Shortlisted Stories:

• ‘Rosamma’s Boy’ by Anjana Menon (India)
• ‘Smile in the Crowd’ by Lalitha Ramanathan (Singapore)
• ‘The Wrong Parent’ by Nandita Dutta (India)
• ‘Caring for Ma’ by Suchismita Pai (India)
• ‘The Unfinished Hour’ by A. R. Jyothi Priya (India)

About the Prize

Following the success of the inaugural 2023 edition, this year’s competition attracted submissions from writers across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Submissions closed on 15th February 2025.

The evaluation panel brings together diverse literary perspectives from around the world, including Dr Malachi Edwin Vethamani (Malaysia), Natasha Sharma (India), Smriti Ravindra (India-Nepal), Taisiia Nakonechna (Ukraine), and Nahida Esmail (Tanzania).

The Asian Prize for Short Story is part of The Asian Prizes collection, which includes three separate awards recognising contributions to global literature across fiction, short stories, and poetry.

All ten long-listed stories will be published in the Asian Journal of Literature 2025 edition. The winner will be announced on 31st December 2025.

By Emanuelle Cohen