The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is run by the Commonwealth Foundation and was launched in 2012 alongside the Commonwealth Writers programme. It goes to the best piece of unpublished short fiction of 2,000 to 5,000 words, and entry is free for Commonwealth-country citizens and stateless people currently residing in a Commonwealth country who are aged 18 or over. Entry and judging happen online, so entrants do not travel.
Stories are read anonymously over several rounds and then judged by an international panel made up of a chair and one judge for each of the five Commonwealth regions: Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Each region produces one winner, and one of those five is named the overall winner. The Foundation has said the prize will return in January 2027, after a review of its processes, entry rules and submission guidelines that followed allegations about the use of artificial intelligence in the 2026 prize.
Benefits & funding
- Free to enter.
- The overall winner, selected from the five regional winners, receives £5,000.
- The remaining four regional winners receive £2,500 each.
- In the 2025 cycle, the translator of a winning translated story received an additional £750.
- Regional winning stories are published online by Granta. The 2025 regional winners also appeared in a print collection published by Paper + Ink.
- Entrants gain access to adda, the Commonwealth Writers online magazine, and to other Commonwealth Writers activities.
Eligibility
- Citizens of any of the 56 Commonwealth member countries, or stateless people currently residing in a Commonwealth country. Commonwealth-country citizens do not need to reside in a Commonwealth country.
- Aged 18 or over.
- A piece of fiction of 2,000 to 5,000 words. Any genre is accepted, including science fiction, historical fiction, crime, romance and literary fiction.
- The story must be unpublished in any print or online publication, with the exception of the writer’s own personal website.
- A story entered in a previous year cannot be entered again.
- Entries are accepted in Bengali, Chinese, Creole, English, French, Greek, Malay, Maltese, Portuguese, Samoan, Swahili, Tamil and Turkish. Stories translated into English from another language are also accepted.
- No degree, qualification or previous publication record is required.
Can you apply?
Here's who can apply
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Age requirement
≥ 18 yrs
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Application process
- 1Check the hard conditions: be a Commonwealth-country citizen or a stateless person currently residing in a Commonwealth country, and be aged 18 or over.
- 2Prepare a piece of unpublished fiction of 2,000 to 5,000 words in one of the accepted languages, or an English translation of a story written in another language.
- 3Read the entry rules published for the cycle. The Foundation is reviewing its entry rules and submission guidelines, so the rules for the January 2027 return may differ from earlier years.
- 4Submit through the official online entry form while entries are open. In earlier cycles entries opened on 1 September and closed on 1 November.
- 5Entries are read anonymously across several rounds. Fewer than 200 stories reached the longlist stage in the 2026 cycle, out of 7,806 entries.
- 6The international panel selects a shortlist of about 25 stories, then one winner for each of the five regions.
- 7The overall winner is announced from among the five regional winners. Questions about entry go to creatives@commonwealthfoundation.com.
Program timeline
Entries opened for the 2026 prize
Sep 1, 2025
Entry deadline for the 2026 prize
Nov 1, 2025
Shortlist of 25 writers announced for the 2026 prize
Apr 14, 2026
The prize returns, according to the Commonwealth Foundation; the dates for that round are not yet published
2027-01