Mathurin’s ‘Manmay-la, nou wivé’ longlisted for Commonwealth short story prize
Saint Lucian writer Amanie Mathurin has earned a place on the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize longlist, with her story Manmay-la, nou wivé selected from thousands of entries from across the world. Out of 7,806 submissions, fewer than 200 were longlisted, placing her work among a diverse group of writers from Africa, Asia, Europe, the […] The article Mathurin’s ‘Manmay-la, nou wivé’ longlisted for Commonwealth short story prize is from St. Lucia Times.
Black News 
Saint Lucian writer Amanie Mathurin has earned a place on the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize longlist, with her story Manmay-la, nou wivé selected from thousands of entries from across the world.
Out of 7,806 submissions, fewer than 200 were longlisted, placing her work among a diverse group of writers from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Pacific and the Caribbean.
“It was a really proud moment for me,” Mathurin told St Lucia Times, describing the moment she saw her name on the list.
She recalled quickly scanning the names before recognising not just her own but also the title of her story, written in Saint Lucian Kwéyòl.
“I can’t quite put into words that feeling of seeing not just my name, but the name of my story,” she said.
The recognition comes as Mathurin continues to shape her voice as a writer, with a growing focus on stories rooted in local experience and identity.
“I truly feel like I discovered my purpose when I started writing about the issues close to home,” she said.
The recognition reinforces the value of local stories, she said, noting that “our voices and perspectives matter” and that she has been intentional about incorporating Kwéyòl into her work.
Manmay-la, nou wivé centres on three generations of women and draws from Saint Lucia’s history, using a reimagined historical figure to explore the human stories beyond the archives. At its core, it explores themes of resistance and survival.
“What I was aiming to do is use speculative fiction, the idea of what could be, to remind us that distant historical figures were, above all else, human. Ultimately, I wanted to show the ways in which the destinies of three seemingly different women can be connected across time,” she said.
The story examines choice and survival across different realities, from an enslaved woman’s experiences to a young girl’s in a contemporary setting, each navigating circumstances that demand courage in different ways.
“Another key theme revolves around language and song, the power they hold to preserve memory and identity, reminding us that we are never truly alone,” Mathurin added.
For her, the longlisting reflects her growth as a writer and her commitment to telling stories grounded in Saint Lucian culture.
This year is the first time the Commonwealth Foundation has published the full longlist, noting that “many stories impressed the judges”.
Summary of ‘Manmay-la, nou wivé’ in Amanie Mathurin’s words:
‘Manmay-la, nou wivé’ is at its core a story about resistance, lineage, and knowledge. It centres on three generations of women, one of them a reimagining of a key figure in our Saint Lucian history. The story was inspired by my efforts to conceptualise what her life could have looked like on a personal level, the parts that go beyond a cursory line in the colonial archives and history books. And so I thought about how to give a voice not just to her, but to other women whose stories have been silenced. What I was aiming to do is use speculative fiction- the idea of what could be– to remind us that distant historical figures were, above all else, human. And so are the many women who have been relegated to the periphery of society by virtue of the circumstances they were born into. Ultimately, I wanted to show the ways in which the destinies of three seemingly different women can be connected across time.
The article Mathurin’s ‘Manmay-la, nou wivé’ longlisted for Commonwealth short story prize is from St. Lucia Times.
