Kritika wins ’20 C’wealth Short Story Prize

New York, July 1: Kritika Pandey, the 29year-old Indian author who won the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, has voiced her hope that the award would help “more people trust their daughters and their dreams”.

Pandey won the award for her short story ‘The Great Indian Tee and Snakes’, a statement from the University of Massachusetts Amherst said on Tuesday. Pandey was awarded in an online ceremony by The Commonwealth Foundation.

She is a 2020 graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Master of Fine Arts for Poets and Writers. Her short story is “about two young people trying to solve the age-old riddle of human existence: How does one love in the era of hatred and prejudice?”, the statement said.

Last week, Pandey was also declared one of five Regional Winners for the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her work. A Pushcart-nominated writer from Jharkhand, Pandey is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the 2020 James W. Foley Memorial Award, the 2018 Harvey Swados Fiction Prize, the 2018 Cara Parravani Memorial Award in Fiction from UMass, and a 2014 Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship for Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh.

Pandey is also the recipient of a 2020 grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation. Pandey described winning the award as “an incredible moment” during an online ceremony to announce the Commonwealth Prize winners.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction in English. Each year the judges select five winning writers who share a total prize money of £15,000.

The overall winner receives £5,000. Regional winners each receive £2,500.