Ugandan writer wins Africa regional short story prize

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Joshua Lubwama, 25, a software engineer by day, beat all the odds and was declared the winner of the Africa Regional Prize of the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for his story ‘Mothers Not Appearing in Search’. He becomes only the second Ugandan to win it, the other one was Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, in 2014, who went on to win the overall prize.

“I’m very excited, and short of words”, was all he could say, promising to get back to us later.

The regional winners were announced this morning by the Commonwealth Foundation on its X (formerly Twitter) page. The other winners are Faria Basher (Asia), Chanel Sutherland (Canada and Europe), Subraj Singh (Caribbean) and Kathleen Ridgwell (Pacific).

Last month, Lubwama was one of 25 writers shortlisted for the prize, out of almost 80,000 entries that were received for this year’s prize.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for unpublished short fiction from adult citizens of the 56-member states of the Commonwealth. It was set up in 2012 to replace the Commonwealth Short Story Competition, which ran from 1996 to 2011.

The regional winners (Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean and the Pacific) each get £2,500 (sh12m). The overall winner gets a total of £5,000 (sh24m), and will be announced on June 25, 2025.

The regional winners (Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean and the Pacific) each get £2,500 (sh12m). The overall winner gets a total of £5,000 (sh24m), and will be announced on June 25th, 2025.