Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest 2025 for Unpublished Short Fiction (£5,000 in Cash Prize)

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About Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest 2025

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 It is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words).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 is available via the link above. 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.

• Sponsor Organisation: The Commonwealth Foundation

Benefits of Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest 2025

• 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.

Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest 2025 Requirements

a.Entrants must be citizens of a Commonwealth country - please see this document for the 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 non-Commonwealth 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 2024.

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.

1. Entries from current members of staff at the Commonwealth Foundation are not eligible.
2. Entries must be unpublished and remain unpublished in any language until 1 May 2025.

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

Entry rules

Entries, including those in translation, must be made by the original author.

1. Entries will only be accepted via the online entry form.
2. The deadline for receipt of entries is 1 November 2024 (11.59pm in any time zone).
3. Only one entry per writer each year may be submitted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
4. The story must be the entrant's own work.

Application Date and Process

• Click on the link to the application website to apply,

Application Deadline

01 November, 2024

Scholarship Application Portal

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