The Commonwealth Short Story Prize has announced an international lineup of judges for the 10th edition of the prize.
South African novelist and literary critic, Zoë Wicomb, will chair the panel alongside others from the five regions of the Commonwealth including Nigerian author A. Igoni Barrett (Africa), Bangladeshi writer and editor Khademul Islam (Asia), British poet and fiction writer Keith Jarrett (Canada and Europe), Jamaican environmental activist and author Diana McCaulay (Caribbean), and essayist and fiction writer Tina Makereti (Pacific).
“I’m delighted to be Chair of the judges for the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, one of the most renowned literary competitions in the world with a reputation for unearthing original and thought-provoking stories from across the Commonwealth. I’m very much looking forward to reading the stories and working with my fellow judges to identify the best ones, before introducing them and the writers to the wider global audience,” Wicomb said.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction in English in the regions of Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Each of these winners are then eligible for the global prize.
Previous winners in the Africa region have been Jekwu Anyaegbuna (2012), Julian Jackson (2013), Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (2014), Lesley Nneka Arimah (2015), Faraaz Mahomed (2016), Akwaeke Emezi (2017), Efua Traoré (2018), Mbozi Haimbe (2019) and Innocent Chizaram Ilo (2020). Jennifer Makumbi went on to win the global prize in 2014.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is currently accepting entries until November 1, 2020.
