British writer Lynda Clark has won a Commonwealth Short Story prize for her “fresh and unusual” tale on mental illness.
Clark was named regional winner for Canada and Europe for her story Ghillie’s Mum, in the international prize.
The writer and former videogame producer beat 24 other shortlisted stories to become one of five winners from around the world.
She said of her win: “I’m stunned, honoured and delighted to have been awarded the regional prize.
“It feels like validation for all the years spent chipping away with my strange little stories, but it’s also a bit scary that people will now be able to see into my weird brain.”
The prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished fiction from the Commonwealth, and is judged by an international panel of writers.
Chair Sarah Hall said: “Each of the winning regional stories speaks strongly for itself in extraordinary prose, and speaks for and beyond its region, often challenging notions of identity, place and society.
“Individually, the stories exhibit marvellous imaginative and stylistic diversity; together, they remind us that our deeper human concerns and conundrums are shared, and that the short story form is uniquely adept at offering the reader a world in which she or he might feel a sense both of belonging and un-belonging, might question his or her understanding of the world.”
The five regional winners were Efua Traore for Africa, Jenny Bennett-Tuionetoa for the Pacific region, Kevin Jared Hosein for the Caribbean, and Sagnik Datta in Asia.
The overall winner will be announced on July 25.
