brand logo

Sri Lankan clinches Commonwealth Short Story Prize

30 Jun 2021

Kanya D’Almeida has been declared the overall winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, for a "captivating" tale set in a Sri Lankan "sanctuary for the forsaken", thebookseller.com reported today (30) D’Almeida, from Sri Lanka, was named the winner by actress Dona Croll in an online ceremony on 30th June. D’Almeida, who won for her story "I Cleaned The—", is the first Sri Lankan to win the overall prize and the second to win for the Asia region. "I Cleaned The—", is a story about "dirty work"—domestic labour, abandonment, romantic encounters behind bathroom doors and human waste. The Asia judge, Bangladeshi writer, translator and editor Khademul Islam, described it as "a life-affirming story of love among the rambutan and clove trees of Sri Lanka—love for a baby not one’s own, love for a high-spirited elderly woman. Love found not among the stars but in human excrement. Literally. And all the more glorious for it." The 2021 prize was judged by an international panel of writers, each representing one of the five regions of the Commonwealth, and chaired by South African writer Zoë Wicomb. Alongside Islam, the other panelists were Nigerian writer A Igoni Barrett, British poet and fiction writer Keith Jarrett, Jamaican environmental activist, writer and 2012 Caribbean regional winner Diana McCaulay, and author and 2016 Pacific regional winner Tina Makereti from New Zealand. D’Almeida's fiction has appeared in Jaggery and The Bangalore Review. She holds an MFA in fiction from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. She is working on a book of short stories about women suffering from mental illness, and is the host of "The Darkest Light", a podcast exploring birth and motherhood in Sri Lanka. Commenting on her win, she said: "Winning the Commonwealth Short Story prize during this moment of global upheaval feels like a tremendous honour and an equally tremendous responsibility. It makes me question what it means to be a writer in these times, times when the human imagination might offer us our best shot at survival. I’ve long felt that fiction is the last ‘free’ place on earth in which to fully envision (and execute!) radical alternatives to the often dismal systems that govern us. To have won the prize for a story about two destitute, ageing women in Sri Lanka digging through the debris of their lives in search of a little dignity is more than a blessing—it’s a firm order from the universe to keep inventing ways for the powerless to gather together, giggle together, and win." Source: thebookseller.com


More News..