2 Trinis shortlisted for Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Two Trinidadians are on the shortlist of the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Hunger by former Newsday reporter Andre Bagoo and Rashad Hosein’s English at the End of Time were selected from among the record-breaking list of 6,423 entries.

Twenty-five outstanding stories have been shortlisted by an international judging panel for the world’s most global literature prize.

The writers come from 14 countries across the Commonwealth including, for the first time, Lesotho and Namibia, said a media release.

Often humorous and always intensely moving, chair of the judges, South African writer Zoë Wicomb said in the release, “the 25 stories range in scope from concerns with sexual identity, gender relations, animal rights” to “neo-colonialism, racial exploitation and, of course, the perennial themes of love and death.”

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from any of the Commonwealth’s 54 member states. It is the most accessible and international of all writing competitions: in addition to English, entries can be submitted in Bengali, Chinese, French, Greek, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan, Swahili, Tamil, and Turkish. Such linguistic diversity in a short story prize in part reflects the richness of the Commonwealth, not least its many and varied literary traditions, the release said.

The stories on the 2021 shortlist were selected from a total of 6,423 entries from 50 Commonwealth countries – a 25 per cent rise in entries as compared to the previous year.

“Announcements about the death of the short story may be legion, but the 2021 shortlist loudly asserts that the form is in fine fettle. It also shows that writers continue to push at the very parameters of the short story. Many have tackled difficult subjects and found fresh means of representing these with courage and sensitivity,” Wicomb said. She also praised the “novel use of local non-standard Englishes as well as inventive inscription of native languages.”

Describing the range of stories “from speculative fictions that address environmental and political crises to the hyper-real and the supernatural,” she added, “The great number of excellent submissions and the equivocal nature of aesthetic taste made for protracted discussions. It has been a privilege to participate in vigorous argument and thoughtful horse-trading as members of the judging panel generously conceded and negotiated priorities.”

Dr Anne T Gallagher AO, director-general of the Commonwealth Foundation, the intergovernmental organisation which administers the prize, said, “A record number of entries were received this year for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize: a testimony to its enduring popularity and perhaps also to a deep creativity borne of isolation and uncertainty. The authors on this shortlist are to be celebrated for their mastery of the form. It is an honour for the foundation to bring their work to wide public attention. And to all those who entered: we thank you for the timely reminder of the power of storytelling, not least its ability to comfort, inspire and heal.”

The 2021 shortlist:

Africa

Tetra Hydro Cannabinol – Moso Sematlane, Lesotho

Granddaughter of the Octopus – Rémy Ngamije, Namibia

An Analysis of a Fragile Affair – Ola W Halim, Nigeria

Ogbuefi – Vincent Anioke, Nigeria

A for Abortion – Franklyn Usouwa, Nigeria

Asia

The Current Climate – Aravind Jayan, India

It Ends with a Kiss – Riddhi Dastidar, India

Weeds – Ling Low, Malaysia

Submission – Nur Khan, Pakistan

I Cleaned The- – Kanya D’Almeida, Sri Lanka

Canada and Europe

Starry Night – Cara Marks, Canada

Class Struggle – Ian Stewart, Canada

Mass Effect – Joshua Wales, Canada

Some words, ending in a sentence – Phill Doran, UK

Turnstones – Carol Farrelly (UK)

Caribbean

Tourism is Our Business – Heather Barker, Barbados

Genuine Human Hair – Sharma Taylor, Jamaica

The Disappearance of Mumma Dell – Roland Watson-Grant, Jamaica

Hunger – Andre Bagoo, TT

English at the End of Time – Rashad Hosein, TT

Pacific

The Woman; or Euryale – AN King, Australia,

Rabbit – Samantha Lane Murphy, Australia

Downpour – SJ Fin, Australia

Fertile Soil – Katerina Gibson, Australia

Carved – Tim Saunders, New Zealand

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is administered by the Commonwealth Foundation, through its cultural initiative Commonwealth Writers.

The 2021 judging panel included Wicomb, Nigerian writer A Igoni Barrett, Bangladeshi writer, translator and editor Khademul Islam, British poet and fiction writer Keith Jarrett, Jamaican environmental activist, award-winning writer and 2012 Caribbean regional winner Diana McCaulay and award-winning author and 2016 Pacific regional winner Tina Makereti from New Zealand.

Now in its tenth year, the prize has developed a strong reputation for discovering new writers and bringing them to a global audience.

Nominations have helped many new writers find publishers and agents. The 2020 Australia/Pacific winner Andrea E Macleod secured an agent, as did 2020 overall winner Kritika Pandey. Sharma Taylor, shortlisted in 2018, 2020 and again this year has just signed a two-book deal with Virago – the first book, her debut novel, is based on her shortlisted story Son Son’s Birthday.

The 2020 winner Kritika Pandey noted how the prize had offered other opportunities too: her winning story has been translated into Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam, Pashto, and Italian.

Kenyon Review and BBC Radio 4 have solicited work from her, and she is collaborating with Rosie Kay Dance company for a feminist take on Virginia’s Woolf’s novel Orlando as part of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

The 2020 Caribbean winner Brian Heap also used some of his prize money as seed money for a student project, organising two creative writing competitions at the UWI, Mona Campus in Jamaica.