NTSIKA KOTA WINS GLOBAL COMMONWEALTH SHORT STORY PRIZE 2022.

Ntsika Kota has won the global prize at the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2022. At a ceremony held in Kigali today June 21, Ntsika was announced first out of a record number of 6,730 entries.  The highest entries ever received for the competition.

A total of 26 writers across five continents were shortlisted for the Global award with 5 of these stories on the Africa shortlist.

It is the first time a writer from Eswatini made it onto the shortlist and to emerge as a winner.

Kota who is a chemist by training, is a self-taught writer who draws from African Folklore to etch a story reaching back to the early days of humanity

“There are not many literature prizes more global in scale or inclusive in scope than the Commonwealth Short Story Prize… I was aware of the calibre of writing and adjudication, so I was under no illusions about my chances,” said Kota.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction in English in the regions of Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific.