Fijian Writer Shortlisted For The 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize
On being shortlisted Rokonadravu said, ‘Like previous years, 2022 has a strong and diverse range of writers and one of the joys of being shortlisted is the friendships we forge – I’m looking forward to that.’ In 2015, Rokonadravu was shortlisted for, and won, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the Pacific region. She was shortlisted again in 2017.
Tuesday 26 April 2022 | 15:00
Fijian, Mary Rokonadravu is shortlisted for the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, known as the world’s, most global writing prize - a third for the writer.
On being shortlisted Rokonadravu said, ‘Like previous years, 2022 has a strong and diverse range of writers and one of the joys of being shortlisted is the friendships we forge – I’m looking forward to that.’
In 2015, Rokonadravu was shortlisted for, and won, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the Pacific region.
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She was shortlisted again in 2017.
This is her third shortlisting.
This year she joins other previous years’ regional winners in the running for the prize: Diana McCauley (2012, Jamaica), Alexia Tolas (2019, Bahamas), and Sagnik Datta (2018, India).
The Commonwealth Short Story competition, an annual competition, is administered by the Commonwealth Foundation and is now in its eleventh year.
A total of 6,700 writers entered the 2022 competition, representing 52 of the 54 countries of the Commonwealth.
For the first time, stories were received from St Vincent and the Grenadines, Papua New Guinea, Gibraltar and eSwatini.
Rokonadravu is shortlisted for her story The Nightwatch.
She had written this piece a few years ago but revisited it and submitted for the competition.
Chair of the Judges, Guyanese writer Fred D’Aguiar said the submissions were ‘memorable and urgent stories that captured the concerns of their respective communities’
Also shortlisted in the 2022 competition is Papua New Guinea’s Baka Barakove Bina.
He works as a Registry Officer at the Waigani National Court.
His first short story was published by Oxford University Press, and he has self-published a number of works on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
Rokonadravu has been published in anthologies by Penguin Random House NZ (Vintage), University of London Press, adda, and Granta.
While at the University of the South Pacific (USP), she ran a four-year writing programme for the rehabilitation of offenders across seven correctional facilities.
The regional winners will be announced on May 23 and the overall winner of the competition will be announced on 21 June.
2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Shortlist announcement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW3JUZJ7CHE
Feedback: inoke.rabonu@fijisun.com.fj
