Call for entries for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest for unpublished short fiction has opened.
The opening was announced recently by Commonwealth Foundation; administer and funder of the annual award for unpublished short fiction.
The prize covers the Commonwealth regions of Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, Caribbean and Pacific, with the regional winners and the overall winner sharing £15,000 in cash prize.
To enter for the contest, entrants must be citizens of a Commonwealth country 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 non-Commonwealth countries are not eligible.
For regional purposes, entries will be judged by country of citizenship, and where the writer has dual citizenship (of two Commonwealth countries), the entry will be judged in the region where the writer is permanently resident.
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.
Entrants must be aged 18 years or over on November 1, 2022.
All entries will be accepted at the discretion of the Commonwealth Foundation, which will exercise its judgment, 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.
Entries from previous overall winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize are not eligible, while entries from previous regional winners are eligible.
Also, entries must be unpublished and remain unpublished in any language until May 1, 2023.
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Regional winners each will receive £2,500 and the opportunity to be published online by Granta magazine, and the overall winner receives £5,000.
For the entry rules; entries, including those in translation, must be made by the original author, they will only be accepted via the online entry form, while the deadline for receipt of entries is on November 1, 2022 by 11.59pm in any time zone.
Moreover, only one entry per writer each year may be submitted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, the story must be the entrant’s own work, it must be original work and should not have been published anywhere, in full or in part, in any language, before May 1, 2023.
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.
Simultaneous submissions are eligible as long as the entrant informs the organisers (via [email protected]) immediately should the story be accepted for publication elsewhere or be selected for a prize.
Entries must be 2,000 words minimum, 5,000 words maximum (not including title). Interested entrants are to visit https://www.commonwealthwriters.org/shortstoryprize/info/ for more information on the contest, entry guideline and submission.
