Out Of Africa: Seven Writers From Africa Shortlisted for 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Seven African writers have been shortlisted for the 2026 edition of the annual Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

The shortlist brings together writers from 14 Commonwealth countries. This year marks new milestones, with all but three writers featuring on the shortlist for the first time.

The shortlisted stories span a wide range of subjects, from intimate family relationships and love stories to experiences of migration, natural disasters, and the human cost of war. Told through a vivid and varied cast of protagonists—including musicians, athletes, migrant workers and even a stray dog—they move across continents and between rural and urban worlds. Across these settings, the stories explore themes of bereavement, forbidden love, displacement , and memory, while reflecting on identity, resilience , and the enduring search for belonging. 

Chair of the Judges, award-winning British novelist and dramatist Louise Doughty said: ‘‘Ultimately, our choices for the shortlist came down to authors who were not only excellent writers but, we felt, also had a grasp on the unique pleasures of the short story form, how it is a miniature carved in words that holds all the potential of a full-length novel in a few dense brushstrokes. We believe the writers in this shortlist have achieved all that and more, and we are immensely proud of our selection.’‘ 

Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation, Razmi Farook, shared: ‘‘Congratulations to all the shortlisted writers. Each year, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize becomes more competitive, and this year’s shortlist reflects the remarkable creativity found across our Commonwealth. Storytelling continues to play a vital role in opening up alternative narratives and offering space for voices and perspectives that bring depth and context to the pressing issues facing Commonwealth citizens today — helping us better understand one another and imagine a more hopeful, inclusive future.’’

Below is the list of shortlisted African writers and their prize-nominated submissions:

Lois Akoma Antwi is a Ghanaian writer who gives narrative form to the human cost of war. She holds a degree in Political Science and English and is completing postgraduate studies in International Affairs and Diplomacy. Drawn to the human cost of conflict, she writes stories that give life to those history sidelines. Her story Orchard of Blackbirds is told in the voice of a fourteen-year-old girl in a Bosnian town on the eve of war and focuses on blue sneakers, stolen plums and a childhood unravelling. It traces the quiet days before violence arrives and the irreversible moment it does.

Ken Odak Odumbe is a development professional and creative writer based in Nairobi, Kenya. He uses creative arts to depict and communicate complex societal issues. With over 19 years of experience in international development, he has engaged diverse stakeholders across Kenya, the African continent, and global platforms. He excels at bridging development perspectives and creative expression. His short story The Runner’s Gift is set in Kenya’s highland running culture and follows Mercy, a gifted distance runner contending with inherited scars, family survival, and the hidden cost of excellence.

Dawn Immanuel is a Nigerian writer and editor based in Ibadan. Driven by curiosity and random thoughts in the shower, she tells fiction and nonfiction stories of bold people, and of those who cannot tell their own. Dawn is also the founder of Patchwork Quilt, an end-to-end book production studio. In her debut short story God under the Bed, a young girl comes of age under rigid rules in an overcrowded family home governed by an unseen god, until one restless night when she decides to go in search of the truth.

Hussani Abdulrahim is a Nigerian writer. He was shortlisted for the 2024 ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award. He won the 2023 Writivism Prize, the 2022 Toyin Falola Prize, and WRRs 2016 Green Author Prize. He was longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2023. His work has appeared in Boston Review, Evergreen Review, Ubwali Lit Mag, ZamaShort, and The Flame Tree Writers Workshop Anthology. His story Arewa Girls, a work of social realism that blurs the line between fiction and manifesto, journeys through the shared experience of Northern Nigerian women inhibited by patriarchal and religious-cultural norms.

Ola W. Halim is a 2022 fellow of the Literary Laddership for Emerging African Authors. His work appears in SmokeLong Quarterly, Fractured Lit, Lolwe, Iskanchi, adda, The Forge, and the Best Small Fictions 2024. A finalist for Gerald Kraak Prize 2022, his stories have received the Pushcart and Caine Prize nominations. In his shortlisted story Shock Me I Shock You, two siblings navigate family dysfunction and personal identities through a mischievous game.

Oluwatoke Adejoye is a Nigerian-born writer whose work has appeared in Harvard’s Transition Magazine, Room Magazine, The New Quarterly, and elsewhere. A lawyer by training with a professional background in film and publishing, she holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. She lives and works in Metro Vancouver, Canada. Her story New Things, set in Akure on the cusp of the new millennium, follows a teenage boy who loses his sole caretaker and must learn to navigate living with a new guardian and a country reinventing itself.

Lisa-Anne Julien is a South African writer whose 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. Her story Me and Ma’am explores a day in the life of the tangled relationship between a domestic worker and her employer.

Five regional winners, each from one Commonwealth region, will be announced on 13 May, with the overall winner to be announced in late June. All shortlisted stories will be published and available to read on the Commonwealth Foundation’s online literary magazine, adda. The five regional winners will also be published on Granta.