2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize For International Students
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest is an annual award for unpublished
short fiction administered and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation.
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 It is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words).
Summary
- Host: Commonwealth Foundation
- Category: Competitions
- Eligible Countries: 56 selected countries
- Reward: £15,000
Details:
a. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is an annual award for unpublished
short fiction administered and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation.
b. The prize covers the Commonwealth regions of 1. Africa, 2. Asia, 3. Canada and
Europe, 4. Caribbean and 5. Pacific. (See Section 5 for countries in each region).
c. The international judging panel comprises one judge from each of the five regions. Please
note that while the entries will be judged regionally, all judges will read and deliberate on
entries from all regions.
d. There will be five winners, one from each region. One regional winner will be selected as
the overall winner. The overall winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize will receive
£5,000 and the remaining four regional winners £2,500. If the winning short story is a
translation into English, the translator will receive additional prize money.
e. The final selection will be judged by an international judging panel; experienced readers will
assist the named judges in selecting the longlist.
Requirements:
a. Entrants must be citizens of a Commonwealth country – please see Section 5 forthe list
of Commonwealth countries – or stateless persons currently residing in a
Commonwealth country. The Commonwealth Foundation will request verification of
citizenship status before winners are selected. Entries from citizens of nonCommonwealth countries are not eligible.
b. For regional purposes, entries will be judged by country of citizenship. Where the writer
has dual citizenship (of two Commonwealth countries), 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 that they are a citizen of a Commonwealth country.
d. Entrants must be aged 18 years or over on 1 November 2023.
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. Entrants who have won the regional prize three times are also not
eligible to submit to the prize.
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 2024.
i. If your entry has been shortlisted or won a prize in other competitions, provided it has not
been published, it is eligible.
Reward
- There will be five winners, one from each region. One regional winner will be selected as
the overallwinner. The overall winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize will receive
£5,000 and the remaining four regional winners £2,500. If the winning short story is a
translation into English, the translator will receive additional prize money.
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 2023 (11.59pm in any time zone).
d. Only one entry per writer each year 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 May2024. 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, except for personal blogs, personal websites and personal Facebook
pages.
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, Creole, French, Greek, Kiswahili,
Malay, Maltese, Portuguese, Samoan, Tamil and Turkish 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 that the translator is also a citizen of a Commonwealth country.
i. Simultaneous submissions are eligible as long as the entrant informs the organisers (via
creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com) 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. Pleasesave yourdocumentas a PDFanduse
the title of the story as the file name. Please note that 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. Entries in English should be submitted in Arial 12-point font and double line spacing.
For entries in other languages,the appropriate font should be used. All pages should be
numbered.
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 thatthe prize organisers may publicise the fact that
a story has been entered or shortlisted forthe Prize.
r. Worldwide copyright of each story remains with the writer. The Commonwealth
Foundation will have the unrestricted right to publish the winning stories (the overall
winning story and the four regional winning stories) online, in an anthology, or for
promotional purposes where appropriate.
s. The shortlisted writers, the regional winners, and the overall winner will be expected to
take part in publicity activities including social media where possible.
t. The overall and regional winners may be expected to undertake a mutually acceptable
programme of regional outreach activities to develop and promote the Commonwealth
Foundation.
