2023 COMMONWEALTH SHORT STORY PRIZE SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

World’s most global literature prize showcases 28 writers from 19 countries and highlights the ‘beat and pulse’ of contemporary storytelling.
New Zealander Himali McInnes shortlisted for ‘Kilinochchi’
She joins five-strong Pacific shortlist alongside writers from Australia and Papua New Guinea
Judges hail stories that ‘brim with the energy and urgency of the present moment’ and writers ‘who with their varied styles and strategies, stretch our sense of the real.’
Stories range from fables to family dramas, tackling a range of themes and topics from violence and war to environmental damage, from love and loss to unexpected friendships.

Twenty-eight outstanding stories have been shortlisted by an international judging panel for the world’s most global literature prize. The writers come from 19 countries across the Commonwealth, and the shortlisted entries tackle subjects from illness, human trafficking and decay, to relationships and hope – as well as family secrets, growing up gay in a hostile world, generation gaps, bittersweet friendships, and making one’s way in the world of work. They span genres from speculative and comic fiction to historical fiction and crime.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from any of the Commonwealth’s 56 Member States. It is the most accessible and international of all writing competitions: in addition to English, entries can be submitted in Bengali, Chinese, Creole, French, Greek, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan, Swahili, Tamil, and Turkish. Such linguistic diversity in a short story prize in part reflects the richness of the Commonwealth, not least its many and varied literary traditions. In 2023, 475 entries were submitted in languages other than English.

The stories on the 2023 shortlist were selected from a total of 6,642 entries from 56 Commonwealth countries including, for the first time, Togo and Gabon—the very newest members of the Commonwealth. The shortlisted writers—10 men and 18 women—range in age from 20 to 74. Twenty-seven writers, a quarter of whom are still in their twenties, are new to the prize shortlist this year. Chair of the Judges, Pakistani writer and translator Bilal Tanweer said, ‘On behalf of the jury, I am thrilled to reveal the shortlist for the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. This year’s shortlist is a concert of voices from across the Commonwealth, showcasing the richness of its writing traditions, histories, and perspectives. These stories brim with the energy and urgency of the present moment—read them to experience the beat and pulse of contemporary storytelling.

‘These stories perform the essential function of the best fiction: they make us see what we couldn’t see, awaken our sympathies for people we didn’t know, and bring us closer to the world we already inhabit. What we see here are writers, who with their varied styles and strategies, stretch our sense of the real. These stories, like music, go clean through our gut and spine, filling us with sensations ranging from dysphoric anguish to euphoric laughter, and after reading each story, we wake up to the world, changed.’

Dr Anne T. Gallagher AO, Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation, the intergovernmental organisation which administers the prize, commended all 6,642 citizens of the Commonwealth who entered stories in 2023, offering special congratulations to the 28 writers who made the shortlist in a highly competitive year. Dr Gallagher added: ‘The Foundation is proud of the Short Story Prize: proud of what it reveals of the richness of Commonwealth culture; proud of its reach into all Commonwealth countries; and proud of the role that the prize plays in unearthing and nurturing emerging talent. Working so closely with civil society, we see, every day, the power of storytelling to challenge, to inspire, and to help us make sense of ourselves and the world around us.’

The 2023 shortlist in full:

PACIFIC

‘Sauce’ by Jean Flynn (Australia)

‘Catching Up’ by Janeen Samuel (Australia)

‘Sugartown’ by Emma Sloley (Australia)

‘Kilinochchi’ by Himali McInnes (New Zealand)

‘When this island disappears’ by Dennis Kikira (Papua New Guinea)

AFRICA

‘Price Tags’ by Buke Abduba (Kenya)

‘Punching Lines’ by Josiah Mbote (Kenya)

‘Arboretum’ by H. B. Asari (Nigeria)

‘Mama Blue’ by Michael Boyd (South Africa)

‘The Undertaker’s Apprentice’ by Hana Gammon (South Africa)

‘Falling from a knife tree’ by Matshediso Radebe (South Africa)

ASIA

‘Deficiency Notice’ by Arman Chowdhury (Bangladesh)

‘A Groom Like Shahrukh’ by Vidhan Verma (India)

‘Relative Distance’ by Shih-Li Kow (Malaysia)

‘Khicheenk!’ by Usama Lali (Pakistan)

‘Oceans Away From My Homeland’ by Agnes Chew (Singapore)

‘Principles of Accounting’ by Rukshani Weerasooriya Wijemanne (Sri Lanka)

CANADA AND EUROPE

‘Lost Boys’ by Trevor Corkum (Canada)

‘So Long, Gregor’ by Mehdi M. Kashani (Canada)

‘The Fisherwoman’by Eva Koursoumba (Cyprus) translated from Greek by Lina Protopapa

‘Lech, Prince, and the Nice Things’ by Rue Baldry (UK)

‘Crossing Lake Abaya’ by Gail Davey (UK)

‘Because You Drowned’ by Jay McKenzie (UK)

CARIBBEAN

‘The Ovelias at Benzie Hill Dump’ by Alexia Tolas (Bahamas)

‘Where The Winds Blow’ by Cosmata Lindie (Guyana)

‘Road Trip and Fall’ by Demoy Lindo (Jamaica)

‘Ocoee’ by Kwame McPherson (Jamaica)

‘Teef From Teef’ by Deborah Matthews (Trinidad and Tobago)

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is administered by the Commonwealth Foundation.

Five judges join the Chair Bilal Tanweer on the 2023 judging panel, each representing the five regions of the Commonwealth. These are Rwandan-born writer, photographer and editor, Rémy Ngamije (Africa), Sri Lankan author and publisher Ameena Hussein (Asia), British-Canadian author Katrina Best (Canada and Europe), Saint Lucian poet and novelist Mac Donald Dixon (Caribbean), and New Zealand’s former Poet Laureate, Dr. Selina Tusitala Marsh (Pacific).

Global impact on authors’ careers

Winning or being shortlisted for the prize opens a wealth of opportunities for the selected writers, propelling them further in their writing careers.

In 2022, Ntsika Kota became the first writer from Eswatini to win the prize for his story ‘and the earth drank deep.’ Since then, Ntsika has been interviewed by 2021 Booker Prize winner, Damon Galgut, and spoken on panels at the George Town Literary Festival, Penang, Malaysia. Ntsika said, ‘Overall, I think the Commonwealth Short Story Prize has changed my personal relationship with writing for the better. I always knew, pretty much from the outset, that I would never stop writing. However, it was only through involvement with the prize that I have started to think of myself as “a writer”. I think that’s quite important, and I suspect it wouldn’t have happened otherwise, at least not for a very long time.’

Alexia Tolas, 2019 Caribbean regional winner and 2022 and 2023 shortlisted author, added, ‘The prize gives writers from underrepresented regions and countries a platform to share their stories. Its scope is diverse and far-reaching, and there is a sensitivity to experiences outside of the Western norms that give legitimacy to voices that would usually be ignored.’

Both shortlisted and winning writers have gone on to publish novels, with Kevin Jared Hosein, who won the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for ‘Passage’, releasing his first novel for adults, Hungry Ghosts, in 2023 to great acclaim, The Times describing it as ‘an early contender for the Booker.’ Sharma Taylor, who has been shortlisted for the Prize four times, released her debut novel What a Mother’s Love Don’t Teach You in 2022. Publication opportunities have also arisen for other shortlisted writers like Fijian writer Mary Rokonadravu, winner of the 2022 Pacific Regional Prize for her story ‘The Nightwatch’, who has been invited to submit short stories by US based literary magazines, as well as approached by a literary agency in New York to submit a collection of short stories. Two other writers, also shortlisted in 2022, have since acquired agents.

The 2023 shortlisted stories will be published online, in the innovative online magazine of the Commonwealth Foundation, adda (addatories.org), which features new writing from around the globe. The judges will go on to choose a winner for each of the five regions. These regional winners will be announced on Wednesday 17 May before being published online by the literary magazine Granta. The overall winner will be announced on 27 June 2023.

2023 Timeline

17 May – 2023 Regional Winners announced

27 June – Overall Winner announced and award ceremony

Join the conversation @cwfcreatives on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and keep up to date with the prize via commonwealthfoundation.com/short-story-prize/