Guyanese writer Subraj Singh achieves global acclaim

Guyanese creative writer Subraj Singh has won the Caribbean’s 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize with his winning piece ‘Margot’s Run’. He is now set to enter the final round of the competition for a chance at the overall prize of £5,000 for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from Commonwealth countries.

A release from the Commonwealth Foundation said that Singh is among five other regional winners who were shortlisted from a record-breaking 7,920 entries.

Singh is currently pursuing a PhD in English and Creative Writing (Fiction) at the University of Missouri. He holds a Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing (Fiction) from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Arts in English (Literature) from the University of Guyana. He is a 2023 Tin House Workshop Scholar, a 2023 Lambda Literary Fellow, and a 2022 Clarion West alum, according to Tin House Magazine.

Singh has also been supported by the Gabo Fellowship and the University of Iowa’s International Writing Programme and has won a Guyana Prize for Literature Award. He was also shortlisted for the Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize and the Columbia Journal Print Contest.

His writing has been published in Caribbean Beat, ImageOutWrite, The Arts Journal, and others, with stories forthcoming in Columbia Journal and AGNI.

The Commonwealth Foundation said that this year’s winning pieces tackled challenging themes head-on.

“We read of a clash between generations as a boy’s illiterate mother fears and resents the unconventional newcomer; the lost memories of enslaved Africans for whom storytelling is their final act of defiance; the legacy of colonialism reflected in a demon that threatens to prey on a young baby; the pressures on young women in their twenties to get married and rear children—or face dire consequences; and how two young people form an unlikely friendship in the face of racism and family pressure.”

Award-winning writer and filmmaker, Professor Dr Vilsoni Hereniko, who chaired the judging, described the stories as illuminating many aspects of human nature and demonstrating true mastery of the short story form.

“Each tale shows that geography matters in storytelling. They are works of fiction that are inseparable from the local culture and history from which they have sprung.” He said they have colour and emotional resonance—and are deeply moving.

Other winners include Joshua Lubwama (Uganda, Africa region), Faria Basher (Bangladesh, Asia region), Chanel Sutherland (Canada/Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Canada and Europe region), and Kathleen Ridgwell (Australia, Pacific region). The overall winner will be announced on 25 June, 2025.