The 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize has selected 25 writers from 14 countries for this year’s shortlist. Five regional winners, each representing one Commonwealth region, will be announced on May 13 and the overall winner, in late June.

The Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from any of the Commonwealth’s 56 member countries. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000. Short stories translated into English from other languages are also eligible and in addition to English, entries can be submitted in Bengali, Chinese, Creole, French, Greek, Malay, Maltese, Portuguese, Samoan, Swahili, Tamil, and Turkish. The winning stories are published online by Granta and in a special print collection by Paper + Ink.

Three Indian writers feature on this year’s seven-strong Asian shortlist alongside writers from Bangladesh, Malaysia and Singapore: Sharon Aruparayil, Rafaa Dalvi, and Rupsa Dey. Also on the shortlist for Asia are two writers from Bangladesh: Anmona Manishita and Shazed Ul Hoq Abir.

Three writers – Celeste Mohammed, Cosmata Lindie and Ola W Halim – return to the shortlist, while the remaining writers appear for the first time. John Edward DeMicoli makes history as the first Maltese writer to be shortlisted. Stories originally written in...

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