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Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best First Book prize was awarded from 1989 to 2011. In addition the Commonwealth Short Story Competition was awarded from 1996 to 2011.
Beginning in 2012, Commonwealth Foundation discontinued its previous awards and created a new cultural initiative called Commonwealth Writers, which offered two new awards: the Commonwealth Book Prize for the best first book, in which regional winners received £2,500 and the overall winner received £10,000;[1] and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the best short stories, in which regional winners received £1,000 and the overall winner received £5,000. After two years, the Book Prize was discontinued. The Short Story Prize remains the sole award from Commonwealth Writers.
Commonwealth Short Story Prize
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize, set up in 2012, is awarded annually for a piece of unpublished short fiction. It is open to Commonwealth citizens aged 18 and over who have had little or no work published and is particularly aimed at those places with little or no publishing industry.
Commonwealth Book Prize (2012–13)
Awarded for best first book, the Commonwealth Book Prize was established in 2012 for writers who were Commonwealth citizens aged 18 or over and who have had their first novel (full-length work of fiction) published in the year of entry. The Commonwealth Book Prize was part of an initiative by the Commonwealth Foundation called Commonwealth Writers, which seeks to unearth, develop and promote the best new fiction from across the Commonwealth.
Regional winners received £2,500 and the overall winner received £10,000.
The prize was active for two years, 2012 and 2013, and then discontinued.[2]
| Year | Region | Author | Title | Country | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012[3][4][5] | Africa | Jacques Strauss | The Dubious Salvation of Jack V | South Africa | Jonathan Cape |
| Asia | Shehan Karunatilaka | Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew | Sri Lanka | Random House | |
| Canada and Europe | Riel Nason | The Town That Drowned | Canada | Goose Lane Editions | |
| Caribbean | Alecia McKenzie | Sweetheart | Jamaica | Peepal Tree Press | |
| Pacific | Cory Taylor | Me and Mr Booker | Australia | The Text Publishing Company | |
| 2013[6][7] | Africa | E. E. Sule | Sterile Sky | Nigeria | Pearson Education |
| Asia | Nayomi Munaweera | Island of a Thousand Mirrors | Sri Lanka | Perera-Hussein Publishing House | |
| Canada and Europe | Lisa O'Donnell | The Death of Bees | United Kingdom | William Heinemann | |
| Caribbean | Ezekel Alan | Disposable People | Jamaica | self-published | |
| Pacific | Michael Sala | The Last Thread | Australia | Affirm Press |
Commonwealth Short Story Competition (1996–2011)
The Commonwealth Short Story Competition was an annual literary award. It was established in 1996 and administered by the Commonwealth Foundation in partnership with the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association.
Each year winning stories from different regions of the Commonwealth were recorded and broadcast on radio stations across the Commonwealth. The winner received a prize of £2,000 and there were regional prizes of £500 and highly commended prizes of £100.[8][9]
In 2011 the competition was discontinued.
| Year | Author | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | |||
| 1997 | Dana Gilkes | Barbados | "Crab Catcher" |
| 1998 | Sujam Sankranti | India | |
| 1999 | Cherie Jones | Barbados | "Bride" |
| 2000 | Dennis Nichols | Guyana | "The Release" |
| 2001 | Lelawattee Manoo-Rahming | Bahamas | "Saving Rupa" |
| 2002 | Michael Reckord | Jamaica | "The Cleaning Class" |
| 2003 | Madhulika Liddle | India | "A Morning Swim" |
| 2004 | Juliane Okot Bitek | Uganda | "Going Home" |
| 2005 | Preeta Krishna | India | "Treason" |
| 2006 | Erin Soros | Canada | "The Moon, the Cat and the Donkey" |
| 2007 | Ellen Banda-Aaku | Zambia | "Sozi's Box" |
| 2008 | Julie Curwin | Canada | "World Backwards" |
| 2009 | Jennifer Moore | United Kingdom | "Table Talk" |
| 2010 | Shachi Kaul | India | "Retirement" |
| 2011 | Philip Nash | United Kingdom | "Rejoinder" |
Commonwealth Writers' Prize
The Commonwealth Writers' Prize was established in 1987, as a successor to the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. Each year, prizes for Best Book (1987–2011) and Best First Book (1989–2011) were awarded in four regions: Africa, Caribbean and Canada, South Asia and Europe and South East Asia and Pacific. Eight regional winners then competed for the pan-Commonwealth Best Book and Best First Book prizes, awarded at a public programme held in a different Commonwealth country each year.
The award was discontinued in 2011, when the Commonwealth Foundation launched a new cultural programme, Commonwealth Writers, which offered the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Best Book (1987–2011)
In the following lists for the Best Book Prize and Best First Book, the overall winners are in bold and in blue background; those not in bold are the winners of the listed regions.