Nigerian Adorah Nworah has made the Commonwealth Short Story Prize shortlist with her story, ‘The Bride’. The Philadelphia USA-based Nwora is an Igbo storyteller from Anambra State in Eastern Nigeria. She earned her juris doctorate from Temple Law School in 2018, and currently practices commercial real estate finance law in Philadelphia. Her short story, ‘Broken English’, was long-listed for the 2018 Short Story Day Africa prize.
Her entry, which is among the over 5000 received by the organisers of the prize, is about a Nigerian bride who panics when a stranger poses as her groom. Her loved ones insist that the wedding must go on, and it does.
This year’s shortlist comprises 15 women and six men from 16 countries, including, for the first time, Tanzania, Zambia, Malaysia, Cyprus, and Barbados.
This year’s panel is chaired by British novelist, playwright and essayist Caryl Phillips, who was born in Saint Kitts and Nevis.
In the shortlist final round, the stories will be picked by an international panel of five judges, each from one of the Commonwealth regions (Asia, Africa, the Pacific, the Caribbean and Canada/Europe).
The judges will first select one winning short story from each Commonwealth region, the results of which will be known on May 9.
One winner will be selected and announced in a ceremony in Quebec, Canada on July 9.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner will win £5,000, while the other regional winners receive £2,500.
See the full list below:
‘Nightfall’, Emma Ashmere (Australia)
‘A Hurricane and the Price of Fish’, Shakirah Bourne (Barbados)
‘Resurrection’, Hilary Dean (Canada)
‘Miss Coelho, English Teacher’, Kiran Doshi (India)
‘The Night of Hungry Ghosts’, Sarah Evans (UK)
‘The Ol’ Higue on Market Street’, Kevin Garbaran (Guyana)
‘Madam’s Sister’, Mbozi Haimbe (Zambia)
‘Pengap’, Lokman Hakim (Malaysia), translated by Adriana Nordin Manan
‘Screaming’, Harley Hern (New Zealand)
‘Oats’, Rashad Hosein (Trinidad and Tobago)
‘Deserted’, Erato Ioannou (Cyprus)
‘Amid the Winds and Snow’, Tyler Keevil (Canada)
‘Extinction’, Alex Latimer (South Africa)
‘My Mother Pattu’, Saras Manickam (Malaysia)
‘The Blessing of Kali’, Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu (Kenya)
‘Love-life’, Nuzha Nuseibeh (UK)
‘The Bride’, Adorah Nworah (Nigeria)
‘Bluey’, Maria Samuela (New Zealand)
‘Death Customs’, Constantia Soteriou (Cyprus), translated by Lina Protopapa
‘How to Marry an African President’, Erica Sugo Anyadike (Tanzania)
‘Granma’s Porch’, Alexia Tolas (The Bahamas)