Calling all Commonwealth short storywriters
Published:Wednesday | September 7, 2022 | 12:06 AMMichael Reckord/Gleaner Writer
Submissions for the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize have opened. That was the news greeting thousands of people around the world, including many in Jamaica – interested parties and the writers who have entered, and perhaps been winners in, the competition.
It is free to enter and open to any citizen of a Commonwealth country who is 18 and over and awards the best piece of unpublished fiction of 2,000 to 5,000 words. The overall winner receives £5,000, and each of the five regional winners gets £2,500. They also get the opportunity to be published online by Granta magazine. The prize covers five Commonwealth regions of Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
Jamaica scored a regional hat trick this year, thanks to Diana McCaulay’s winning story Bridge Over the Yallahs River. Last year’s winner was Roland Watson-Grant, with The Disappearance of Mumma Del, while the 2020 winner was Brian Heap with Mafootoo.
McCaulay had previously won the regional prize with The Dolphin Catchers in 2012, the first year of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. It is managed by Commonwealth Writers, the cultural initiative of the Commonwealth Foundation, which was set up “to inspire, develop and connect writers and storytellers across the Commonwealth”.
The organisers claim that the competition “is particularly aimed at those places with little or no publishing industry [and] the prize aims to bring writing from these countries to the attention of an international audience”. There is some evidence for this, though most winners come from countries where publishing is alive and well.
This year’s overall winner, Ntsika Kota, a self-taught writer from the South African country of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland, which has a mere 1.6 million people), made headlines worldwide. He has offered this advice to aspiring writers: “Breathe life into an idea. Write something that is uniquely you. Then edit it to the best of your ability.”
The foundation this year has opened the competition to Gabon and Togo.
Stories are accepted in a dozen languages, including the Creole “from any country of the Commonwealth” as of last year. The organisers explain that Creole entries will be read by a reader of that particular Creole language, and the best stories will be translated into English and submitted to the judging panel. Translated entries from any language into English are also eligible, and if the winning story is a translation, the translator receives the additional prize money.
Entrants may follow Commonwealth Writers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for regular prize updates and advice on crafting their stories. Entries must be made online on a form available at www.commonwealthwriters.org. The deadline for entries is 11:59 p.m. on November 1, and the overall winner will be announced in June 2023.
The international judging panel comprises one judge from each of the regions, but though entries are judged regionally, all judges read and deliberate on the entries from all the regions. The judge for the Caribbean is St Lucian writer Mac Donald Dixon. Author of several short stories, plays and novels, he is best known for his poetry. He is also an accomplished painter and photographer, and he was honoured in 1994 with the St Lucia Medal of Merit for his contribution to literature and photography. He works as a full-time writer from his home in Castries.