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Last Updated: May 26, 2017 - 11:52:09 PM |
Commonwealth Writers is delighted to announce the regional winners for this year’s Commonwealth Short Story Prize. The five outstanding stories were successful in a year of fierce competition when the Prize received a record 6,000 entries from across the Commonwealth. The Trinidadian author, Ingrid Persaud, is the regional winner for the Caribbean for her story ‘The Sweet Sop’.
Ingrid Persaud is a Trinidadian writer and artist who calls Barbados home. She came to writing and fine art having first pursued a successful legal career that included teaching and scholarship at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, in the United States and King’s College London. Her creative work has been widely exhibited and her writing featured in several magazines. Her debut novel, If I Never Went Home (2014) was highly praised.
She said of her win, “I am humbled to be the Caribbean recipient of this award and grateful to the Commonwealth Foundation for the fantastic work they do encouraging the universality of storytelling.”
Janet Steel, Programme Manager of Commonwealth Writers, said of the Prize:
“We are extremely proud of the Short Story Prize. Every year, as the number of entries increase, we are both thrilled and honoured that writers take the time to send us their precious and sometimes very personal stories from around the world.
The prize is at the heart of all the work we do at Commonwealth Writers. It’s a chance for new writers to shine from around the commonwealth and be recognised on a global platform. Some of the writers may have come up through our craft development initiatives, others may have been writing for years but what they all have in common is a passion and a commitment to writing stories that are moving, enlightening and make people sit up and listen.”
The winning writers are:
Africa
Akwaeke Emezi, Who is Like God, Nigeria
Asia
Anushka Jasraj, Drawing Lessons, India
Canada and Europe
Tracy Fells, The Naming of Moths, UK
Caribbean
Ingrid Persaud, The Sweet Sop, Trinidad and Tobago
Pacific
Nat Newman, The Death of Margaret Roe, Australia
“There were many outstanding stories submitted for The Prize, ranging from the ironic, the humorous, the quirky through to the ‘morbid’. All of the shortlisted stories were deeply interrogating of what it means to be human and alive, while always remaining highly engaging and thought-provoking. The shortlisted writers have a great deal to be proud of,” commented the judge for the Caribbean region, award-winning novelist and editor Jacob Ross. “Ultimately, the story that stood out for us, for its daring - in terms of narrative style, execution of subject matter - and above all its nuanced capturing of the relationship between a negligent father and his son, is ‘The Sweet Sop’. Not only does the writer succeed in making the reader accept the humanity of an act that one would instinctively object to, but she does so with an impressive lightness of touch and humour.”
Joining Jacob Ross on the judging panel were Zukiswa Wanner (Africa), Mahesh Rao (Asia), Jacqueline Baker (Canada and Europe), and Vilsoni Hereniko (Pacific) under the chairmanship of novelist Kamila Shamsie.
Ingrid Persaud will now compete with the four other finalists to be selected as the Overall Winner of the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, to be announced at The Arts House in Singapore on Friday 30 June 2017.
Commonwealth Writers has partnered again with Granta magazine to give regional winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize the opportunity to be published by Granta online. The stories will be published every Tuesday from 30 May until 27 June.
‘The Sweet Sop’ will be available to read on www.granta.com from 27 June.
As Granta’s online editor Luke Neima said:
"Year after year, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize has been introducing us here at Granta to energetic new voices from across the world. Each shortlist showcases a range of startlingly unique perspectives, richly evoked settings and vibrant dialogue, all written with the verve and flair we’ve come to love from the prize. This year is no different, and it’s a pleasure for us to be able to publish this selection of immensely talented writers."
This year’s Prize is supported by the Jan Michalski Foundation for Writing and Literature.
© Copyright 2017 by thebahamasweekly.com
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