Canadian wins 2008-9 Commonwealth Short Story Competition
Julie Curwin of Canada is the winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Short Story Competition.
Her story 'World Backwards' was selected as the best story from the Caribbean and Canada region of the Commonwealth and as the winning story of the competition from more than 1700 entries.
Julie is from New Brunswick in Canada and now lives with her husband in Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. A psychiatrist by profession she has a B.A. in philosophy and political science from Mount Allison University, a B.Sc. and M.D. from Dalhousie University, and a diploma in post-graduate medicine (psychiatry) from Queen’s University.
Despite her busy profession Julie has found time to write and has already won recognition for her fiction. In 2007 her story “The Other Side of the Window” was selected as a finalist in The Writer’s Union of Canada’s Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers. She is currently working on a collection of short stories with medical themes. Prior to taking up writing, Julie had a ten year career as a professional long-distance triathlete, and was a member of Canada’s elite national team.
If you would like to read the stories you can download them in PDF format by clicking on their title below.
Short Stories Audio
If you would like to download audio recording of a selection of the winning entries, click here.
The winners are:
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Julie Curwin |
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Taddeo Bwambale Nyondo (Uganda) Regional Winner Africa for "Die, Dear Tofa" |
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Salil Chaturvedi (India) Regional Winner Asia for "The Bombay Run" |
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Tania Hershman (UK) Regional Winner Europe for "Straight Up " |
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Jennifer Mills (Australia) Regional Winner Pacific for "Jack's Red Hat" | |
The winners of Highly Commended stories are:
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Anjali Purohit (India) for "Bitter Harvest " |
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Adrienne M. Frater (New Zealand) for "Purl Two... Knit Three" " | |
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David Hughes (UK) for "The Tip " |
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Hazra C. Medica (Antigua) for "The Banana Stains " | |
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Neluka Silva (Sri Lanka) for "Our Neighbours " | |
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Charles M. Anderson (Canada) for "The Expedition " |
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Uche Peter Umez (Nigeria) for "Three Apples " | |
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Barry Rosenberg (Australia) for "Alfred and Priscilla " | |
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Shahana Chaudhury (India) for "Venus" |
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Claire Brown (UK) for "Similes and Metaphors " |  |
Sylvie Haisman (New Zealand) for "How to Reverse Gravity " |  |
Rachna Bisht-Rawat (India) for "Munni Mausi " | ||
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Lisa-Anne Julien (Trinidad and Tobago) for "Pulling Seine and Catching Souls " | |
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Peter Court (Australia) for "Communication" | |
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Verity Sharp (UK) for "Corporate Entity 21,288 (and Robert) " |
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Arpan Banerjee (India) for "The Dhaba Owner " | |
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Judy Hanel (St Kitts and Nevis) for "Noise! Noise! Noise! " | |
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Christo Snyman (South Africa) for "Bone Meal " |
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Akinwumi Akinwale (Nigeria) for "Uncertainty Principle for Dummies" | |
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Helen Von Randow (New Zealand) for "Grete Told Me " | |
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Vikram Kapur (India) for "Auction " |
The judges were writer Jaishree Mishra, author of Ancient Promises, Accidents like Love and Marriage and Afterwards, broadcaster Amber Barnfather, and Nigerian-born author and playwright Biyi Bandele.
The Commonwealth Short Story Competition began in 1996. It is funded by the Commonwealth Foundation and administered by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association. The winning stories have been recorded on CD and distributed to broadcasting stations around the Commonwealth. The CDs are available for sale from the CBA website.
How to enter the 2009-10 Short Story Competition
For more information on the Short Story Competition email: e.dcosta@commonwealth.int
or fax +44 (0)20 7583 5549.
The CD is available for sale in the CBA Shop.
See photos from the Short Story awards ceremony.