Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2026 for unpublished short fiction (£5,000 in Cash Prize). – Opportunities For Africans

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Application Deadline: 1 November 2025, 11pm GMT

Applications are actually open for the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is an annual award for unpublished short fiction administered and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation.  The prize covers the Commonwealth areas of 1. Africa, 2. Asia, 3. Canada and Europe, 4. Caribbean and 5. Pacific. (See Section 5 for international locations in every area). 

Requirements 

• The prize is free to enter and open to any citizen of a Commonwealth nation aged 18 and over.
• It is awarded for the very best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 phrases).
• Entrants have to be residents of a Commonwealth nation or stateless individuals at present residing in a Commonwealth nation. The Commonwealth Foundation will request verification of citizenship standing earlier than winners are chosen. Entries from residents of non-Commonwealth international locations usually are not eligible. 
• For regional functions, entries will likely be judged by nation of citizenship. Where the author has twin citizenship (of two Commonwealth international locations), the entry will likely be judged in the area the place the author is completely resident. 
• There is not any requirement for the author to have present residence in a Commonwealth nation, offering that they’re a citizen of a Commonwealth nation. 
• Entrants have to be aged 18 years or over on 1 November 2025. 
• The story have to be authentic work and mustn’t have been printed wherever, in full or in part, in any language, earlier than 1 May 2026. Published work is taken to imply printed in any printed, publicly accessible type, e.g. anthology, journal, newspaper. It can be taken to imply printed on-line, besides for private blogs, private web sites and private Facebook pages. 

Prize:

• There will likely be 5 winners, one from every area. One regional winner will likely be chosen as the general winner.
• The general winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize will obtain £5,000 and the remaining 4 regional winners £2,500. If the profitable short story is a translation into English, the translator will obtain further prize cash 

Submission Requirements

• Entries ought to be uploaded in a PDF doc. Please save your doc as a PDF and use the title of the story because the file title. Please notice that the story should not be saved as ‘Commonwealth Story’, ‘Short Story’ or another generic title. If it isn’t doable to save lots of the entry as a PDF doc, it might be uploaded as a Microsoft Word doc, with the file title in the identical format as above. The first web page ought to embrace the title of the story and the variety of phrases. 
• The writer’s particulars ought to be included on the entry type. They should not be given wherever on the uploaded doc. All entries are judged anonymously. 

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest