Commonwealth Short Story Prize

The Shortlist

• 'The Flute Player' , Priscilla Ametorpe Goka
  Ghana
• 'A Room Full of Teddy Bears' , Dorechi
  Kenya
• 'The Sun isn't Dead Yet (Le soleil n'est pas encore mort)' , Vashish Jaunky
  Mauritius
• 'The mothers' , Olákìtán T. Aládéṣuyì
  Nigeria
• 'Broken String' , Stephen M. Finn
  South Africa
• 'Mothers Not Appearing In Search' , Joshua Lubwama
  Uganda
• 'An Eye and a Leg' , Faria Basher
  Bangladesh
• 'Mrs. Gaonkar's Girls ' , Parul Kaushik
  India
• 'Tamarind' , Tino de Sa
  India
• 'The Dot' , Tahoor Bari
  Pakistan
• 'Descend' , Chanel Sutherland
  Canada/Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• 'Nuala Nu' , Damhnait Monaghan
  Canada
• 'The Crossing' , David Frankel
  United Kingdom
• 'Bread and Butter' , Dushi Rasiah
  United Kingdom
• 'Beasts' , Tess Little
  United Kingdom
• 'Jumbie Pond' , Joanne C. Hillhouse
  Antigua and Barbuda
• 'Margot's Run' , Subraj Singh
  Guyana
• 'Pomp and Circumstance' , Kellie Martine Magnus
  Jamaica
• 'Redeye Cat' , Jessie Mayers
  Saint Lucia
• 'Crab Sticks and Lobster Rolls' , Kathleen Ridgwell
  Australia
• 'The Drum and the Bell' , Keith Goh Johnson
  Australia
• 'Threads of Truth' , Lachlan Alexander
  Australia
• 'The Pale Blue Dot' , Angela Pope
  New Zealand
• 'We'll meet again' , Maria Samuela
  New Zealand
• 'Final Effort of the Wind' , Gillian Leasunia Katoanga
  Samoa

• 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/Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

  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, 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 the 2024 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.

  Kathleen is incredibly grateful to Dr Marion Kickett—a respected Noongar Baladong woman, writer, academic, and Board member of Writing WA—for her cultural review of her story.

• 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.