Deadline: Nov. 1, 2016.
Commonwealth Writers calls for submission to its 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. It awards the prize to the writer of the best unpublished short fiction written in English by a Commonwealth country citizen. The panel of judges places entries into five regions: Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000.
Writers can also submit translated into English short stories. Also, it invites writers from Mozambique who write in Portuguese, and writers who write in Samoan, Swahili and Bengali, and who do not have an English translation of their story, to submit their stories in the original language.
To qualify, you must be a commonwealth citizens, at least 18 years old. You don’t have to currently reside in your country or origination. To apply, submit a 2,000–5,000 words short story. Entries can be submitted online. You can only submit one entry per writer.
You cannot submit a story that isn’t original, or was previously published before May 1, 2016. An exception is your personal blog or website. You can’t submit any story you previously submitted to the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
Save your document as a PDF and use the title of the story as the file name. An alternative, you can submit your story in a Microsoft Word document. On the first page, write the name of the story and the number of words. Do not include your personal details in the document. Commonwealth Writers will judge all 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize entries anonymously.
Submit your entry in Arial 12 point font and double space it. Also, number all pages and include a header with the title of the story.