Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2023 goes to Jamaican writer Kwame McPherson

McPherson, who was also the Caribbean regional winner, will receive a cash prize of £5,000

McPherson was the regional winner of the Caribbean last month, and won out of 6,641 entrants. (Source: Commonwealth Foundation)

Written by: Udbhav Seth

3 min readJun 28, 2023 06:21 PM IST First published on: Jun 28, 2023 at 06:21 PM IST

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2023 has been won by Jamaican writer Kwame McPherson, for his story Ocoee, about a driver in a Floridian town who is pulled over by the police in an encounter that unravels the history of his home and life.

McPherson was the regional winner of the Caribbean last month, and won out of 6,641 entrants. He will receive a cash prize of £5,000.

On his win, he said, “When I began my writing journey, it was not a conscious decision, it was just something I enjoyed doing… Having the ability to provoke thought, interest or move a reader from one mental and emotional state to the next, is a skill within itself and one I have been blessedly bestowed with and do not take for granted.”