Entries have opened for the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Read more
Entries are open! Submissions will close on: 1 November 2025, 11pm GMT

Commonwealth Short Story Prize

2026

The search for some of the Commonwealth’s best short stories has begun again. Commonwealth citizens aged 18 and over can enter a short story of 2,000-5,000 words for a chance to win £5,000.

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About the prize

The 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize is open for entries until 1 November 2025!

The prize is free to enter and open to any citizen of a Commonwealth country aged 18 and over. It is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words).

Submissions should be made via the online entry form, which is available via the link above. The eligibility requirements and entry rules can be found here.

Writers have until 11.59pm GMT on 1 November 2025 to enter their story. Click here to find out what time the prize closes in your timezone.

An international judging panel will select a shortlist of around twenty-five stories, from which five regional winners are chosen. One of the regional winners is then selected as the overall winner, who receives £5,000. The regional winners will receive £2,500. All five regional winning stories will be published on Granta.

Scroll down to find out more about the 2026 judging panel, read answers to frequently asked questions about the prize, including who can enter, how stories are judged and what languages we accept.

For any inquiries regarding the prize, please email: creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com

কমনওয়েলথ শর্ট স্টোরি পুরস্কার শ্রেষ্ঠ অপ্রকাশিত ইংরেজি ছোট গল্পের (২০০০৫০০০ শব্দ) জন্য দেওয়া হয় অন্যান্য ভাষা থেকে ইংরেজিতে অনুবাদিত গল্পও পুরস্কারের জন্য বিবেচনা করাহয় প্রত্যেক বছর পাঁচটি কমনওয়েলথ এলাকা থেকে পাঁচজন বিজয়ী লেখক নির্বাচন করা হয় আঞ্চলিক বিজয়ীরা £২৫০০ পুরস্কারপাবেন, এবং সার্বিক বিজয়ী £৫০০০ পুরস্কার পাবেন যদি বিজয়ী গল্পটি ইংরেজিতে অনুবাদ করা হয়ে থাকে, অনুবাদকও একই পরিমাণ পুরস্কার পাবেন 

যে লেখকরা বাংলায় লেখেন, কিন্তু যাঁদের গল্পের ইংরেজি অনুবাদ নেই, তাঁদের মূল বাংলায় গল্প জমা দেবার আমন্ত্রণ জানানো হচ্ছে এই গল্পগুলি বিচার করার জন্য প্রথমে অভিজ্ঞতাসম্পন্ন পাঠকদের পড়তে দেওয়া হবে মনোনীত গল্পগুলিকে ইংরেজিতে অনুবাদ করা হবে আন্তর্জাতিক বিচারক মন্ডলীর জন্য 

দয়া করে আপনার গল্প নিচের লিঙ্ক ব্যবহার করে অনলাইন প্রবেশপত্রের মাধ্যমে জমা দিন 

অংশগ্রহণের নিয়মাবলী

পুরস্কার লিখুন

কোনো প্রশ্ন থাকলে ইমেইলে যোগাযোগ করুন creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com

共和联邦短篇小说奖”(The Commonwealth Short Story Prize)主要以未发表的英文短篇小说(2,000-5,000字)为征稿对象。其他语种翻译成英文的短篇小说,也符合参赛资格。每年,五个联邦区将各选出五名获奖作家。区域优胜者将获2,500镑,总冠军则可获£5,000奖金。如获奖的短篇小说是英文译作,翻译者将获得相等的奖金。参加本奖项是免费的 

欢迎华文作家直接呈交中文小说稿件,无需事先英译。评审过程如下:小说会先由精通中文者阅读,这一阶段获选的佳作都会被翻译成英文,并续由国际评审小组审阅 

比赛规则 

请按此链接呈交稿件 

如有疑问,请电邮 creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com 

Le Commonwealth Short Story Prize est attribué à la meilleure nouvelle inédite (2 000 à 5 000 mots) écrite en anglais. Aussi sont éligibles les nouvelles d’autres langues traduites en l’anglais. Nous sélectionnons chaque année cinq lauréats des cinq régions du Commonwealth. Les lauréats régionaux reçoivent chacun £2 500 et le grand vainqueur part avec £5 000. Si la nouvelle gagnante est une traduction vers l’anglais, la traductrice ou le traducteur recevra une récompense supplémentaire. La participation est gratuite. 

Nous invitons les écrivaines et écrivains qui écrivent en français, qui sont citoyennes / citoyens d’un pays membre du Commonwealth et qui n’ont pas de traduction en anglais de leurs nouvelles, à envoyer la nouvelle écrite en français. Elles seront dans un premier temps lues par des lecteurs francophones expérimentés. Les nouvelles qui auront retenu l’attention de ces lecteurs seront traduites en anglais afin d’être lues par le jury. 

Veuillez soumettre votre nouvelle via le formulaire d’inscription en ligne en utilisant le lien ci-dessous.

Règlement

Participer au prix

Pour toute question, veuillez écrire à creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com

Το Βραβείο της Κοινοπολιτείας απονέμεται στο καλύτερο αδημοσίευτο διήγημα (2.000-5.000 λέξεις) στα αγγλικά. Διηγήματα μεταφρασμένα στα αγγλικά από άλλες γλώσσες είναι επίσης επιλέξιμα. Κάθε χρόνο επιλέγουμε πέντε νικητήρια διηγήματα από τις πέντε περιφέρεις της Κοινοπολιτείας. Οι περιφερειακές νικήτριες / περιφερειακοί νικητές λαμβάνουν από £2,500 και η γενική νικήτρια/ο γενικός νικητής λαμβάνει £5,000. Αν το νικητήριο διήγημα είναι μεταφρασμένο στα αγγλικά, τότε δίνεται χρηματικό ποσό και στον μεταφραστής. Η συμμετοχή στον διαγωνισμό είναι δωρεάν.

Καλούμε τους συγγραφείς που γράφουν στα ελληνικά, που είναι πολίτες της Κοινοπολιτείας και που δεν έχουν ήδη την αγγλική μετάφραση των διηγημάτων τους να υποβάλουν τα διηγήματά τους στα ελληνικά. Στο πλαίσιο της διαδικασίας αξιολόγησης, έμπειροι ελληνόφωνοι αναγνώστες θα διαβάσουν τα διηγήματα. Τα διηγήματα που θα περάσουν επιτυχώς στο επόμενο στάδιο αξιολόγησης θα μεταφραστούν στα ελληνικά για να διαβαστούν από τη διεθνή κριτική επιτροπή.

Κανονες Συμμετοχης

Μπειτε Στο Διαγωνισμο  

creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com

 

Hadiah Cerpen Komanwel diberikan kepada cerpen berbentuk fiksyen (2,000-5,000 patah perkataan) yang terbaik dalam Bahasa Inggeris yang belum pernah diterbitkan. Cerpen yang diterjemahkan ke dalam Bahasa Inggeris juga layak untuk disertakan dalam sayembara ini. Setiap tahun, kami memilih 5 penulis dari lima wilayah Komanwel yang berbeza sebagai pemenang. Pemenang wilayah akan menerima £2,500 dan pemenang keseluruhan akan menerima £5,000. Sekiranya cerita pendek yang menang adalah terjemahan bahasa Inggeris, penterjemah juga akan menerima hadiah wang tambahan. Kemasukan adalah percuma.

Kami menjemput penulis yang menulis dalam Bahasa Melayu, dan tidak mempunyai terjemahan cerpen tersebut dalam Bahasa Inggeris untuk menyertakan cerpen mereka dalam Bahasa Melayu. yang asal. Sebagai sebahagian daripada proses pengadilan, cerpen yang dikirimkan akan dibaca terlebih dahulu oleh pembaca Bahasa Melayu yang berpengalaman. Cerpen yang terpilih di peringkat ini akan diterjemahkan ke dalam Bahasa Inggeris untuk dibaca oleh panel pengadil antarabangsa.

Borang Penyertaan

Syarat Penyertaan

Sekiranya anda mempunyai sebarang pertanyaan, sila hubungi creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com.

Il-Premju Commonwealth tan-Novelli jingħata lill-aqwa novella fittizja mhux ippubblikata (2,000 – 5,000 kelma) bl-Ingliż jew tradotta għall-Ingliż. Kull sena nagħżlu ħames novelli rebbieħa minn ħames reġjuni tal-Commonwealth – l-Afrika, l-Asja, il-Kanada u l-Ewropa, il-Karibew u l-Paċifiku.  Ir-rebbieħa reġjonali jirċievu £2,500, u r-rebbieħ fost ir-rebbieħa jirċievi £5,000. Jekk in-novella rebbieħa hija tradotta, it-traduttur jew traduttriċi jirċievu l-istess premju monetarju. Il-parteċipazzjoni hija b’xejn.

Nistiednu kittieba li jiktbu bil-Malti, u li huma ċittadini ta’ pajjiż fil-Commonwealth u li m’għandhomx traduzzjoni għall-Ingliż tan-novella tagħhom, biex iressqu n-novelli tagħhom bil-Malti. Qarrejja Maltin b’esperjenza se jiżnu dawn in-novelli, u novelli li jiksbu suċċess se jiġu tradotti għall-Ingliż biex jitqiesu minn panel internazzjonali ta’ aġġudikanti.

Issottometti Hawn

Regolamenti

Jekk għandek xi mistoqsijiet, ikteb lil creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com.

O concurso de contos da Fundação Commonwealth é atribuído ao melhor conto de ficção (2,000-5,000 palavras) não publicado em inglês. Contos traduzidos de outras línguas para inglês também são elegíveis. Cada ano selecionamos cinco escritores de cinco regiões da Commonwealth. Os vencedores regionais recebem £2,500 e o vencedor absoluto recebe £5,000. Se o conto premiado for uma tradução para inglês, o tradutor também recebe o mesmo prémio pecuniário. 

Convidamos escritores de Moçambique que escrevem em português e que não têm uma tradução em inglês do conto a enviar os seus contos em português. Como parte do processo de selecção os contos serão primeiramente lidos por leitores portugueses experientes. Contos que sejam bem sucedidos nesta primeira fase serão então traduzidos para inglês para serem lidos por um júri internacional. 

Regras De Participação

Enviar O Seu Conto Aqui

Se tiver alguma questão por favor contacte creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com.

Tuzo ya Hadithi Fupi ya Commonwealth inatolewa kwa hadithi bora ya Kiingereza ambayo haijawahi kuchapishwa (maneno 2,000 – 5,000). Hadithi zilizotungwa kwa lugha nyingine pia zinaweza kuwasilishwa. Kila mwaka, tunachagua washindi watano kutoka kanda tano za Commonwealth. Washindi wa kanda hutuzwa £2,500 na mshindi wa jumla hutuzwa £5,000. Kama hadithi iliyoshinda imetafsiriwa kwa Kiingereza, mtafsiri naye atatuzwa kiasi kile kile.  

Kujiunga na shindano ni bure. 

Tungependa kuwaalika waandishi wanaoandika kwa Kiswahili, na ambao hawana mtafsiri wa Kiswahili, watume hadithi zao kwa Kiswahili. Kama sehemu ya tathmini yetu, hadithi hizo zitasomwa kwanza na wazoefu wa lugha ya Kiswahili. Hadithi yoyote itakayokubalika katika ngazi hii ya kwanza itatafsiriwa kwa Kiingereza na kusomwa na jopo la majaji katika ngazi ya kimataifa. 

Tafadhali wasilisha hadithi yako kwa kupitia fomu inayopatikana kwa kubofya hapo chini. 

Masharti Ya Ushiriki

Ingia Kwenye Shindano

Kwa maswali yoyote, tafadhali tuandikie creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com.

காமன்வெல்த் சிறுகதை பரிசு, ஆங்கிலத்தில் எழுதப்பட்ட, இதுவரை வேறெங்கும் வெளிவந்திராத புனைவு சிறுகதைகளுக்கு (2000-5000 வார்த்தைகள்) வழங்கப்படுகிறது. வேறு மொழிகளிலிருந்து ஆங்கிலத்திற்கு மொழிபெயர்க்கப்பட்ட கதைகளும் போட்டிக்கு தகுதிபெறும். ஒவ்வொரு வருடமும் வெற்றி பெறும் ஐந்து போட்டியாளர்கள் வெவ்வேறு ஐந்து காமன்வெல்த் பிராந்தியங்களிலிருந்து தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்படுவர். அவர்கள் ஒவ்வொருவருக்கும் £2500 வழங்கப்படுவதுடன் அவர்களில் இறுதியாகத் தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்படும் வெற்றியாளர் ஒருவருக்கு £5000 வழங்கப்படும். பரிசுபெறும் சிறுகதை ஆங்கிலத்திற்கு மொழிபெயர்க்கப்பட்டதாக இருந்தால், அதன் மொழிபெயர்ப்பாளருக்கும் சம அளவு பரிசு தொகை வழங்கப்படும். போட்டியில் பங்குபெற அனுமதி இலவசம். தமிழில் கதை எழுதுபவர்கள் ஆங்கில மொழிபெயர்ப்பு இல்லையென்றாலும், தமிழிலேயே தங்கள் கதைகளை அனுப்பலாம். தேர்வு விதிகளின் ஓர் அங்கமாக, அக்கதைகள் அனுபவமுள்ள தமிழ் வாசகர்களால் வாசிக்கப்பெறும்.

இந்த முதல் நிலையை வெற்றிகரமாகக் கடக்கும் கதைகள், சர்வதேச தேர்வுக்குழுவினர் வாசிப்பிற்காக ஆங்கிலத்தில் மொழிபெயர்க்கப்படும். ஆன்லைனில் உங்கள்

கதைகளை விண்ணப்பிக்க கீழே கொடுக்கப்பட்டுள்ள இணைப்பை சொடுக்கவும்.

நுழைவு விதிகள்

இங்கே நுழையுங்கள்

மேலும் விபரங்களுக்கு creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com -இல் தொடர்புகொள்ளவும்.

Commonwealth Öykü Ödülü, daha önce İngilizcede yayımlanmamış en iyi öyküye (2.000-5.000 kelime) verilir. Diğer dillerden İngilizceye çevrilen öyküler de kabul edilir. Her yıl Uluslar Topluluğu’nun beş farklı bölgesinden beş yazar birinci olarak seçilir. Bölge kazananlarının ödülü kişi başı 2.500 sterlin, büyük ödül ise 5.000 sterlindir. Kazanan öykü İngilizce çeviriyse çevirmen de ayrıca para ödülü alır. Başvuru ücretsizdir.

Türkçe yazan, Uluslar Topluluğu vatandaşı olan ve metinlerinin İngilizce çevirisi bulunmayan yazarları, öykülerini Türkçe olarak göndermeye davet ediyoruz. Değerlendirme sürecinde öyküleri önce tecrübeli Türkçe okurlar tarafından incelenecektir. Bu ilk aşamayı geçen öykülerin hepsi İngilizceye çevrilecek ve uluslararası jüri tarafından değerlendirilecektir.

Öykünüzü göndermek için lütfen aşağıdaki bağlantıda bulunan online başvuru formunu kullanınız.

Katilim Koşullari

Ödüle Başvurun

Sorularınız için creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com adresine yazabilirsiniz.

Sign-up for specialised advice, tips & support.

We want to help you write the best story you’re capable of.

Sign up to receive guidance on how to craft your short story, including:

✅ How to ensure you meet the eligibility criteria
✅ Writing advice and exercises from past winners and judges
✅ Tips to get your story submission-ready

Frequently asked questions

  1. If you receive a reference number on the last page of your submission, we will have received your entry. The email acknowledgement can get trapped in spam filters.

  2. Please try from a different device and/or a different browser, using the direct link to the entry form.

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

  4. 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.

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

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. You cannot enter a story you have submitted in previous years.

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

  10. 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-five stories, from which five regional winners are chosen, one of which is chosen as the overall winner.

    Please note that entries are read by real people at every stage of the judging process and not put through an AI system.

  11. 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

  12. We now receive close to 8,000 entries each year. Due to the large volume of submissions, please note that we are unable to provide individual feedback on submissions.

  13. 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.

This year’s judging panel

  • Photo: Max Kennedy

    Louise Doughty

    Chair

    Louise Doughty is the author of ten novels, the latest of which is A Bird in Winter, published by Faber & Faber UK. Her previous books include the bestseller Apple Tree Yard, which was adapted as a major BBC One TV series starring Emily Watson; Platform Seven, which has been filmed for ITVX and Black Water, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. She has also written novels about the Roma Holocaust during World War Two, Fires in the Dark, and her own Romany-Traveller ancestry, Stone Cradle. She has been nominated for multiple awards including the Costa Novel Award, the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Sunday Times Short Story Prize and her work has been translated into thirty languages. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Folio Prize Academician, the recipient of two Honorary Doctorates for her contributions to literature and has judged many prizes including the Booker Prize and the Costa Novel Award. She is also a screenwriter and journalist and in 2026 will publish a memoir, On This Spot Fell One Tear of Love.

  • Photo: Dirk Skiba

    Fred Khumalo

    Judge, Africa Region

    Fred Khumalo is the author of 19 books, which include novels, short story collections, journalism and works of biography. His famous Dancing the Death Drill has been translated into German, Setswana and isiZulu – with more translations into other local languages in the pipeline He has won numerous honours, including the European Union Literary Award (not to be mistaken confused with the European Literary Prize) and the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences Award. A journalist by training, he writes primarily in English but has also published two books in his mother tongue, Zulu.

    He holds an MA Creative Writing from Wits University, is a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, a Fellow of the Academy of the Arts of the World (Cologne, Germany), a Fellow of the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study, a Fellow of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study. He has been a judge on numerous South African writing contests including the European Union Literary Prize and Herman Charles Bosman Prize among others. He has participated in numerous writing residencies and literary festivals both in his native South Africa and beyond the borders of his own country. His first book, Touch My Blood was adapted for the stage by James Ngcobo in 2007.

  • Photo: Rajib Dhar

    Rifat Munim

    Judge, Asia Region

    Rifat Munim is an editor, journalist, bilingual writer, and translator based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He was the In-Charge of the books wing of the Daily Star (2012–2014) and the literary editor of Dhaka Tribune (2016–2021). He was a jury member for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in 2019. His books include Bangladesh: A Literary Journey Through 50 Short Stories (ed.). He was among the editors of Speak Out, a special issue focused on freedom of expression, published in 2022 by the Commonwealth Foundation. His English translations of Bengali poetry and short stories, and his articles on freedom of expression and different aspects of Bengali and South Asian fiction, have appeared in Outlook India, World Literature Today, Scroll, Your Impossible Voice, Asia News Network, Dhaka Tribune, and The Daily Star. His essay on the stories and novels written by Bangladesh’s preeminent writer Akhtaruzzaman Elias has been included in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies. 

  • Photo: Carina Gartner Lamarche

    Norma Dunning (PhD)

    Judge, Canada and Europe Region

    Norma Dunning is a Padlei Inuk Canadian writer, professor and grandmother. She has published two collections of short stories, two collections of poetry and one work of nonfiction. Her future publications include two children’s books, Aput (2026) and Anaanatsiaq (2028) and her first novel titled Naoyak (2026). Her books have received esteemed literary awards and have translated into French, Greek and Amharic. Norma currently teaches for the Faculty of Indigenous Studies at the First Nations University of Canada.

    Books published: Annie Muktuk and Other Stories (UAP, 2017) – Danuta Gleed Award 2018, Eskimo Pie: a poetics of Inuit identity (Bookland, 2020), Taninna (the unseen ones) (D&M 2021) – Govenor General’s Award 2021, Akia (the other side) (Bookland, 2022) and Kinauvit? (What’s your name?) (D&M, 2022) – shortlist Shaughnessy Cohen Political Pen. Books forthcoming: Aput! (Snow) (Tradewinds, 2026), Anaanatsiaq (Tundra Books, 2028), Nayoak (D&M, 2026). 

  • Sharma Taylor

    Judge, Caribbean Region

    Sharma Taylor, a Jamaican writer and lawyer, was awarded the 2023 Institute of Jamaica’s Musgrave Bronze Medal for contribution to Literature. The University of the West Indies (Mona Campus) appointed her its Writer-in-Residence for semester II, 2024. Her work has won the 2020 Wasafiri Queen Mary New Writing Prize, the 2020 Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Award and the 2019 Bocas Lit Fest’s Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize. She has been shortlisted four times for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.  

    She was a judge in the 2022 and 2024 The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition organized by the Royal Commonwealth Society, the 2023 Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival (BCLF) Short Fiction Story Contest for Writers in the Caribbean and was on the jury for the 2023 Bocas Lit Fest Breakthrough Fellowships.  In 2024, she was published in The Cropper Foundations Caribbean Climate Justice anthology,Writing For Our Lives” launched in November at the COP29 (the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Azerbaijan).  Her debut novel, “What a Mother’s Love Don’t Teach You” was published in 2022 in the UK and Commonwealth by Virago Press. 

  • Photo: Copyright Agency

    Maxine Beneba Clarke

    Judge, Pacific Region

    Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of over fifteen books for adults and children, including the ABIA and Indie award-winning short fiction collection Foreign Soil, the critically acclaimed best selling memoir The Hate Race, the self-illustrated picture book When We Say Black Lives Matter, which was longlisted for the UK’s Kate Greenaway Medal, and the CBCA Honour Book The Patchwork Bike (illustrated by Van T Rudd), which won the 2019 Boston Globe Horn Prize for Best Picture Book. Her poetry collections include Carrying the World, which won the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry, How Decent Folk Behave, and It’s the Sound of the Thing: 100 new poems for young people, which won the 2024 ABIA for Book of the Year for Younger Readers. Maxine is the inaugural Peter Steele Poet in Residence at the University of Melbourne (2023-2025).