Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2016 Shortlist

26 Writers have been shortlisted for the 2016 Commonwealth short story prize. The well deserving writers include 3 Nigerians;

• Oyinkan Braithwaite
• Lausdeus Chiegboka and
• Enyeribe Ibegwan

The team of judges who chose this year’s shortlist represent the five regions of the Commonwealth are;

• Helon Habila (Africa)
• Firdous Azim (Asia)
• Pierre Mejlak (Canada and Europe)
• Olive Senior (Caribbean) and
• Patrick Holland (Pacific)

Gillian Slovo the chair of the judges had this to say about this year’s shortlist “As a novelist accustomed to the luxury of the long form it has been a treat to discover writers who manage to crystallise such different experiences into so few words.  The stories we have chosen for the shortlist are in turn comic, touching, poetic, mysterious but always fresh and unexpected.”

Below is a full list of the writers with the title of their books that made the shortlist:

• • Aabirah, Sophia Khan (Pakistan)
  • A Visitation, Jane Healey (United Kingdom)
  • Black Milk, Tina Makereti (New Zealand)
  • Charmed, Jane Downing (Australia)
  • Children of the Zocalo, Don McLellan (Canada)
  • Confluence, Nova Gordon-Bell (Jamaica)
  • Cow and Company, Parashar Kulkani (India)
  • Dirty White Strings, Kritika Pandey (India)
  • Eel, Stefanie Seddon (United Kingdom)
  • Ethelbert and the Free Cheese, Lance Dowrich (Trinidad and Tobago)
  • Exorcism, Lausdeus Chiegboka (Nigeria)
  • Girdhar’s Mansion, Sumit Ray (India)
  • Imbecile, Craig S Whyte (United Kingdom)
  • Instant Karma, Vinayak Varma (India)
  • Kurram Valley, Munib A Khan (Pakistan)
  • Niroporadh Ghum (Innocent Sleep), Sumon Rahman (Bangladesh)
  • Saving Obadiah, Enyeribe Ibegwam (Nigeria)
  • Space Invaders, Stuart Snelson (United Kingdom)
  • The Driver, Oyinkan Braithwaite (Nigeria)
  • The Entomologist’s Dream, Andrew Salomon (South Africa)
  • The Pigeon, Faraaz Mahomed (South Africa)
  • This Here Land, Miranda Luby (Australia)
  • This is How We Burn, Cat Hellisen (South Africa)
  • Vestigial, Trent Lewin (Canada)
  • When I Came Home, Mark Winkler (South Africa)
  • Where Mountains Weep, Bonnie Etherington (New Zealand)