last year.
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‘Hitler Hates You’, Michelle Sacks (South Africa)
A socially-awkward and recently bereaved young woman flees her American hometown for her ancestral one. Alone in Berlin, she struggles to connect with the city and its people, until one night, she meets a young Bulgarian cleaner at a supper club.
Yes, I’m from the USA. No, I speak no German. Yes, I’ll learn.
Michelle Sacks is the author of the short story collection, Stone Baby and the novel, You Were Made for This. She is currently based in Switzerland.
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‘After the Fall’, James Smart (United Kingdom)
‘After the Fall’ is about Yun, a physics student and keen climber, and her father Ling, an out of work highway planner, living in London. ‘After the Fall’ is about displacement, why we tell stories, and the endurance of legends.
Wherever the road goes, I will always come back to you, Ling said.
Now, he sits in a flat in London, lounging in sportswear and getting nothing done.
When Yun was a child and was nervous or had a stomach ache, she would com-plain of having belly weather.
All storms pass, her father told her then. He made her peppermint tea, with ginger. You and your stomach both need to settle, he said.
Yun’s mother is called Mei. Of the belly weather, Mei said, You would do well not to eat so many sugar cookies.
James Smart is from Barnsley in the North of England. He is studying an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. His stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Glimmertrain, Reflex Fiction, Spelk, Friction, Spilling Ink and elsewhere. He is working on a novel and is currently seeking representation. You can find him on Twitter @notjamessmart.
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‘Son Son’s Birthday’, Sharma Taylor (Jamaica)
The story Son Son’s birthday touches on themes of family, mental illness, perception, reality, loss and redemption. After years of separation, Dina has an encounter that convinces her she has been reunited with her long lost son.
Sharma Taylor is a corporate attorney with a passion for creative writing. Her work has medaled in Barbados’s annual National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) Literary Competition. She has been published in the Arts Etc NIFCA Winning Words Anthology 2015/2016; Bearing Witness 1 and 2- The Best of the Observer Arts Magazine 2000/2001 and Poui: Cave Hill Journal of Creative Writing as well as online journals.
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‘Berlin Lends a Hand’, Jonathan Tel (United Kingdom)
A German couple are hosting a Syrian refugee in their home in Berlin. Tensions arise.
Jonathan Tel won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2015. He has also recently won the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Prize, and the V S Pritchett Story Prize from the Royal Society for Literature. He is writing a collection of linked stories about Syrians in Germany, ‘The Syria-Berlin Border’, including this story.
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‘True Happiness’, Efua Traoré (Nigeria)
A troubled thirteen-year-old boy in Lagos questions his pastor’s definition of true happiness.
For example, yesterday I went to church again after a very long time because Mama say God is the only way out. Well, to speak truth, that was not the real reason I went. The real reason is that Mama knocked my head so hard that I saw sparks of bright light around me even though we no see electricity in our house since the eight months that we owe the bill. And she say if she no see me in church she will whip my ass with a long, hard Koboko until the devil jumps out of me. And I know Mama very well, since thirteen years now. If she say something, she mean it. So I made sure to go to church yesterday.
Efua Traoré is a Nigerian-German writer who grew up in a little town in the south of Nigeria. For as long as she can remember, her head was always filled with little stories, but it was not until her late twenties that she discovered her passion for writing them down.
After winning a Glimmer Train prize for the first 1.000 words of a novel she wrote her first book.
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‘Juju’, Obi Calvin Umeozor (Nigeria)
Two friends set out to rescue their childhood friend who was last seen at the home of a notorious juju priest. But they soon realise that nothing is what it seems.
Obi Calvin Umeozor received his B.A. in English from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria and taught English Literature before moving to the States in 2015, where he obtained an MFA in Creative Writing from Florida State University. His work has appeared and is forthcoming in the New Orleans Review, Shift and others. And he will begin a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Houston this fall.
