Five winning writers from five different Commonwealth regions share a total prize money of £15,000. The overall winner receives £5,000, one of the highest amounts for an international short story prize open to unpublished writers. Regional winners receive £2,500.
Many of our winners and shortlisted writers are invited to take part in festivals and events throughout the Commonwealth as well as Commonwealth Writers workshops.
Eligibility and entry rules
Please read these eligibility and entry rules before beginning the online entry process. The online
form will be available from the opening date, 1 September 2018.
Submission of an entry is taken as acceptance of the entry rules.
For any entry or eligibility queries not covered below, please email writers@commonwealth.int for
clarification before submitting an entry.
Opening date:1 September 2018
Closing date
Entries must be submitted via the online entry form by 1 November 2018
(11.59pm in any time zone)
No entries will be considered if submitted after this date.
1. About the Prize
a. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is an annual award for unpublished short fiction
administered and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation.
b. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is run by Commonwealth Writers, the cultural initiative of
the Commonwealth Foundation.
c. The prize covers the Commonwealth regions of 1. Africa, 2. Asia, 3. Canada and Europe, 4.
Caribbean and 5. Pacific.
2a. Entrants must be citizens of a Commonwealth country – The Commonwealth Foundation will request verification of citizenship before winners are selected. Entries from writers from non-Commonwealth countries (including the Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe) are not eligible.
b. For regional purposes, entries will be judged by country of citizenship. Where the writer has
dual citizenship, the entry will be judged in the region where the writer is permanently
resident.
c. There is no requirement for the writer to have current residence in a Commonwealth country,
providing they are a citizen of a Commonwealth country.
d. Entrants must be aged 18 years or over on 1 November 2018.
e. All entries will be accepted at the discretion of the Commonwealth Foundation which will
exercise its judgement, in consultation with the prize chair, in ruling on questions of
eligibility. The ruling of the chair on questions of eligibility is final, and no further
correspondence will be entered into.
f. Entries from previous overall winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize are not eligible.
Entries from previous regional winners are eligible.
g. Entries from current members of staff at the Commonwealth Foundation are not eligible.
h. Entries must be unpublished and remain unpublished in any language until 1 May 2019.
3. Entry rules
a. Entries, including those in translation, must be made by the original author.
b. Entries will only be accepted via the online entry form.
c. The deadline for receipt of entries is 1 November 2018 (11.59pm in any time zone).
d. Only one entry per writer may be submitted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
e. The story must be the entrant’s own work.
f. The story must be original work and should not have been published anywhere, in full or in
part, in any language, before 1 May 2019. Published work is taken to mean published in any
printed, publicly accessible form, e.g. anthology, magazine, newspaper. It is also taken to
mean published online, with the exception of personal blogs and personal websites.
g. Entries previously submitted to the Commonwealth Short Story Prize are not eligible.
h. Entries should be submitted in English, with the following exceptions: entries from
Commonwealth citizens who write in Bengali, Chinese, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan
and Tamil and who do not have an English translation of their story, may submit their stories in
the original language. English translations of short stories written in other languages are
eligible if submitted by the writer (not the translator) and provided the translator is also a
citizen of a Commonwealth country.
i. Simultaneous submissions are eligible as long as the entrant informs the Prize immediately
should the story be accepted for publication elsewhere or be selected for a prize.
j. Entries must be 2,000 words minimum, 5,000 words maximum (not including title).
k. Entries should be uploaded in a PDF document. Please save your document as a PDF and use
the title of the story as the file name. Please note the story must not be saved as
‘Commonwealth Story’, ‘Short Story’ or any other generic title. If it is not possible to save the
entry as a PDF document, it may be uploaded as a Microsoft Word document, with the file
name in the same format as above. The first page should include the name of the story and
the number of words.
l. The author’s details should be included on the entry form. They must not be given anywhere
on the uploaded document. All entries are judged anonymously.
m. Where applicable, the translator’s details should be included on the entry form.
n. All entries should be submitted in Arial 12-point font and double line spacing. All pages should
be numbered and include a header with the title of the story.
o. There are no restrictions on setting, genre or theme.
p. The story should be adult fiction and must not have been written for children alone.
q. Entrants agree as a condition of entry that the prize organisers may publicise the fact that a
story has been entered or shortlisted for the Prize.
r. Worldwide copyright of each story remains with the writer. Commonwealth Writers will have
the unrestricted right to publish the winning stories (the overall winning story and the four
regional winning stories) in an anthology and for promotional purposes.
s. The overall and regional winners will be expected to take part in publicity activities including
social media where possible.
t. The overall and regional winners will be expected to undertake a mutually acceptable
programme of regional outreach activities to develop and promote Commonwealth Writers.
4. Prize regions
Africa: Botswana, Cameroon, eSwatini, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius,
Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania,
Uganda, Zambia. Overseas Territories: Saint Helena, Tristan Da Cunha, Ascension Island.
Asia: Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka.
Canada and Europe: Canada, Cyprus, Malta, United Kingdom. Overseas Territories: Gibraltar,
Falkland Islands.
Caribbean : Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana,
Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and
Tobago. Overseas Territories: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands,
Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands.
Pacific: Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands,
Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu. Overseas Territory: Pitcairn.
APPLY HERE
For More Information : Visit Source
){kind=link}