Chanel Sutherland’s short story Descend won the global Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2025 on Wednesday, June 25, 2025.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction in English in the regions of Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Each of these winners is then eligible for the global prize. Some previous winners have been Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (2014), Lesley Nneka Arimah (2015), Faraaz Mahomed (2016), Akwaeke Emezi (2017), Efua Traoré (2018), Mbozi Haimbe (2019), Innocent Chizaram Ilo (2020), Rémy Ngamije and Roland Watson-Grant (2021), Ntsika Kota (2022), Kwame McPherson and Hana Gammon (2023), and Reena and Portia Subran (2024). Global winners include Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (2014) and Kwame McPherson (2023).
The 2025 jury was chaired by Fijian writer and filmmaker Dr Vilsoni Hereniko alongside Cameroonian author, poet and scholar Nsah Mala (Africa); Malaysian writer and 2019 Asia regional winner Saras Manickam (Asia); British writer and journalist Dr Anita Sethi (Canada and Europe); Trinidad and Tobago writer, editor and comedian Lisa Allen-Agostini (Caribbean); and Aotearoa/New Zealand poet, actor, musician and writer Apirana Taylor (Pacific).
This jury read through 7,920 entries from 54 Commonwealth countries and announced the shortlists on April 15 before the regional winners were made public on Wednesday, May 14. The 2025 winner announced today is Descend by Canadian Vincentian writer of fiction and creative nonfiction, Chanel Sutherland. In the short story, as a slave ship sinks, one of the enslaved Africans starts telling a story of the wife he has left behind. In the darkness, others join in. Springing vividly to life, the men and women tell their own stories—of love, family, and the worlds from which they had been brutally removed.
The chair of the judges, Dr Vilsoni Hereniko, said, ‘Told in the quiet voice of a seer, Descend is deep and profound. It tells the story of slaves packed like sardines in the hull of a sinking ship, an allegory that affirms the unrivalled power of storytelling to set our spirits free and find hope where none exists. My deepest gratitude and congratulations to the judges and the Commonwealth Foundation for shining a light on this masterpiece.’
Chanel Sutherland said, ‘I took a risk with Descend—its shape, its voices—because I believed every enslaved person deserves to have their story told with dignity. I can’t tell all the stories, or restore the lives that were stolen, but I’m humbled that this one resonates. My deepest gratitude to the Commonwealth Foundation, the judges, and to my fellow regional winners Joshua, Faria, Kathleen, and Subraj—your stories are extraordinary, and I’m honoured to be in your company. Here’s to the stories that move us, mend us, and remind us we’re not alone—may we keep telling them!’
Sutherland’s debut short story collection, Layaway Child, will be published by House of Anansi in 2026. She won the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize and the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize and received the 2022 Mairuth Sarsfield Mentorship. CBC Books named her one of 30 Writers to Watch in 2022.
Watch the ceremony in full below;
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