NOW OPEN: 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest for unpublished short fiction (£15,000 in Cash Prize)

Application Deadline: 1 November 2019

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words) in English. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000. Translated entries are also eligible, as are stories written in the original Bengali, Chinese, French, Greek, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan, Tamil and Turkish. If the winning story is in translation, the translator receives additional prize money.

Eligibility

a. Entrants must be citizens of a Commonwealth country – please see Section 5 for the 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 non-Commonwealth 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 2019.

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. Entries from previous regional winners are eligible.

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h. Entries must be unpublished and remain unpublished in any language until 1 May 2020.

Benefit:

Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000.

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 2019 (11.59pm in any time zone).

d. Only one entry per writer 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 May 2020. 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, with the exception of personal blogs and personal websites.

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, French, Greek, Kiswahili, Malay, 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 Commonwealth Writers 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).

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest