Local authors on Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2023 shortlist

Three Australians and one Aotearoa New Zealand author are among the finalists for the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

The authors shortlisted for the Pacific region are:

• Jean Flynn, for ‘Sauce’ (Australia)
• Janeen Samuel, for ‘Catching Up’ (Australia)
• Emma Sloley, for ‘Sugartown’ (Australia)
• Himali McInnes, for ‘Kilinochchi’ (New Zealand)
• Dennis Kikira, for ‘When this island disappears’ (Papua New Guinea).

The local authors are among 28 writers in the running for the prize, which covers the Commonwealth regions of Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, Pacific and the Caribbean. The shortlisted authors were chosen from over 6600 entries from 56 Commonwealth countries including, for the first time, Togo and Gabon, the newest members of the Commonwealth.

Regional winners of the prize will be announced on 17 May before being published online by literary magazine Granta. The overall winner will be announced on 27 June.

Last year’s winner was Eswatini writer Ntsika Kota for his story ‘and the earth drank deep’.

For more information, see the prize website.

Category: Awards Local news