Win £5000 in 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Competition

Opening date: 1 October 2013
Closing date: Entries must be submitted via the online entry form by Saturday 30 November 2013 (12 noon GMT)

1. About the Prize
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is an annual award for unpublished short
fiction administered and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is part of Commonwealth Writers the
cultural initiative from the Commonwealth Foundation. Commonwealth Writers
develops the craft of individual writers and builds communities of emerging
voices which can influence the decision-making processes affecting their lives.
The Prize aims to identify talented writers who will go on to inspire their local
communities.
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).
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: £2,000 for the overall winning story and £1,000 for a
regional winning story.
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
Entrants must be citizens of a Commonwealth country. 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.
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.
Entrants must be aged 18 years or over.
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.
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
Entries must be made by the writer.
Entries will only be accepted via the online entry form.
The deadline for receipt of entries is 30 November 2013 (12 noon GMT).
Only one entry per writer may be submitted for the Commonwealth Short Story
Prize.
The story must be the entrant’s own work.
The story must be original and should not have been previously published
anywhere in full or in part. 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.
Entries previously submitted to the Commonwealth Short Story Prize are not
eligible.
All entries must be in English. Translations of short stories written in languages
other than English are eligible if submitted by the writer (not the translator) and
provided the translator is a citizen of a Commonwealth country. Details of the
translator must be stated on the entry.
Entries must be 2,000 words minimum, 5,000 words maximum.
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 (and details of the translator if it is a story written in a language other
than English).
The author’s details should be included in the entry form. They must not be
given anywhere on the uploaded document. All entries are judged anonymously.
All entries should be submitted in Arial 12 point font and double line spacing.
There are no restrictions on setting, genre or theme.
The story should be adult fiction and must not have been written for children
alone.
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.
Worldwide copyright of each story remains with the writer. The Commonwealth
Foundation 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.
The overall and regional winners will be expected to take part in publicity
activities including social media where possible.
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 Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea,

Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu. Overseas Territory: Pitcairn.

To Apply Click here