The Commonwealth Foundation has announced the five regional winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, the world’s most global literary prize. The winners are Lisa-Anne Julien from South Africa (Africa region), Sharon Aruparayil from India (Asia region), John Edward DeMicoli from Malta (Canada and Europe region), Jamir Nazir from Trinidad and Tobago (Caribbean region), and Holly Ann Miller from New Zealand (Pacific region).
The five regional winning stories will be published online by the literary magazine Granta. The link to the stories will be found here at the embargoed time on May 13, 2026: Commonwealth Foundation Short Story Prize. The 2026 overall winner will be announced in an online ceremony at 12:00 noon (GMT) on Tuesday, June 30. Here we share information on the winners from Africa (Lisa-Anne Julien, who is originally from Trinidad and Tobago) and the Caribbean (Jamir Nazir, also from T & T).
Africa
“Me and Ma’am” by Lisa-Anne Julien (South Africa): A day in the life of the tangled relationship between a domestic worker and her employer.
Lisa-Anne Julien, originally from Trinidad and Tobago, lives in Johannesburg. She received a Highly Commended Award in the 2008/09 Commonwealth Short Story competition. Her novel, If You Save Me, won the University of Johannesburg’s 2022 Debut Prize for Fiction. She was shortlisted in The Fountain Magazine’s 2024 Essay Prize, and her fiction has appeared in Pree, the Caribbean literary magazine. Her writing residencies include Femrite, Yale Writers, and the Jakes Gerwel Foundation.
Caribbean
“The Serpent in the Grove” by Jamir Nazir (Trinidad and Tobago): Set in rural Trinidad, this is a story of a struggling farmer, a silenced young wife, and a grove that seems to remember what human beings try to bury. Steeped in desire, poverty and dread, it explores betrayal, survival and the stubborn force of a woman’s will.
Jamir Nazir is a Trinidadian writer of East Indian heritage whose work explores the cultural intersections of the Caribbean and the Indian diaspora. A prolific poet and author, with books published and others forthcoming, he is particularly known for his love poetry. His writing draws on the landscapes, histories and emotional rhythms of Trinidad, where memory, heritage and identity converge to shape voice and imagination.
Description: All five writers have been recognised for the first time, having also been shortlisted for the first time. The five stories were chosen from 7,806 entries, the second highest number in the prize’s history. They will now proceed to the final round of judging, and the overall winner will be announced on Tuesday, 30 June 2026.
The stories bring compelling characters to life in sharply drawn settings, exploring themes of power, family tension, resistance and unheard voices—alongside courage and unexpected connection. Among them are a keenly observant domestic worker, a young woman whose henna art enables silenced women to speak, and a resourceful young sheep farmer.
The untold stories of migrants arriving by sea inspire a tale set within Valletta’s ancient walls, as an NGO worker reflects on the power of those walls to protect the vulnerable. In the Southern Alps of Aotearoa, a sheep farm becomes the setting for a story about fostering a newborn lamb and its human parallels. In rural Trinidad, tragedy is narrowly averted in a grove that remembers. In Johannesburg, two women have more in common than they realise in a telling depiction of domestic abuse.
Chair of the Judges, Louise Doughty,said: “Here are five writers who share an immense confidence of tone, announcing themselves from the very first line. The style and content of each work may vary, but what all our winning authors have in common is an ability to take their readers by the hand and lead them into a world where the characters are utterly believable, the prose assured, and the author has something important to say.” [. . .]
Download the authors’ photographs and biographies here.
For more information, visit https://commonwealthfoundation.com/ and https://commonwealthfoundation.com/short-story-prize/
The Commonwealth Foundation has announced the five regional winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, the world’s most global literary prize. The winners are Lisa-Anne Julien from South Africa (Africa region), Sharon Aruparayil from India (Asia region), John Edward DeMicoli from Malta (Canada and Europe region), Jamir Nazir from Trinidad and Tobago (Caribbean region), and
