Robertson wins 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Pacific category

Aotearoa New Zealand writer Pip Robertson has won the Pacific category of the 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the story ‘A River Then the Road’, in which a 12-year-old girl is abducted by her troubled father.

Robertson’s story was selected from a regional shortlist of four announced in April, and is in the running to win the overall prize.

Shortlisted stories for the overall prize are:

• Africa: ‘Dite’ by Reena Usha Rungoo (Mauritius)
• Asia: ‘Aishwarya Rai’ by Sanjana Thakur (India)
• Canada and Europe: ‘What Burns’ by Julie Bouchard (trans by Arielle Aaronson) (Canada)
• Caribbean: ‘The Devil’s Son’ by Portia Subran (Trinidad and Tobago)
• Pacific: ‘A River Then the Road’ by Pip Robertson (Aotearoa New Zealand).

Granta has published these five regional winning stories online.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize covers the Commonwealth regions of Africa; Asia; Canada and Europe; Caribbean; and Pacific. With over 7359 entries from 53 Commonwealth countries, prize organisers said that this year’s prize attracted more entrants than any prior year, and that these five regional winners had all been nominated for the first time this year.

The overall winner will be announced on 26 June.

Last year’s winner was Jamaican writer Kwame McPherson for his story ‘Ocoee’.

Category: Awards Local news