Three Amazing Award Winning Short Stories You Must Read

These are three amazing short stories you must read. Each of the authors and stories below have won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

The first award winning short story writer that comes to mind for me is Anushka Jasraj, from India, who won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2012 for her work which was titled “Radio Story”. In this amazing and riveting story which focuses on karma and betrayal, she writes about how a simple woman aspired to become a renowned radio host. Unfortunately, that lady faced an uphill battle since the radio programming companies where che lived did not want a pregnant woman to have a voice on the radio. In the end, she ended up working with her husband to build a home made radio station, using an old ham radio, so that her voice could ultimately be heard. The story focuses around being determined to achieve your dreams, no matter how hard you have to fight to do so. It is perhaps one of the most inspirational short stories ever written, and it garnered enough praise on the global stage to transform Anushka Jasraj into one of the most powerful short story authors of modern times. By winning the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Anushka had cemented her position in the realm of respected writers, and it was perhaps an even greater feat when you consider her humble upbringing in the country of India.

The next amazing short story writer whose work I often enjoy reading is Tina Makareti, who hails all the way from New Zealand. She was able to secure herself the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2016 for her story which was titled “Black Milk”. This story starts out in a heartbreaking fashion, speaking about a lady referred to as the “birdwoman” who was judged ever too often by people because of her appearance. She speaks of how this woman lived day after day navigating through the cruel maze of her judgemental peers, but ultimately was able to be content with herself, and to find her inner peace. i love the way that Tina Makareti put me in the character’s shoes, allowing me to feel the same emotions, and rethink the way that I treat those around me, even if their appearance does not initially appeal to me. It is no wonder that Tina is one of the best 3 award winning short story prize winners.

The last award winning short story prize winner whose work has garnered my attention is Lynda Clark, from the United Kingdom. Lynda won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2018 for her masterpiece, which was titled “Ghillie’s Mum”. This story is probably one of the most creative ever written, and tells the story about a young child who quickly realizes that his mother is a bit different than all of the other children’s moms. Ghillie’s mother has some sort of strange and interesting ability to transition into different animal characters as a way to express the various emotions that are constantly running through her mind. I would definitely say that you must read this particular story with an open mind, and you will find in the end that Gillie’s mother is actually not that much different from most mothers around the world in that she truly loves her child more than anything else in the universe.

The short story is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to the big Pulitzer prize winning novels that have made their mark on the history of English literature. Most people do not even think of short stories when the notion of winning an award is brought to light. Because of this inconsistent pattern of judging the complexity and unique qualities of various writers, those who choose to place more of their creative focus on the composition of short stories rarely get the amount of fanfare as their novel writing counterparts. Of course, almost everyone knows about the authors of some of the most famous novels in our history, but few can really name more than a handful of writers whose specialty lies within the realm of short stories.

To imagine that the 3 award-winning short stories prize winners have any control over the opinions of the members of the general public is, in the very least, a bit nonsensical. The typical short story does not contain too much in the way of character development, and they usually end with very little detail about most of what is contained within them in the first place. The other thing that they tend to have in common with each other, which may also be a contributing factor to their omnipotent detraction, is the fact that once they end, that is all there is to them. It is a known theory among those who specialize in literature that audiences of all types love to see a continuation of the stories that they choose to consume, even if those stories happen to be short ones. For further proof of this very fact, you can just take a look at the average television series, which is basically a collection of short stories which have been strung together over a period of time.

So, in our current world, where we more often than not seek instant gratification, and also struggle with allocating our time towards completing various tasks on a daily basis, maybe it is the simple thought of investing our precious time reading something that we will probably forget in the near future that causes us to not pay too much attention to short stories. You see, because of this lack of attention and excitement about the short stories themselves, the authors who took the time and energy to write them rarely receive much notice from anyone who is not in the industry, or not within the writers’ circle. If maybe some of those writers were to refine their strategy just a bit, and make more of an effort to add more episodes to their shorts, maybe they could get more and more people to pay them attention and create a buzz around their unique creative craft.