Australian, New Zealand writers shortlisted for 2013 Commonwealth Writers Prize

Bookseller & Publisher

 

A number of Australian and New Zealand writers have been shortlisted for the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

Books by Australian authors shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize are:

• Floundering (Romy Ash, Text)
• Mazin Grace (Dylan Coleman, UQP)
• A Tiger in Eden (Chris Flynn, Text)
• The Last Thread (Michael Sala, Affirm)
• Beneath the Darkening Sky (Majok Tulba, Penguin).

Works by Australian and New Zealand writers shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize are:

• Not for Publication (Rachel Bush, New Zealand)
• Things with Faces (Zoe Meager, New Zealand)
• Mortal Sins (Sinead Roarty, Australia)
• Tug of War (Deborah Rogers, New Zealand)
• Raven (Tom Williams, Australia).

The winners of this year’s awards will be announced in May. To see the full shortlists, click here.
The Commonwealth Book Prize is open to writers whose first novel was published during 2012. The overall winner receives £10,000 (A$14,644). Regional winners (in Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, Caribbean, and the Pacific) receive £2500 (A$3661). The short story prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction between 200-5000 words. The overall winner receives £5000 (A$7322) and the regional winners receive £1000 (A$1464). The regional and overall winners of the short story prize will also have the opportunity to have their stories published online by Granta.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, New Zealand writer Emma Martin won the Pacific region category and overall Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2012 for her story ‘Two Girls in a Boat’. Australian author Cory Taylor won the Pacific region of the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize for Me and Mr Booker (Text). The overall prize was awarded to Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka for Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew (Vintage)