TWO writers from Malaysia have been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, joining a total of 21 writers spread across 16 countries.
Saraswathy M. Manickam and Lokman Hakim made the shortlist of the world’s most global literary prize with My Mother Pattu by the former and Pengap by the latter.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize goes annually to the best piece of unpublished short fiction from the Commonwealth, with Malaysia making a debut alongside countries like Tanzania, Zambia Cyprus, and Barbados.
An author to several books, Lokman, who is an infrastructure engineer by day, tackles the definition of the word stuffy through the eyes of the characters in his short story, Pengap.
In My Mother Pattu, freelance writer, and language and Creative Writing teacher Saraswathy explore a mother’s violent jealousy towards a daughter who finds she has no one but herself to stop the abuse.
Comprising 15 women and six men, the shortlisted writers were selected from 5081 entries from 50 Commonwealth nations.
For more information on author biography and short stories, visit www.commonwealthwriters.org/2019-cssp-shortlist.
