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Australians, New Zealander shortlisted for 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Two Australians and one New Zealander are among the finalists for the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

The Australian and New Zealand writers shortlisted are:

  • Sarah Walker for ‘Slake’ (Australia)
  • Eleanor Kirk for ‘The No Sex Thing’ (Australia)
  • Shelley Burne-Field for ‘Speaking in Tongues’ (Aotearoa New Zealand).

Shortlisted in the Pacific category, the local authors are among 26 writers in the running for the prize, which covers the Commonwealth regions of Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, Pacific and the Caribbean. The 25 shortlisted stories come from 20 countries, including, for the first time, Papua New Guinea, Eswatini, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The shortlisted authors were chosen from over 6700 entires from 52 commonwealth countries.

The regional winners, to be announced on 23 May, will receive £2500 (A$4435) each. The overall winner, to be announced on 21 June, will receive £5000 (A$8870).

The annual prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction between 2000 and 5000 words. Last year’s overall winner was Sri Lankan writer Kanya D’Almeida, while Australian writer Katerina Gibson was the regional winner for the Pacific.

 

Category: Local news