The Shortlist for the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Has Been Announced

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize has released its shortlist for the 2025 prize. The prize holds a foundational prestige as an annual contest.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize has released its shortlist for the 2025 prize. The prize holds a foundational prestige as an annual literary contest that celebrates exceptional creative works emerging from the descendants of Commonwealth countries. For this year's prize, a total of 8,000 entries were received for the contest, marking a record in direct comparison to the number of submitted entries in 2024. The shortlist, however, will only feature works of 25 writers from the submission pool. For the first time, the shortlist featured stories from Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Lucia. 

Five regional winners will be awarded a cash prize of £2,500, while the overall winner will receive a total of £5,000. In addition, the stories will be published online by Granta and in a special print collection by Paper + Ink. Whereas, the shortlisted works will be published on the Commonwealth Foundation's online magazine, Asda.

However, if the winning story is a translation into English, the translator will receive an additional cash prize of £750.

Drawing from the perspective of the chairman of the judging panel, Dr. Vilsoni Hereniko, the shortlist comprises stories that move, cause one to think, and even cause one to change, hence, demonstrating even more strongly the reason the short story form must continue to be supported and promoted.

Adding to this, Dr Anne T. Gallagher AO, Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation, believes the shortlist comprises "breadth of voices, perspectives, and experiences is awe-inspiring and a powerful reminder of the creative energy that unites us as a Commonwealth of people."

The shortlist for the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize is as follows:

'The Flute Player', Priscilla Ametorpe Goka | Ghana

'A Room Full of Teddy Bears', Dorechi | Kenya

'The Sun isn't Dead Yet (Le soleil n'est pas encore mort)' , Vashish Jaunky | Mauritius

'The mothers' , Olákìtán T. Aládéṣuyì | Nigeria

'Broken String' , Stephen M. Finn | South Africa

'Mothers Not Appearing In Search' , Joshua Lubwama | Uganda

'An Eye and a Leg' , Faria Basher | Bangladesh

'Mrs. Gaonkar's Girls ' , Parul Kaushik | India

'Tamarind' , Tino de Sa | India

'The Dot' , Tahoor Bari | Pakistan

'Descend' , Chanel Sutherland | Canada

'Nuala Nu' , Damhnait Monaghan | Canada

'The Crossing' , David Frankel | United Kingdom

'Bread and Butter' , Dushi Rasiah | United Kingdom

'Beasts' , Tess Little | United Kingdom

'Jumbie Pond' , Joanne C. Hillhouse | Antigua and Barbuda

'Margot's Run' , Subraj Singh | Guyana

'Pomp and Circumstance' , Kellie Martine Magnus | Jamaica

'Redeye Cat' , Jessie Mayers | Saint Lucia

'Crab Sticks and Lobster Rolls' , Kathleen Ridgwell | Australia

'The Drum and the Bell' , Keith Goh Johnson | Australia

'Threads of Truth' , Lachlan Alexander| Australia

'The Pale Blue Dot' , Angela Pope | New Zealand

'We'll meet again' , Maria Samuela | New Zealand

'Final Effort of the Wind' , Gillian Leasunia Katoanga | Samoa

In anticipation of the regional winners and the overall winner on May 14 and June 25, respectively, we congratulate the shortlisted writers.