Commonwealth Foundation 2024 Short Story Prize

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 It is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words).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 will be available on this page from 1 September. The eligibility and entry guidelines can be found here.

An international judging panel of writers 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.

• Table of Content
• About Commonwealth Foundation (CF)
• Commonwealth Short Story Prize
• Aim and Benefits of Commonwealth Short Story Prize
• Requirements for Commonwealth Short Story Prize Qualification
• Application Deadline
• How to Apply

About Commonwealth Foundation (CF)

The Commonwealth Foundation (CF) is an intergovernmental organisation that was established by the Commonwealth Heads of Government in 1966, a year after its sister organisation, the Commonwealth Secretariat. The Foundation is located at Marlborough House in London, a former royal palace which was assigned for the use of these Commonwealth institutions by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Head of the Commonwealth. As the Commonwealth agency for civil society, the Foundation is funded by 49 member states to support ... continue reading

Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Aim and Benefits of Commonwealth Short Story Prize

• The regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives a total of £5,000.
• The winning stories are published online by Granta and in a special print collection by Paper + Ink.
• The shortlisted stories are published in adda, the online literary magazine of the Commonwealth Foundation.

Requirements for Commonwealth Short Story Prize Qualification

a. 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.

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 2023.

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. Entrants who have won the regional prize three times are also not eligible to submit to the prize. 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 2024.

i. If your entry has been shortlisted or won a prize in other competitions, provided it has not been published, it is eligible.

Application Deadline

How to Apply

For any inquiries regarding the prize, please email: [email protected]

For more details, visit Commonwealth Foundation website.