McInnes wins 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Pacific category

Aotearoa New Zealand author Himali McInnes has won the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the Pacific region for her story ‘Kilinochchi’, about a mother who leaves her adopted country of New Zealand and returns to Sri Lanka in search of her son, who has joined the Tamil Tigers.

Judges said the story expressed how ‘nothing is ever simple, nothing is ever straight forward—except a mother’s unwavering desire to find her child.’

‘“Kilinochchi” draws on the disparate themes of civil war, indentured servitude, the formation of identity, and the supernatural,’ said McInnes, a doctor whose nonfiction book The Unexpected Patient was published by HarperCollins in 2021. ‘It is a story that just spilled out of me; once the person of Nisha appeared in my mind, the rest followed, and I couldn’t stop writing. I particularly enjoyed writing about Nisha’s ghostly relatives and the freedom they have in the afterlife.

‘The way the past affects us is something that I am constantly aware of, both in my writing and in my day job as a doctor. The narrative of this story is influenced by my identity as a Sri Lankan New Zealander who doesn’t feel fully at home in either country. It is also influenced by the sadness I feel over the blood that has been shed on Lankan soil. Although I have lived most of my life outside Sri Lanka, I worked there from 2007-2009 during the last stages of the brutal civil war. So many atrocities, so many unhealed wounds.’

The judge for the Pacific region was New Zealand’s former Poet Laureate Selina Tusitala Marsh, who said: ‘Crossing continents, moving through cultural collisions, and chaotic inner and outer journeys of human trauma and resilience, Himali McInnes’ “Kilinochchi” moves between New Zealand and Sri Lanka, Tamil and Sinhala, the living who repel, and the dead who guide’ and praised ‘an unforgettable story that explores family loyalty, gender, class and social inequity, war, life in the diaspora, and our fundamental need to belong. We discover that what can never be stolen, destroyed or lost, is love.’

The full list of regional winners is:

• Africa: ‘The Undertaker’s Apprentice’ by Hana Gammon (South Africa)
• Asia: ‘Oceans Away from my Homeland’ by Agnes Chew (Singapore)
• Canada and Europe: ‘Lech, Prince, and the Nice Things’ by Rue Baldry (UK)
• Caribbean: ‘Ocoee’ by Kwame McPherson (Jamaica)
• Pacific: ‘Kilinochchi’ by Himali McInnes (New Zealand).

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from any of the Commonwealth’s 56 Member States. This year 6642 entries were submitted for the award, 475 in languages other than English. In addition to English, entries can be submitted in Bengali, Chinese, Creole, French, Greek, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan, Swahili, Tamil, and Turkish.

The five regional winners’ stories will be published online by the literary magazine Granta, ahead of the announcement of the overall winner, to be announced on 27 June.

Category: Awards Local news