Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest 2024 (£15,000 in Cash Prize) | APPLY NOW

This informs the public about the Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest 2024 for unpublished short fiction. Details about the Program are given below.

Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest 2024

About Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest 2024

The Commonwealth Foundation is an intergovernmental organisation established by Heads of Government in support of the belief that the Commonwealth is as much an association of peoples as it is of governments.

Program Details

The prize is free to enter and open to any citizen of a Commonwealth country aged 18 and over. It is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words).

Submissions should be made via the online entry form which is available from the link below. The eligibility and entry guidelines can be found here.

The international judging panel will select a shortlist of around twenty stories, from which five regional winners are chosen. One of the regional winners is then selected as the overall winner, who receives £5,000. The regional winners will receive £2,500. All five regional winning stories will be published on Granta.

Scroll down to read answers to frequently asked questions about the prize, including who can enter, how stories are judged and what languages we accept.

Eligibility

  • Entrants must be citizens of a Commonwealth country – please see Section 5 forthe 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 nonCommonwealth countries are not eligible.
  • 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.
  • 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 1 November 2023.
  • 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. Entrants who have won the regional prize three times are also not
    eligible to submit to the prize.
  • 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 2024.
  • If your entry has been shortlisted or won a prize in other competitions, provided it has not been published, it is eligible.

Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest 2023 Application

  • Entries, including those in translation, must be made by the original author.
  • Entries will only be accepted via the online entry form.
  • 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.

For those interested in Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest 2023. Open this link to start the application process.

Application Deadline

  • The deadline for receipt of applications is 1 November 2023.

Open this link for more details about Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest 2023.

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