South African writer Lisa-Anne Julien has won the 2026 regional Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa. The 55-year-old from Johannesburg saw off strong competition from six other shortlisted writers from the Africa region: Lois Akoma Antwi from Ghana, Ken Odak Odumbe from Kenya and Nigerian writers Hussani Abdulrahim Oluwatoke Adejoye, Ola W Halim and Dawn Immanuel.
Julien, who had been highly commended in an earlier Commonwealth Writers competition, will go through to the final round of judging. She is one of five regional winners announced by the Commonwealth Foundation. The overall winner will be announced on 30 June.
Her winning story, “Me and Ma’am,” tells how a keenly observant domestic worker moves through her work day, asserting herself among her peers and sidestepping the liberal guilt of her employer. But when an equalising experience thrusts the two women together, barriers dissolve in the face of human connection.
Julien says her story grew out of her fascination with the people who come to work in our homes: domestic workers, nannies, carers, gardeners. She says “these are individuals who occupy an interesting place in our lives – family but not quite, friends but not exactly buddies. We must settle into an implicit trust with them almost immediately. It’s an employee/employer dynamic with fair amounts of love and investment thrown in. Having said that, the relationship can be terminated at a moment's notice, leaving one to wonder what was real.”
Commenting on her win, Julien said: “This win from, and for, Africa, is rooted in both an ancestral sensibility and my lived experiences on such a dynamic continent. Having grown up in the Caribbean, I was fascinated by an imagined Africa. For the last 24 years, I have walked, danced, and cried with citizens of the real Africa. My story is written from this merger. I will be forever grateful to have crossed paths with these particular judges and to be in such fine company with the other regional winners.”
The judge representing the Africa region, South African journalist, author and short story writer Fred Khumalo, said: “A typical South African tale of ‘girls’ and ‘madams’ rendered in beautiful prose. Usually, stories about class in South Africa are couched in race. This is mainly because race has always been a class determinant in that country. Not anymore. The story is therefore important in more ways than one – it is at one level a commentary on debates about class, and how they have evolved. But it is also a story about women looking out for each other. The writing is relaxed and humorous without being overly funny and silly. It is a richly complex story that rises above all submissions from the African continent through a combination of humour, serious introspection and a deep sense of a shared humanity. The characters are sympathetic and warm.”
Chair of the Judges, Louise Doughty, said of the regional winners: “Here are five writers who share an immense confidence of tone, announcing themselves from the very first line. The style and content of each work may vary, but what all our winning authors have in common is an ability to take their readers by the hand and lead them into a world where the characters are utterly believable, the prose assured, and the author has something important to say.”
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The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from any of the Commonwealth 56 member countries. It is the most accessible and international of all writing competitions: in addition to English, entries can be submitted in Bengali, Chinese, Creole, French, Greek, Malay, Maltese, Portuguese, Samoan, Swahili, Tamil, and Turkish.
The winning stories are:
- Africa: “Me and Ma’am” by Lisa-Anne Julien (South Africa)
- Asia: “Mehendi Nights” by Sharon Aruparayil (India)
- Canada/Europe: “The Bastion’s Shadow” by John Edward DeMicoli (Malta)
- Caribbean: “The Serpent in the Grove” by Jamir Nazir (Trinidad and Tobago)
- Pacific: “Second Skin” by Holly Ann Miller (New Zealand)
About the author
Lisa-Anne Julien, originally from Trinidad and Tobago, lives in Johannesburg. She received a Highly Commended Award in the 2008/09 Commonwealth Short Story competition. Her novel, If you save me, won the University of Johannesburg’s 2022 Debut Prize for Fiction. She was shortlisted in The Fountain Magazine’s 2024 Essay Prize and her fiction has appeared in Pree, the Caribbean literary magazine. Her writing residencies include Femrite, Yale Writers, and the Jakes Gerwel Foundation.