Nigerian makes 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize shortlist

A Nigerian, Adorah Nworah, has made the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize shortlist for her story, ‘The Bride’. Nworah made the list in the African region category alongside other writers such as Tanzania’s Erica Sugo Anyadike (for ‘How to Marry an African President’), Kenya’s Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu (‘The Blessing of Kali’), South Africa’s Alex Latimer (‘Extinction’) […]

A Nigerian, Adorah Nworah, has made the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize shortlist for her story, ‘The Bride’.

Nworah made the list in the African region category alongside other writers such as Tanzania’s Erica Sugo Anyadike (for ‘How to Marry an African President’), Kenya’s Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu (‘The Blessing of Kali’), South Africa’s Alex Latimer (‘Extinction’) and Zambia’s Mbozi Haimbe (‘Madam’s Sister’).

Nworah is an Igbo storyteller from Anambra State. 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 shortlisted story revolves around 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.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction in English. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000. Translated entries are also eligible, as are stories written in the original Bengali, Chinese, Greek, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan, Tamil and Turkish.

Nigeria’s Efua Traore was winner of the prize (African region category) in 2018 for her story ‘True Happiness’. The overall winner was Kevin Jared Hosein from the Caribbean for ‘Passage’. A Nigerian is yet to be overall winner of the prize, however Nigeria has a higher number of winners in the African region category since the prize’s inception.