The 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize has been announced. Read more
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The Shortlist has been announced

Commonwealth Short Story Prize

2025
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The shortlist has been announced!

We are delighted to present the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize shortlist. An international judging panel selected the 25 writers from almost 8,000 total entries—a record-breaking number and nearly ten percent higher than 2024.   

This year’s shortlist hail from 18 Commonwealth countries, including Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Lucia for the very first time. Ranging in age from 21 to 75, all but one have never been shortlisted before.

The shortlisted stories conjure a wide range of scenarios—from a soldier on an unnamed border to a Beijing taxi driver with a vulnerable passenger, from a mother who turns to desperate measures to escape her abusive husband to a football-mad young boy and a ‘sacred’ Tamarind tree with a hidden secret. Many stories feature journeys—young people starting new lives overseas, an elderly woman travelling to the capital to campaign for the rights of her people; a crushing final voyage on a sinking slave ship. There are tales of exploitation, racism, greed, arrogance and betrayal—but also unexpected kindness, humour, courage and resistance, and the unexpected effects of small actions.

Chair of the Judges, writer and filmmaker Dr Vilsoni Hereniko from Rotuma, Fiji, said: ‘A great story moves us, causes us to think, and sometimes changes us. This shortlist of relevant, vibrant, and essential reading is made up of the best 25 stories from a pool of almost 8,000 entries. Together, they demonstrate why the short story form must continue to be supported and promoted.’

Dr Anne T. Gallagher AO, Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation, added: ‘Every single writer who entered this year’s prize deserves our congratulations. The breadth of voices, perspectives, and experiences is awe-inspiring and a powerful reminder of the creative energy that unites us as a Commonwealth of people. We congratulate those who made the shortlist; their work speaks not only to our shared challenges but also to our hopes and aspirations.’

Five regional winners will be announced on 14 May, and the overall winner will be announced on 25 June. The shortlisted stories will be published in adda, our online literary magazine.  

Scroll down to see all the shortlisted writers as well as more details about their stories. 

The 2026 prize will open on 1 September 2025. For all other inquiries regarding the prize, please see the FAQs below or email: creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com

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The Shortlist

  • The Flute Player
    Priscilla Ametorpe Goka
    Ghana

    During the Second World War, far from home and in unfamiliar surroundings, two West African men find strength and comfort in friendship.

    I was still loading shells into mortars, although my arms and legs were at the point of collapse, and my ear drums were threatening to explode, when the straining notes of a flute drifted from the trench. There, I spied Kamara, sitting with his back against the wall, his eyes closed, his flute on his lips.

    Priscilla Ametorpe Goka has published work in adda, The Ghanaian Mirror and The Active Muse Journal, and has contributed to an anthology by the International Human Rights Festival. She holds an MA in Communication Studies from the University of Ghana and is a professional member of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors. She enjoys reading and spending time with those who make her laugh.

  • A Room Full of Teddy Bears
    Dorechi
    Kenya

    A child is taken in by her mother’s friend, who promises to protect her from those who wish to harm her for being different. But behind the appearance of safety lies a chilling betrayal—he is auctioning her off, piece by piece, to the highest bidder.

    “Your skin is beautiful—that’s why they look at you. They admire it. They are just too afraid to say it,” Mama says with a smile. From as far back as I can remember, I have known I was not like everyone else.

    Dalphon Orechi is a writer from Kenya whose work explores psychological horror. This is their first submission to an international competition and marks an important step in sharing their stories. When not writing, they enjoy reading and creating art—both of which inspire their storytelling.

  • The Sun isn't Dead Yet (Le soleil n'est pas encore mort)
    Vashish Jaunky
    Mauritius

    This story offers a sincere and playful exploration of grief, loss, addiction, tradition and the mysticism that can accompany insular life.

    The dragonflies are still buzzing inside me, ravenous and tenacious; they swirl around in my ear-sockets, keeping me away from any lucidity. The funeral is in a few hours. Grief stubbornly refuses to come; nothing in me wants to pay any last respects to this man whom, according to my failing memory, I once admired.

    Born and raised by the Mauritian coast, Vashish Jaunky is a writer who blends language, art and introspection to craft unique narratives. His work has been published in Indigo Le Mag and Short Éditions, and he was shortlisted for the 2024 Prixdu Jeune Écrivain. He also explores the cultural life of Mauritius through journalism.

    Edwige Renée Dro translated ‘Le Soleil n’est pas encore mort’ from French to English. She is a writer and literary translator from Côte d’Ivoire. Her translation work spans short stories, graphic novels and children’s literature in English and French. Her own short stories and essays have been widely anthologised. She has served on juries for the Caine Prize for African Writing and the PEN International Short Story Prize.

  • The mothers
    Olákìtán T. Aládéṣuyì
    Nigeria

    A young woman escapes an abusive marriage through unconventional means.

    Every erring man paid for his sins. No matter how affluent or how beloved the man, he was not above the law of the mothers and never out of their reach. But Aisha did not know all this when she went to them.

    Ọlákìtán writes stories that often speak of what remains hidden. In 2019, her story Girl of My Dreams appeared in Prairie Schooner and went on to win the Lawrence Foundation Award. Her work has been published in Lit Quarterly, Newfound Journal, Watershed Review, Kissing Dynamite, Down River Road, Memento, Agbowó Art, Kalahari Review and others. She grew up in Nigeria and now lives in London, where she is writing her second novel.

  • Broken String
    Stephen M. Finn
    South Africa

    An elder from the Khoisan community stands in protest outside government offices in South Africa, opposing the political oppression and the cultural and linguistic exclusion of her people.

    She was there to tell the man in that building. The country’s government building. The President. They wanted recognition. But she wanted to be at home. Under the open sky. A sky she’d been pushed from when she was a girl.

    Stephen M. Finn, who also writes as Qhaunis Kruunu, has worked as a journalist, photographer, teacher and academic. He has published two novels and several plays. His work explores the lives of outsiders and highlights the oppression of both people and animals by those in positions of power.

  • Mothers Not Appearing In Search
    Joshua Lubwama
    Uganda

    Against his mother’s wishes, a young boy befriends a woman who has recently moved into the neighbourhood.

    I elaborated that we’d gotten the balloons from Fatima’s backyard, Fatima the young woman who had moved into the house Mr. Okapo had vacated. Stay away from this Fatima, Mother said, my insistence on a reason being met with a frigid stare that froze me over.

    Joshua Lubwama is a software engineer and writer based in Kampala, Uganda. He was longlisted for the 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the 2023 and 2024 Afritondo Short Story Prizes. His work appears in The Anatomy of Flying Things and Travelling Men Don’t Die. Joshua is 25 years old.

  • An Eye and a Leg
    Faria Basher
    Bangladesh

    A darkly humorous and surreal take on the trope of the “expiring” South Asian woman, with touches of the macabre.

    I watched the two men discuss my condition, occasionally dropping in some personal anecdote or news about the extended family, but otherwise staying mainly on course. Ma had brought along my eye in the pea bag, which was dripping condensation on the floor

    Faria Basher is a writer of Bengali origin who has lived across the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the United States. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Edinburgh and a master’s degree from New York University. Though a long time reader, she only recently began writing. Faria is drawn to the offbeat, the absurd and the odd—and brings these elements to her fiction.

  • Mrs. Gaonkar's Girls
    Parul Kaushik
    India

    Told in the collective voice of young women trafficked into captivity in Delhi, the story moves between past and present, life and afterlife, as they strive for liberation.

    We know Boss’s men are watching, always. They could be beneath our petticoats hanging on the clothesline on the terrace or buried behind a newspaper on the park bench. They could be the boy who delivers milk every day or groceries every week, craning his neck to peek inside the bedrooms and gawk at crumpled bed sheets.

    Parul Kaushik is a physician from India, now living in Texas. Her stories have appeared in The Missouri Review, The Georgia Review and other publications. She hosts a radio show while completing a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of North Texas, where she is a scholarship recipient. She also holds an MFA from Pacific University. Her writing has been supported by the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

    Photo: Surender Yerramsetty 

  • Tamarind
    Tino de Sa
    India

    Through the eyes of a child, a family bound by a strange vow navigates sweetness, sourness and long-held resentments. A tender, and at times dramatic, tale of memory and inheritance.

    The only ones who spoke in my family seemed to be my aunts and my grandmother. Their words floated around the house, turning corners, permeating walls, perching themselves on the rafters of our tiled roof, nudging themselves into the crevices between doorframes, and into the little holes between floor and wall, through which mice came and went.

    Tino de Sa is a civil servant, author and poet. He holds a Master of Public Administration from Harvard and a PhD in the Built Environment. He has twice won the Times of India National Short Story Competition and has published three books: two collections of short stories and a mystery novel for children. His poetry has appeared in several anthologies. He lives in Goa.

  • The Dot
    Tahoor Bari
    Pakistan

    This is the story of an ordinary boy and a red dot—a dot so powerful it ignites a civil war.

    Shaheen Abdaal was an unassuming twelve-year-old. A little short for his age, with stubby tree trunk legs and hairy brown arms, he was the most normal boy you could come across. Painfully ordinary. The kind of normal that goes unnoticed in the classroom and at dawats. The kind that a mother with more than two children will misname.

    Tahoor Bari is an undergraduate student majoring in Psychology with a minor in English. She spends much of her time making, drinking and thinking about chai. When she isn’t, she enjoys diving into internet rabbit holes. Ask her anything about Fresnel lenses or jinns

  • Descend
    Chanel Sutherland
    Canada

    As a slave ship sinks, enslaved Africans share their life stories. Their voices rise in defiance, illuminating memory, resilience and hope.

    That was how the tellings began, each story birthing another. They warmed us, strengthened our aching limbs, eased our sores and flowed through our veins like healing currents. They cracked open the ship’s planks, letting in glimpses of the sky and the world we’d left behind.

    Chanel Sutherland is a Vincentian-Canadian writer of fiction and creative nonfiction. Her debut short story collection, Layaway Child, will be published by House of Anansi in 2026. Chanel won the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize and the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize, and received the 2022 Mairuth Sarsfield Mentorship. CBC Books named her one of 30 Writers to Watch in 2022.

  • Nuala Nu
    Damhnait Monaghan
    Canada

    In 1970s Canada, schoolgirl Nuala faces the challenges of immigration and adolescence after moving from Ireland with her widowed mother.

    First everything is hard in a new country, Nuala thinks. Walking home from school she keeps her head down, silently reciting Mom, Mom, Mom. But even when the word is trapped inside her head, it hurts her tongue.

    Damhnait Monaghan is a Canadian writer who has lived in England for 25 years. A former teacher and lawyer, her debut novel New Girl in Little Cove won the 2022 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Award (Romance). She has over 70 publication credits for short fiction and essays, and her novella-in-flash The Neverlands won Best Novella at the 2020 Saboteur Awards.

    Photo: Rachel Elizabeth Photography

  • The Crossing
    David Frankel
    United Kingdom

    At a remote border crossing in a frozen, unnamed country, a solitary guard confronts the ghosts of his past.

    I’m heading back to the hut, glancing backwards over my shoulder when they appear between the trees; grey figures, standing, watching. I can tell by the way their clothes hang that they’re soaked. They must be freezing. And among them, I see a flash of orange, and I immediately think of the man who spoke to me a year ago.

    David Frankel lives in southern England. His short stories have been shortlisted for The Bristol Prize, The Bridport Prize, the Society of Authors’ ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award and the Fish Memoir Prize. His work appears in numerous journals and anthologies, and in chapbook form. His debut collection, Forgetting is How We Survive, was shortlisted for the 2024 Edge Hill Prize.

    Photo: Grace Ayson

  • Bread and Butter
    Dushi Rasiah
    United Kingdom

    In 1970s Jaffna, Neema—the youngest in her family—asserts herself while her siblings and parents struggle amidst rising civil unrest.

    I spent the morning tormenting my sisters, hiding their magazines, sneaking up on them when they huddled in corners to gossip without me. Caro Anna was due back home today, having caught the early train from Colombo in darkness hours ago. It would be crossing the narrow Elephant Pass causeway now, passing square salt pans and flat rice paddies, bright pink flamingos and dull grey gulls.

    Dushi Rasiah is a Tamil fiction editor and writer based in London. Her work explores cross-cultural relationships, sibling dynamics and South Asian diasporic experience. Her stories have been shortlisted for the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, longlisted for the Bryan MacMahon Short Story Award, and published by Dear Damsels and Wasafiri.

  • Beasts
    Tess Little
    United Kingdom

    In a cramped and crumbling house, strange screams echo from the garden. This story asks what we owe to ourselves—and to other creatures.

    None of us heard the screams ourselves. Maybe Marjorie was trying to get us evicted, one of us thought. No, her house was haunted, another posited. Maybe her late husband was rotting beneath the foxgloves. Maybe the old bitch was mixing her dementia medication with too much sherry.

    Tess Little is a writer and historian from Norwich, United Kingdom. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review Daily, The White Review, The Mays Anthology and on London Underground posters. Her debut novel The Octopus was published in 2020. Tess is a Fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford. She is currently writing a history of women’s activism.

  • Jumbie Pond
    Joanne C. Hillhouse
    Antigua and Barbuda

    In a Caribbean kitchen, Maude, Cleo and Conrad face ghosts of the past—literally and figuratively. Knives are drawn. Can they cut through the trauma?

    Jumbie Pond was her nightmare. Cleo’s too. All his children, the ones with Maude, Jen, Saadie, Germaine, knew they weren’t supposed to go there. It had been hammered into their heads like the Bible parables at Sunday school. Should have known Conrad would be the rule breaker; it was how he was.

    Joanne C. Hillhouse is a writer from Antigua and Barbuda. She is an arts and letters laureate for the Anthony N. Sabga Award–Caribbean Excellence and was Intersect Antigua and Barbuda’s inaugural Resident Artist. She has published eight books and founded the Wadadli Youth Pen Prize. Joanne writes CREATIVE SPACE, a column on Caribbean arts and culture.

    Photo: Emile Hill

  • Margot's Run
    Subraj Singh
    Guyana

    A new mother ventures into the night to protect her child from a bloodthirsty creature.

    The creature arrived in the deep of the night, as a ball of fire floating in the sky, and as it circled the cottage, Margot held her baby tight against her chest, as if it was the last time she was ever going to hold him, and she avoided the imploring stares of Estelle and Bhanu, who were crouched beside her on the floor.

    Subraj Singh is a writer from Guyana. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland, and is an alum of Clarion West and Tin House. He is a former resident of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. His fiction has been published in AGNI, New England Review, and Gulf Coast Journal.

    Photo: Kathleen Buckley

  • Pomp and Circumstance
    Kellie Martine Magnus
    Jamaica

    Class expectations collide during a university graduation.

    Mr Hamilton parked the car in the VIP lot and guided his wife in her unsteady heels along the gravel path that led to the massive tent erected for graduation. Once inside, he slipped the usher a $1,000 note, discreetly nodding at the seats in the front section. “Those are reserved for faculty and VIP, sir.”

    Kellie Martine Magnus is a writer and development consultant based in Kingston, Jamaica. She is Executive Director of the Caribbean Culture Fund, which supports creatives and cultural organisations in the region. Her nonfiction has appeared in local and regional outlets. She has published more than 15 children’s books, several of which are used in Jamaican schools. Kellie is a Kimbilio Fellow and is working on her debut short story collection.

  • Redeye Cat
    Jessie Mayers
    Saint Lucia

    A domineering uncle exerts supernatural control over a family. When a mysterious cat begins haunting the household, secrets surface and tensions escalate.

    Home was not ours because it belonged to everybody else. It was the transition place for nomads, vagabonds, and criminals—all family, of course. With a welcoming wave inside and a poor djab, ish’mwen, Mum reeled them in. They made themselves at home, spreading their legs and lives into our space.

    Jessie Mayers is a writer from Saint Lucia. She holds a degree in Literature, Creative Writing and Film Studies from the University of the West Indies. Her work draws on Caribbean life and folklore, often weaving together speculative fiction, magical realism and historical narratives. She is currently a postgraduate student researching Obeah in Caribbean literature and its connection to posthumanism.

  • Crab Sticks and Lobster Rolls
    Kathleen Ridgwell
    Australia

    An Aboriginal boy sees himself as a crab stick—cheap, artificial, misrepresented. Through a forbidden relationship with a non-Indigenous girl, he comes to see his true value: a gilgie, authentic and deeply rooted in Country.

    She grabs the crab stick from the galley counter. It is lukewarm. Like always, she discreetly throws a few hot chips into the bottom of the bag, free of charge, and delivers it to the boy. He is sitting on a stump, drinking a hot cup of milo. She tries not to make eye contact with him as she delivers the food.

    Kathleen Ridgwell is a writer from Perth, Western Australia. She was runner-up in the2024 EM Fletcher Award for her short story The Emerald Dove. Kathleen has spent her career working in community services, advocating for disadvantaged and vulnerable people. She writes to amplify the voices of those often unheard.

  • The Drum and the Bell
    Keith Goh Johnson
    Australia

    A Beijing taxi driver picks up a young sex worker. Along the journey, visions of the past and future challenge what he knows of his country and himself.

    ‘This one’s going to be tricky,’ Madame Fu says to him, referring to the girl in a coat that is too big for her who has started to snore. ‘She’s a country bumpkin. Plucked fresh from a watermelon patch in Daxing, soil still on her. Hey there! Sau Fong! You want to do this or not?’

    Keith Goh Johnson is a writer and filmmaker of Dutch and Straits Chinese (Peranakan) descent. He lives on unceded Gadigal land (Sydney, Australia). His writing was highly commended in the Forty South Tasmanian Writers’ Prize 2023 and shortlisted for both The Best Australian Yarn 2023 and the 2024 Newcastle Short Story Award. His work has been published in The Saltbush Review, Meniscus, Forty South Anthology and The West Australian.

    Photo: Alex Weltlinger 

  • Threads of Truth
    Lachlan Alexander
    Australia

    A grieving father seeks a final gift for his son. His only hope: a solitary seamstress forced to confront the past she buried long ago.

    “I want him dressed like it means something. Like his life meant something. I’ve already thought about it, maybe… shorts for the things he loved. Socks for… for the sports he played.” He paused, voice cracking. “And a shirt for the future he’ll…” He looked away. “It wouldn’t be a lot of work.”

    Lachlan Alexander lives in Jan Juc, Australia. Inspired by the nearby coastline, he writes fiction that often reflects social impact themes. Threads of Truth is his first published short story. He has written for local and international charities. When not writing, he enjoys trail running, cooking and reading—though not all at once.

  • The Pale Blue Dot
    Angela Pope
    New Zealand

    A mother and son grieve the loss of their husband and father, finding solace in the vastness of the universe.

    Josh wonders if he should talk to Eric about Carl Sagan’s pale blue dot. Whenever Josh feels worried he finds it helpful to remember that image of the Earth taken from space. For him, it puts everything in perspective to know that the entire human race is living on ‘a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam,’ but not everyone finds it reassuring.

    Angela Pope grew up in the United States and the United Kingdom but has lived in New Zealand for over 30 years. Her short stories have appeared in literary journals and have been broadcast on Radio New Zealand. Her plays have been performed at festivals in New Zealand and Australia. Her story Lies won the Sargeson Prize in 2020.Angela lives in Dunedin with her husband and son.

  • We'll meet again
    Maria Samuela
    New Zealand

    In 1950s Rarotonga, young Kana is forced to leave behind her island home—her mountain, her motu, her people—and everything she knows.

    Kana took a minute to soak in the chatter. She knew she would miss this, the probing aunties especially, with their teasing questions into her love life, doing everything to trick her into spilling her secrets. She wished she could take them with her, and not just on the inside like dead relatives.

    Maria Samuela is the author of Beats of the Pa‘u (Te Herenga Waka University Press,2022), a collection that includes Bluey, a story shortlisted for the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa New Zealand, where she is working on a novel with support from the CLNZ/NZSA Research Grant.

    Photo: Ebony Lamb

  • Final Effort of the Wind
    Gillian Leasunia Katoanga
    Samoa

    Inspired by the Sāmoan proverb “ua lutiluti a ni i’u matagi”, this story follows Ane as she navigates cultural identity during a painful day at home.

    Nana painted the Nifoloa as some wild, overgrown demon of legend with sharp canines and an insatiable hunger for mischief. When his fangs pierced the flesh of the thigh, a deep wound blossomed, rotting into an angry red before succumbing to a festering green.

    Gillian Leasunia Katoanga is an Aotearoa-born writer of Sāmoan, Tongan and Rotuman descent. Her creative writing and academic research are rooted in her cultural heritage. She is completing an honours degree in Biomedical Sciences at St John’s University in New York, after which she plans to return to Sāmoa to continue research on indigeneity. Her research on racial disparities in healthcare has been published, with another paper forthcoming.

This year’s judging panel

  • Dr Vilsoni Hereniko

    Chair

    Dr Vilsoni Hereniko is an award-winning writer and filmmaker and Professor at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Hawaiʻi. His first narrative feature film The Land Has Eyes premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was Fiji’s submission to the Academy Awards in 2004. It also won Best Dramatic Feature at the Toronto ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. In 2022 his short film Sina ma Tinirau won ‘Best Animated Short’ at the Berlin Independent Film Festival and the Los Angeles International Film Festival. In 2022 he received a ‘Star of Oceania’ award in Film, Media and the Arts.

  • Photo: Dilman Dila

    Nsah Mala

    Judge, Africa Region

    Nsah Mala (born Kenneth Nsah) PhD, is an award-winning, multilingual poet, writer, children’s author, literary critic, and interdisciplinary scholar, from Cameroon. Writing in English, French, and Mbessa, he has authored and co-edited numerous poetry volumes, including Bites of Insanity, CONSTIMOCRAZY: Malafricanising Democracy, and Corpses of Unity – Cadavres de l’Unité. His poetry and short fiction appear in many anthologies, magazines, and journals across the globe. An alumnus of the Caine Prize Writing Workshop, Nsah has won the Ministry of Arts and Culture Short Story Prize in Cameroon and le Prix André -Malraux in France, among others. His PhD thesis, from Aarhus University, focused on Comparative Literature and Environmental Humanities and won le Prix de thèses francophones en Prospective (2022) from Fondation 2100 and L’Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie.

  • Photo: Annice Lyn

    Saras Manickam

    Judge, Asia Region

    Saras Manickam’s collection of stories, My Mother Pattu, was published by Penguin Random House (Southeast Asia). In 2024, it was recognised by PEN Malaysia as one of the most significant books written by a Malaysian. The titular story won the regional prize for Asia in the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Contest. Since then, it has been included in Bloomsbury’s ‘The Art and Craft of Asian Stories’, and in ‘The Best of Malaysian Short Fiction in English 2010-2020′. Saras Manickam worked at several jobs while writing her stories. Her various work experiences enabled insights into characters, and life experiences, shaping the authenticity which mark her stories.

  • Dr Anita Sethi

    Judge, Canada and Europe Region

    Dr Anita Sethi is an award-winning writer and journalist and author of the acclaimed book I Belong Here: a Journey Along the Backbone of Britain, which won a Books Are My Bag award and was nominated for the Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing, the Great Outdoors Award and Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Priz. Anita has written columns, features and reviews for newspapers and magazines including the Guardian and Observer, Sunday Times, the i paper, Independent, Telegraph, BBC Wildlife, Vogue, New Statesman, Granta, Times Literary Supplement, among others. In broadcasting, she has appeared on several BBC radio programmes. She has been a Judge of the Women’s Prize, British Book Awards, Costa Book Awards, and Society of Authors Awards among others. She has interviewed many high-profile writers, artists, musicians, and public figures.

  • Photo: Abigail Hadeed

    Lisa Allen-Agostini

    Judge, Caribbean Region

    Lisa Allen-Agostini is a writer, editor and stand-up comedian from Trinidad and Tobago. She is the author of Death in the Dry River (1000Volt Press, 2024), Home Home (Papillote Press, 2019, and Delacorte Press, 2020), and The Bread the Devil Knead (Myriad Editions, 2021), which was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2022. She is a 2024 Fall Fellow of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Lisa is working on a memoir in poetry and a novel set in the world of steelpan, the national instrument of her homeland, Trinidad.

  • Photo: Himiona Grace

    Apirana Taylor

    Judge, Pacific Region

    Apirana Taylor is from Aotearoa/New Zealand. He is of Pakeha (European) and Maori descent. His Maori tribes are Ngati Porou, Te Whanau Apanui and Ngati Ruanui. Apirana is an internationally published poet,  playwright, short storywriter, actor, novelist, musician and storyteller. He has been Writer in Residence at Canterbury and Massey Universities and been invited to attend international festivals. His work is included in many New Zealand and international anthologies. He reads his short stories and poetry on tours of schools, tertiary institutions, universities, marae, galleries and prisons.

Frequently asked questions

  1. The prize is open to all Commonwealth citizens aged 18 and over –  please see the full list of Commonwealth countries here.

  2. The regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives a total of £5,000. The winning stories are published online by Granta and in a special print collection by Paper + Ink. The shortlisted stories are published in adda, the online literary magazine of the Commonwealth Foundation.

    If the winning short story is a translation into English, the translator will receive an additional prize of £750.

  3. The story must be between 2,000 and 5,000 words.

  4. The prize is only open to short fiction, but it can be in any fiction genre–science fiction, speculative fiction, historical fiction, crime, romance, literary fiction–and you may write about any subject you wish.

  5. We accept stories written in Bengali, Chinese, Creole, English, French, Greek, Malay, Maltese, Portuguese, Samoan, Swahili, Tamil, and Turkish. Stories that have been translated into English from any language are also accepted and the translator of any winning story receives additional prize money.

  6. Your submission must be unpublished in any print or online publication, with the exception of personal websites.

  7. Entries are initially assessed by a team of readers and a longlist of 200 entries is put before the international judging panel, comprising a chair and five judges, one from each of the Commonwealth regions – Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. All judges read entries from all regions.

    Entries in other languages are assessed by relevant language readers and the best submissions are selected for translation into English to be considered for inclusion on the longlist.

    The judging panel select a shortlist of around twenty stories, from which five regional winners are chosen, one of which is chosen as the overall winner.

  8. Entries open from 1 September – 1 November every year.

    The other key dates for the prize are as follows:

    April: Shortlist revealed
    May: Regional winners announced
    June: Award ceremony and overall winner announced

  9. Please note that we are unable to provide feedback on submissions. We appreciate your understanding.

  10. If you have any questions about your submission, please email them to creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com. Be sure to include your entry submission number to ensure we can assist you promptly.

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