Call For Entries | 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize | The Commonwealth Foundation
Opening date
1 September 2017
Closing date
Entries must be submitted via the
online entry form by 1 November 2017
(11.59pm in any time zone)
No entries will be
considered if submitted after this date.
1. About the Prize
a.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is
an annual award for unpublished short fiction administered and funded by the
Commonwealth Foundation.
b.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is
part of Commonwealth Writers,
the cultural initiative of the Commonwealth Foundation.
c.
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).
d.
The international
judging panel comprises one judge from each of the five regions. Please note
that while the entries will be judged regionally, all judges will read and
deliberate on entries from all regions.
e.
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.
f.
The final selection
will be judged by an international judging panel; experienced readers will
assist the named judges in selecting the long lists.
2.
Eligibility
a.
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. Writers from non-Commonwealth
countries (including the Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe) are not eligible.
b.
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.
c.
Entrants must be aged 18 years or over on 1 November 2017.
d.
There is no requirement for the writer
to have current residence in a Commonwealth country, providing she/he is a
citizen of a Commonwealth country.
e.
All entries will be accepted at the
discretion of the Commonwealth Foundation which will exercise its judgement, in
consultation with the prize chair as necessary, 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.
3. Entry rules
a.
Entries including those in translation must be
made by the writer.
b.
Entries will only be accepted via the online
entry form. Click here.
c.
The deadline for receipt of entries is 1
November 2017 (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 and should not have
been published anywhere in full or in part before 1 May 2018. 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: writers
from Mozambique who write in Portuguese, and writers who write in Bengali,
Chinese, Kiswahili, Malay, Samoan, Tamil and who do not
have an English translation of their story, may submit their stories in the
original language. 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.
i.
Entries must be 2,000 words minimum, 5,000
words maximum.
j.
Entries should be uploaded in a PDF document. Please save your document as a PDF and use
the title of the story as the file name. Please note the story must not be saved as ‘Commonwealth Story’,
‘Short Story’ or any other generic title. If it is not possible to save the
entry as a PDF document, it may be uploaded as a Microsoft Word document, with
the file name in the same format as above. The first page should include the
name of the story and the number of words.
k.
The author’s details should be included on the
entry form. They must not be given anywhere on the uploaded document. All
entries are judged anonymously.
l.
Where applicable, the translator’s details
should be included on the entry form.
m.
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.
n.
There are no restrictions on setting, genre or
theme.
o.
The story should be adult fiction and must not
have been written for children alone.
p.
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.
q.
Worldwide copyright of each story
remains with the writer. Commonwealth
Writers will 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.
r.
The overall and regional winners will be expected to take part in publicity activities including social media
where possible.
s.
The overall and regional winners will
be expected to undertake a mutually acceptable
programme of regional outreach activities to develop and promote Commonwealth Writers.
4. Prize regions
Africa: Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius,
Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa,
Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia. Overseas Territories: St Helena, Tristan
Da Cunha, Ascension Island.
Asia: Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, India, Malaysia, Maldives,
Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka.
Canada and Europe: Canada, Cyprus, Malta, United Kingdom. Overseas Territories: Gibraltar,
Falkland Islands.
Caribbean : Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica,
Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the
Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago. Overseas Territories: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands,
Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands.
Pacific: Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea,
Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu. Overseas Territory: Pitcairn.
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