The Asian Prize for Short Story is an International Prize curated by The Asian Prizes, a subsidiary of  The Asian Group of Literature.  ‘We had submissions from all over the world, from both emerging and notable ones, making it fairly challenging to design its appraisal process.’ Said Amanda Klopp, from the Prize Administration bureau of The Asian Prizes. As a result, this time, the Appraisal Committee for The Asian Prize for Short Story 2024 exemplifies multiculturalism and respect for diversity. Considering the diversity of cultures, contexts, and writing submitted, The Prize has welcomed four literary icons representing Belgium, Kenya, Malaysia, Ukraine, and Singapore for a three-tiered appraisal process ending in December to ensure the evaluation process of the submitted works is carried out with the highest level of cultural sensitivity and utmost neutrality and equitable and equal representation.

The Committee is chaired by Saras Manikkam, the winner of the Commonwealth Regional Prize for the short story 2021; three other literary icons will evaluate the submissions over a lengthy period, and the long list will be announced in August, long list in September. The winner will be announced in December 2024.  On the 1st of January 2025, the submissions will be open for the 2nd edition. 

The Chair of the Committee Saras Manikkam is an award-winning writer who won the regional prize for Asia in the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Contest. In 2021. Saras Manickam worked as a teacher, teacher-trainer, copywriter, Business English trainer, copy editor, and writer of textbooks, school workbooks, and coffee-table books while writing short stories at night. She also won the 2017 DK Dutt Award for her story ‘Charan’.

Agnes Chew is originally from Singapore and is now based in Germany and is also a winner of the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Asia). Her story collection Eternal Summer of My Homeland (Epigram Books, 2023), was longlisted for The Asian Prize for Fiction 2023 and a national bestseller in Singapore.

Alexander Nderitu is an award-winning poet, novelist, playwright, and critic. He is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of  The African Griot. and a Regional Managing Editor for The Theatre Times. Under his name, there are fifteen notable fiction and nonfiction that have been translated into numerous languages and launched worldwide.  Business Daily newspaper named him one of Kenya’s ‘Top 40 Under 40 Men’. In 2022, he took third place in the Share Africa Climate Fiction Awards. In 2023, he won a Jury Award in the Sahitto International Prizes for Literature and a SEVHAGE-Agema Founders’ Prize for African Criticism. He is the director general of PEN Kenya. 

Hailing from Ukraine, Taisiia Nakonechna is a writer, translator, cultural manager, and publisher. She is the Founder/CEO of Parasola Publishers in Belgium. Currently, Taisiia Nakonechna is based in Ghent (Belgium), where she actively volunteers for the Ukrainian community and works on establishing cultural ties, creating a platform for cultural exchange and promoting Ukrainian culture in Europe.

‘This is the first edition. We believe in a slow and steady pace. Otherwise, and we focus on an author-centric approach..,’ said  The CEO of  The Asian Group of Literature, Sri Lankan novelist, Pramudith D Rupasinghe. 

By Kevin Shaw