The 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Shortlist Announced

The shortlist for the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize was announced hours ago, and on the 21-strong list are Diane Awerbuck, Akwaeke Emezi and  Kelechi Njoku.

Diane Awerbuck, shortlisted for her “Nagmaal,” won the 2004 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book and the 2014 Short Story Day Africa Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2014 Caine Prize. Akwaeke Emezi, a 2015 Miles Morland scholar, 2015 Wasafiri New Writing Prize shortlistee and recipient of a 2017 Global Arts Fund, is on the list for her “Who Is Like God?” Her debut novel, Freshwater, will be out in 2018. Kelechi Njoku, West Africa Regional Prize winner of the 2014 Writivism Short Story Competition, is chosen for his “By Way of a Life Plot.”

The presence of Akwaeke Emezi and Kelechi Njoku is of huge importance to us: we’ve published Akwaeke Emezi’s fiction and nonfiction and an interview with Kelechi Njoku.

The 2017 year recorded a record number of submissions: 6,000. Here is what the novelist Kamila Shamsie, the chair of the judges, said of the shortlist:

The extraordinary ability of the short story to plunge you into places, perspectives and emotions and inhabit them fully in the space of only a few pages is on dazzling display in this shortlist. The judges weren’t looking for particular themes or styles, but rather for stories that live and breathe. That they do so with such an impressive range of subject matter and tone has been a particular pleasure of re-reading the shortlisted stories. The geographic spread of the entries is, of course, in good part responsible for this range – all credit to Commonwealth Writers for structuring this prize so that its shortlists never seem parochial.

The Prize’s judging panel is comprised of writers who each represent the five regions of the Commonwealth. The 2017 judges are Zukiswa Wanner, for Africa; Mahesh Rao, for Asia; Jacqueline Baker, for Canada and Europe; Jacob Ross, for the Caribbean; and Vilsoni Hereniko, for the Pacific.

Here are the other shortlistees.

• “An Enquiry into Morality,” Tom Vowler (UK).
• “Close to Home,” Jinny Koh (Singapore).
• “Cursing Mrs Murphy,” Roland Watson-Grant (Jamaica).
• “Drawing Lessons,” Anushka Jasraj (India).
• “Echolocation,” Sarah Jackson (UK).
• “Gauloises Blue,” Ruth Lacey (Australia).
• “Gypsy in the Moonlight,” Caroline Gill (Canada).
• “Harbour,” Chloe Wilson (Australia).
• “Hot Pot,” Jasmine Sealy (Canada).
• “The Sweet Sop,” Ingrid Persaud (Trinidad and Tobago).
• “The Naming of Moths,” Tracy Fells (UK).
• “The Dying Wish,” Caroline MacKenzie (Trinidad and Tobago).
• “The Death of Margaret Roe,” Nat Newman (Australia).
• “The Big, Insignificant History of Peter Abraham Stanhope,” Mary Rokonadravu (Fiji).
• “Swimmer of Yangtze,” Yiming Ma (Canada).
• “Shopping,” Jon Lewis-Katz (Trinidad and Tobago).
• “Immunity,” Damon Chua (Singapore).
• “Numb,” Myfanwy McDonald (Australia).

Big congratulations to Diane Awerbuck, Akwaeke Emezi and Kelechi Njoku! We wish them luck in the final round.

See all the details on Commonwealth Writers.