Application Deadline: 1st November 2018.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words) in English.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, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan and Tamil. The competition is free to enter.
The prize covers the Commonwealth regions of
1. Africa, 2. Asia, 3. Canada and Europe, 4. Caribbean and 5. Pacific. (See Section 4 for countries in each region).
Eligibility Criteria
- Entrants must be citizens of a Commonwealth country– please see Section 4 for the list of Commonwealth countries. The Commonwealth Foundation will request verification of citizenship before winners are selected. Entries from writers from non-Commonwealth countries (including the Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe) are not eligible.
- For regional purposes, entries will be judged by country of citizenship. Where the writer has dual citizenship, 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 they are a citizen of a Commonwealth country.
- Entrants must be aged 18 years or over on 1 November 2018.
- 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.
- Entries from previous overall winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize are not eligible. Entries from previous regional winners are eligible.
- Entries from current members of staff at the Commonwealth Foundation are not eligible.
- Entries must be unpublished and remain unpublished in any language until 1 May 2019.
Benefits:
- 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.
Entry Rules
- Entries,including those in translation, must be made by the original author.
- Entries will only be accepted via the online entry form.
- The deadline for receipt of entries is 1 November 2018 (11.59pm in any time zone).
- Only one entry per writer may be submitted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
- The story must be the entrant’s own work.
- The story must be original work and should not have been published anywhere, in full or in part, in any language, before 1 May 2019. 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.
- Entries previously submitted to the Commonwealth Short Story Prize are not eligible.
- Entries should be submitted in English, with the following exceptions: entries from Commonwealth citizens who write in Bengali, Chinese, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese,Samoan and Tamil 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 the translator is also a citizen of a Commonwealth country.
- Simultaneous submissions are eligible as long as the entrant informs the Prize 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)
- All entries should be submitted in Arial 12 -point font and double line spacing. All pages should be numbered and include a header with the title of the story
- There are no restrictions on setting, genre or theme.
- The story should be adult fiction and must not have been written for children alone.
- Entrants agree as a condition of entry that the prize organisers may publicise the fact that a story has been entered or shortlisted for the Prize.
- Worldwide copyright of each story remains with the writer. Commonwealth Writerswill have the unrestricted right to publish the winning stories (the overall winning story and the four regional winning stories) in an anthology and for promotional purposes.
- The overall and regional winners will be expected to take part in publicity activities including social media where possible.
- The overall and regional winners will be expected to undertake a mutually acceptableprogramme of regional outreach activities to develop and promote Commonwealth Writers.
If you experience any problems with submission please email writers@commonwealth.int
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