Dawn Immanuel | Comms & Stories

Ghanaian, Kenyan, Nigerian and South African writers represent the Africa region on this year’s Commonwealth Short Story Prize shortlist. ‘Orchard of Blackbirds’ is Lois Akoma Antwi’s (@skill_pro_lab_ ) first internationally recognised work. Narrated by a teenage girl in a Bosnian town on the edge of war, the story reflects Antwi’s interest in giving voice to those sidelined by history. Set in Kenya, ‘The Runner’s Gift’ follows Mercy, a gifted distance runner contending with inherited scars, family survival and the hidden cost of excellence. Ken Odak Odumbe (kodakodumbe) brings 19 years of experience in international development to his writing. Dawn Immanuel (@dawnimmanuel ) is a Nigerian writer and editor based in Ibadan. Her debut short story, ‘The God under the Bed’, explores a young girl coming of age under rigid rules and the governance of an unseen god in her home. She is also the founder of Patchwork Quilt, an end-to-end book production studio. Hussani Abdulrahim (@hussaniabdul4 ) was longlisted for the Prize in 2023 and has previously won the Writivism Prize and the Toyin Falola Prize. His story, ‘Arewa Girls’, explores the shared experiences of Northern Nigerian women navigating patriarchal and religious-cultural norms. In ‘Shock Me I Shock You’, two siblings play a mischievous game that allows them to navigate family dysfunction and personal identity. Ola W. Halim (@ola_w.halim ) was previously shortlisted in 2021 for ‘An Analysis of a Fragile Affair’. Nigerian-born Oluwatoke Adejoye now lives and works in Vancouver. Published in Harvard’s Transition Magazine and The New Quarterly, her story ‘New Things’ is set during Nigeria’s transition to democracy, centring on a teenage boy navigating a new guardian and a rapidly evolving country. ‘Me and Ma’am’ unfolds over the course of a single day, capturing the complex relationship between a domestic worker and her employer. Its writer, Lisa-Anne Julien (@lisaannejulien ), is the author of ‘If You Save Me’, which won the University of Johannesburg’s 2022 Debut Prize for Fiction. Learn more about this year’s shortlist: /short-story-prize/

I’ve been keeping a secret. My short story, “The God under the Bed,” got shortlisted for the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and it still doesn’t feel entirely real. This is the first time I have ever submitted a story to any competition, anywhere ever. You mean I wrote something and sent it out into a pool of over 7,000 entries from writers across continents and somehow, that story made it to the Top 25 shortlist? I don’t have the vocabulary for what this feels like. There’s gratitude, obviously. Deep, full-bodied gratitude. But there’s also something else beside it—a sense of confirmation. That my gift is real and can travel. It can sit with thousands of other stories and hold its own. To everyone who has read my writing and told me to keep going, thank you. To my husband who watched me agonise over those paragraphs and sentences before I finally uploaded at midnight, bare minutes to the deadline—thank you. And to God who gave me the gift to tell great stories and the nerve to try, thank you. To my fellow shortlisted writers, congratulations! What a gift it is to share this list with you. I cannot wait to read your stories. #CWPrize

Happy new month. Happy National Situationship Day. I wrote a story. Click the link in my bio to check it out. 🧡

This post is dedicated to the @apple ecosystem. IYKYK. - sent from Mac iPhone Mirroring

Wrote these down for me. Sharing in case you need them, too.

Today we celebrate readers who keep the work of writing alive, publishers who bet on new voices, and copyright protections that let writers build lives from their words. Read widely. Buy books. Credit authors. Loan generously but return promptly. 🤭 Happy World Book and Copyright Day! What are you reading?

On social climbing and other thoughts that keep me up at night. Link in bio.

Friendly reminder that you can just… do things. I submitted to the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize @cwfcreatives twenty minutes to the deadline. I remember taking a screenshot of the confirmation page because I wanted to preserve that moment as a reminder to myself that I can push further than any limits. When the shortlist email came in, I was at the gym pushing past the limits of my last PR on the tricep rope pushdown. I took a screenshot of that moment as well because I simply couldn’t believe it. I’d even assumed the shortlisted writers had been contacted and I didn’t make it. But here we are. Point of this? Try that hard thing. You just never know.

Sights from the passenger side window

Spent last Tuesday with @redeemersuniversity Law Students Society @runlawss —speaking on leadership and preparation. What a wonderful time it was. Thank you for having me around. Also spent last Tuesday responding to comments and messages, and just basking in the outpouring of love following my CSSP shortlist announcement. Whew! Thank you, everyone! I am overwhelmed in the most beautiful way. Love you back this much (third slide). Whatever happens on May 13, I already won with people like you. 🩵

1. Happy Monday 2. Love how my locs are growing 3. I promise to reply (most of) my messages today 4. How are you doing? 5. Dropping a new story on my Substack today around 12

I try to take every opportunity I get to talk to a teenager. For me, it’s less about the act in itself, and more about the fact that I get to do for them what I wish was done for me. Many of us might have stories for days about the things we had to learn ourselves, much later than when we needed to actually know them. Grateful still for the adults around me then—they did what they could. Now I’ve become the adult around these young ones. I will never turn down a chance to talk to them. It’s hardly a bother. Thank you for having me at The Sprinboard @cci_celebteens .