The Commonwealth Foundation has announced the regional winners for the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Representing Africa, Asia, Canada & Europe, Caribbean, and the Pacific regions, these writers will now compete to become the overall winner, to be announced at Hay Festival UK on 31 May.

The Commonwealth Book Prize is awarded for the best first novel, and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the best piece of unpublished short fiction.

Part of Commonwealth Writers, the prizes unearth, develop and promote the best of new writing from across the Commonwealth, developing literary connections worldwide and consistently bringing less-heard voices to the fore. The cultural breadth of stories from this year’s regional winners includes Sri Lanka on the eve of independence from British Colonial rule, the Socialist regime of 1970s Jamaica, and a South Africa riven by apartheid.
Commonwealth Book Prize

Regional Winner, Africa
Sterile Sky, E.E. Sule (Nigeria), Pearson Education

Regional Winner, Asia
Island of a Thousand Mirrors, Nayomi Munaweera (Sri Lanka), Perera-Hussein Publishing House

Regional Winner, Canada & Europe
The Death of Bees, Lisa O’Donnell (United Kingdom), William Heinemann

Regional Winner, Caribbean
Disposable People, Ezekel Alan (Jamaica), self-published

Regional Winner, Pacific
The Last Thread, Michael Sala (Australia), Affirm Press

Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Regional Winner, Africa
The New Customers, Julian Jackson (South Africa)

Regional Winner, Asia
The Sarong-Man in the Old House, and an Incubus for a Rainy Night, Michael Mendis (Sri Lanka)

Regional Winner, Canada & Europe
We Walked On Water, Eliza Robertson (Canada)

Regional Winner, Caribbean
The Whale House, Sharon Millar (Trinidad and Tobago)

Regional Winner, Pacific
Things with Faces, Zoë Meager (New Zealand)