Jamaican wins regional Commonwealth short story prize
The Commonwealth Foundation last week announced the regional winners of the world’s most global literary prize.
Jamaican writer Kwame Mcpherson has emerged winner of the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Caribbean). The 57year-old from Kingston beat off strong competition from four other shortlisted writers: 2019 regional winner Alexia Tolas from the Bahamas, Cosmata Lindie from Guyana, Deborah Matthews from Trinidad and Tobago, and fellow Jamaican Demoy Lindo. He will go through to the final round of judging and the overall winner will be announced on 27 June.
Mcpherson’s winning story, Ocoee, interweaves Caribbean folklore and stories from African-american history. It takes its name from a town in Florida where, in November 1920, a number of African Americans were massacred in a brutal, racially aggravated attack. The story tells of an exhausted driver who is pulled over by the police on a lonely road outside Ocoee. As he hears about the terrible history of the town, he also rediscovers a connection with his own past.
A past student of London Metropolitan University and University of Westminster, Kwame Mcpherson is a 2007 Poetic Soul winner and was the first Jamaican Flash Fiction Bursary Awardee for The Bridport Prize: International Creative Writing Competition in 2020. Mcpherson, a prolific writer, is a recent and successful contributor to Flame Tree Publishing’s (UK) diverse-writing anthologies and a contributor to ‘The Heart of a Black Man’ anthology to be published in Los Angeles, which tells personal inspiring, uplifting and empowering stories from influential and powerful black men.
Mcpherson said, “I was inspired to do a mishmash of African-american reality, history, and Caribbean folklore, because I feel that there are so many stories in the African Diaspora experience that are not well known and can be told to open others to that experience. For instance, Ocoee was a real town in Florida where, in November
1920, numerous African Americans were massacred by a white mob. I also sought to show the Caribbean connection by touching on a supernatural folklore, played out in the story.” The judge representing the Caribbean region, Saint Lucian poet and novelist Mac Donald Dixon noted, ‘“Ocoee” is a memorial to the enduring nature of the human spirit. It is a simple tale retold in a surreal atmosphere of creative uneasiness. Images awake in the subconscious and, without pointing fingers, Mcpherson reminds us of man’s inhumanity to man.’
The story was selected as the regional winner for the Caribbean by an international judging panel chaired by Pakistani writer and translator Bilal Tanweer, representing the five regions of the Commonwealth. The regional judges are Rwandan-born writer, photographer and editor, Rémy Ngamije (Africa), Sri Lankan author and publisher Ameena Hussein (Asia), British-canadian author Katrina Best (Canada and Europe), Saint Lucian poet and novelist Mac Donald Dixon.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is administered by the Commonwealth Foundation. The prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2000-5000 words). Regional winners receive £2,500 GBP and the overall winner receives £5,000 GBP. Short stories translated into English from other languages are also eligible.
The Commonwealth Foundation is an intergovernmental organisation established by Heads of Government in support of the belief that the Commonwealth is as much an association of peoples as it is of governments. It is the Commonwealth agency for civil society; an organisation dedicated to strengthening people’s participation in all aspects of public dialogue, so they can act together and learn from each other to build free, open and democratic societies.