The Commonwealth Short Story Competition 2007


The Commonwealth Short Story Competition winners will be announced on 19 November 2007, 19.30hrs (GMT). The prize worth £2000, is awarded annually and exists to increase understanding between and appreciation of different Commonwealth cultures, to showcase the rich diversity of the Commonwealth and to support rising literary talents.

The competition, now in its 11th year, has been held each year since 1996, and is administered by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association on behalf of the Commonwealth Foundation. Each year the competition identifies around 25 outstanding short stories and records them for radio broadcast around the Commonwealth.

2006’s overall winner, Erin Soros of Canada joins a host of past winners who have used success in the competition as a spring board, and have gone on to write more short stories, as well as write and publish novels. Usha Rajagopalan, an Indian writer, published an acclaimed first novel Amrita after winning the competition. Laurie Kubuitsile, a Botswana writer, who received a Highly Commended award in 2004 for her short story, A Pot Full Of Tears, has since reached international audiences, winning a prize in the John Reid/Tom Howard contest (USA) and being published in the UK magazine, Mslexia. Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian writer, after winning the short story competition for The Tree in Grandma’s Garden, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and was winner of First Book Award for the 2005 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for her novel Purple Hibiscus. .

This year’s judges are writer Donna Daley-Clarke, writer and broadcaster Lucy Hannah, and Nathan Hamilton of the New Writing Partnership.