The 26-year-old from Mumbai saw off 7,359 entrants worldwide to take the £5,000 prize. The news was announced at an online award ceremony, presented by New Zealand’s former Poet Laureate, Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh, in which Sanjana and the other four regional winners- Reena Usha Rungoo, Julie Bouchard, Portia Subran, Pip Robertson-spoke about the creative process behind their writing and read short extracts from their stories.
Sanjana’s story, ‘Aishwarya Rai’, comes from the famed Bollywood actress and reimagines the traditional adoption story: a young woman, Avni, chooses between possible mothers housed in a local shelter. The first mother is too clean; the second, who looks like the real-life Aishwarya Rai, is too pretty. In her small Mumbai apartment with too-thin walls and a too-small balcony, Avni watches laundry turn around in her machine, dreams of stepping into white limousines and tries out different mothers from the shelter. One of them must be just right…
SANJANA THAKUR’S RESPONSE TO HER WINNING THE 2024 COMMONWEALTH OVERALL PRIZE.
She shared with Nigerian writer Stephen Adinoyi who is based in Kaduna.
Thank you, Stephen,
I’m speechless.
I’m thrilled.
I’m honoured to be this year’s Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner.
Most of all, I am grateful to this community of writers and readers for reading my story, connecting with it, and deciding it deserves to be published.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize has a special place in my heart. It is one of few prizes that prioritises the place and context of both the story and the author. Place is such an important part of my creative process.
India and my home city of Mumbai are integral to my writing. If Aishwarya Rai had a fragrance, it would be solid and bright: mud and rain, green chillies and potatoes frying in hot oil, sweat, jasmine flowers, and salt.
Those are the smells of the city for me.
Each time I return to Mumbai, the city has shifted, and so have I. Mumbai is constantly shifting, moving, and dancing, so the process of reconstructing home emerges in all the stories I write.
The prize allows all of us to think about the meaning of home, new approaches to postcolonial placemaking and linkages, and what it means to be a part of this community.
It’s been a dream to be a regional winner alongside four brilliant writers whom I deeply respect: Pip Robertson (New Zealand), Reena Usha Rungoo (Mauritius), Julia Bouchard (Canada) and Portia Subran (Trinidad and Tobago).
I was so inspired after hearing about their creative processes during the award ceremony. Through their nuanced and attentive writing, they’re all thinking and reimagining what our world could be.
You can revisit their thoughtful remarks and our insights about the writing process in the award ceremony, which are now available online.
Thank you again, Stephen.
I’m so grateful to be a part of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
It reminds me that our stories connect us, bind us, and remind us of what we have: each other.
In gratitude,
Sanjana.
