New Zealand triumphs in Commonwealth Short Story Prize
14 May 2013
New Zealand triumphs in Commonwealth Short
Story Prize
Zoë Meager announced as 2013 Pacific
regional winner
The Commonwealth Foundation has announced the regional winners for the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Representing Africa, Asia, Canada & Europe, Caribbean, and the Pacific regions, these writers will now compete to become the overall winner, to be announced at Hay Festival UK on 31 May.
The Commonwealth Book Prize is awarded for the best first novel, and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the best piece of unpublished short fiction.
Part of Commonwealth Writers, the prizes unearth, develop and promote the best of new writing from across the Commonwealth, developing literary connections worldwide and consistently bringing less-heard voices to the fore. The cultural breadth of stories from this year’s regional winners includes Sri Lanka on the eve of independence from British Colonial rule, the Socialist regime of 1970s Jamaica, and a South Africa riven by apartheid.
On winning for her short story Things with Faces, Zoë Meager said: “I’m so lucky to be included in the shortlist for such a well-respected competition, and it’s incredibly fortifying to win the Pacific regional prize. It’s a thrill to think that Things with Faces is contributing to this unique collection of imaginative works from all around the world.”
Commonwealth Short Story Prize
Regional Winner, Africa
The New
Customers, Julian Jackson (South Africa)
Regional
Winner, Asia
The Sarong-Man in the Old House, and
an Incubus for a Rainy Night, Michael Mendis (Sri
Lanka)
Regional Winner, Canada & Europe
We
Walked On Water, Eliza Robertson (Canada)
Regional
Winner, Caribbean
The Whale House, Sharon
Millar (Trinidad and Tobago)
Regional Winner,
Pacific
Things with Faces, Zoë Meager (New
Zealand)
Chair of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Razia Iqbal said, “The short story is among the hardest forms to master. The five stories we chose as regional winners all pass the judges' tests of capturing a distinctive tone; creating fulsome characters; always deft in showing, not telling; subject matter both intimate and personal, as well as ranging across political landscapes. Reading them will transport you, as all good literature does, and introduce you to voices we are sure you will hear again.”
Commonwealth Writers has partnered with Granta magazine to give regional winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize the opportunity to be published by Granta online during the week commencing 27 May.
John Freeman, Editor of Granta said: “The Commonwealth Short Story Prize searches across a vast territory with relentless curiosity to select the brightest new talent from each region, and this year is stronger than ever. With voices that arrest, affirm, disturb and illuminate, this new crop of writers turn our expectations for what a story can do, and of where they are calling from, inside out. This partnership is an example of what the magazine can be at best – a beacon for those writers we didn’t know we were missing out on – and we salute Commonwealth Writers in their continuing good work.”
Commonwealth Book Prize
Regional
Winner, Africa
Sterile Sky, E.E. Sule
(Nigeria), Pearson Education
Regional Winner,
Asia
Island of a Thousand Mirrors, Nayomi
Munaweera (Sri Lanka), Perera-Hussein Publishing
House
Regional Winner, Canada & Europe
The
Death of Bees, Lisa O'Donnell (United Kingdom), William
Heinemann
Regional Winner,
Caribbean
Disposable People, Ezekel Alan
(Jamaica), self-published
Regional Winner,
Pacific
The Last Thread, Michael Sala
(Australia), Affirm Press
Commenting on the winners, Chair of the Commonwealth Book Prize, Godfrey Smith said, “Choosing the regional winners from among the 21 shortlisted books was a rewarding journey across diverse cultures, through soaring - sometimes shocking - imaginations, movingly connecting us with a fascinating range of human situations. The five regional winners are an impressive mixture of bold, ambitious, powerfully descriptive and emotionally riveting writing that will leave us with a deeper appreciation and understanding of our world.”
Notes
1. Overall winners of the Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize will be announced at Hay Festival at 7pm on Friday 31 May 2013.
2. The winner of the Commonwealth Book Prize receives £10,000, with regional winners receiving £2,500. The winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize receives £5,000, with regional winners receiving £1,000. For more information visit www.commonwealthwriters.org
3.
Commonwealth Writers
The Commonwealth Book Prize
and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize are part of
Commonwealth Writers, a cultural initiative from the
Commonwealth Foundation. Commonwealth Writers aim is
to inspire writers, storytellers and a range of cultural
practitioners to work for social change. It builds
communities of less heard and emerging voices to influence,
directly and indirectly, the decision making processes which
affect their lives. The Commonwealth Book and Short Story
prizes act as catalysts to target and identify talented
writers from different regions who will go on to inspire and
inform their local communities. www.commonwealthwriters.org
4.
Commonwealth Foundation
The Commonwealth Foundation is a
development organisation with an international remit and
reach, uniquely situated at the interface between government
and civil society. It develops the capacity of civil society
to act together and learn from each other to engage with the
institutions that shape people’s lives. It strives for
more effective, responsive and accountable governance with
civil society participation, which contributes to improved
development outcomes. www.commonwealthfoundation.com
5.
Granta
The overall and regional winners of the
Commonwealth Short Story Prize will have the opportunity to
have their story edited and published by Granta
online. Granta is a quarterly literary magazine of
new writing. Published in book format, each issue includes
stories, essays, memoir, poetry and art centred around a
theme. Throughout its long history, Granta has
published the most significant writers of our time featuring
work by writers including Julian Barnes, Edwidge Danticat,
Kazuo Ishiguro, Salman Rushdie, Santiago Roncagliolo, David
Mitchell, Lorrie Moore, Zadie Smith, Jeanette Winterson and
more. In recent years, the magazine has expanded to include
foreign editions – in Spain, Italy, Brazil, Norway, China,
Finland, Sweden, Portugal and Bulgaria. www.granta.com
6. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize regional winners will be published by Granta online during the week commencing 27 May at the following address: http://www.granta.com/New-Writing/Commonwealth-Short-Story-Prize-Winners
7.
Hay Festival
Hay Festival celebrates great writing from
poets and scientists, lyricists and comedians, novelists and
environmentalists, and the power of great ideas to transform
our way of thinking. Hay runs 15 festivals across five
continents at which current political thought and the
re-imaginings of international writers cross cultural and
genre boundaries, and foster the exchange of understanding,
mutual respect and ideas. www.hayfestival.com
8. Yardstick
Festival
The regional winner for Africa, E. E. Sule, will
be appearing at the Yardstick Festival, 27-30 June 2013. The
festival promotes the experience of great African Diaspora
literature through engaging audiences in Bristol and the
South West. Jamaica 50 Cultural Medal of Honour winner Lorna
Goodison and Alissandra Cummins, chair of UNESCO’s
Executive Board, are patrons. Festival partners this year
include the Royal African Society (RAS Africa Writes) and
the Commonwealth Foundation (Commonwealth Writers). The
festival includes authors from Jamaica, Kenya, Somalia,
South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria
and the UK. www.yardstick.org.uk
ENDS