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Sharon Aruparayil wins Commonwealth regional prize
One of the five regional winners will be named the overall winner of the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize on June 30.
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Pranavi Sharma - Thu, 14, May 2026
- 01:33 EDT
- 12
Sharon Aruparayil / X
Indian-origin writer Sharon Aruparayil has won the Asia regional category of the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her story “Mehendi Nights,” organizers announced alongside the names of four other regional winners selected from 7,806 entries worldwide.
Aruparayil, an India-based writer raised in the Gulf region, was recognized for a speculative story set in a world inspired by Mumbai’s chawls, where women are forbidden language. The story follows “a girl with crooked teeth and red-stained fingers” who discovers “that desire is a dialect no man can scrub clean.”
The Commonwealth Foundation announced the regional winners this week. The other winners are Lisa-Anne Julien of South Africa for the Africa region, John Edward DeMicoli of Malta for the Canada and Europe region, Jamir Nazir of Trinidad and Tobago for the Caribbean region, and Holly Ann Miller of New Zealand for the Pacific region.
Chair of the judges Louise Doughty praised the winners for their “immense confidence of tone.” She said each writer brings readers into “a world where the characters are utterly believable, the prose assured, and the author has something important to say.”
One of the five regional winners will be named the overall winner of the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize on June 30.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is managed by the Commonwealth Foundation in UK, and was set up in 2012 to inspire, develop and connect writers and storytellers across the Commonwealth.
Aruparayil said the recognition marked a significant milestone in her writing journey.
“I submitted to this prize for the first time at eighteen. I am twenty-five now,” she said.
“I could not have written ‘Mehendi Nights’ at 18, 19, or even 20. This is my first time on the longlist, shortlist, and now regional winner for Asia,” she added.
“Being recognised at this scale feels like luminous confirmation that the years of writing in the dark were worth it.”
According to the organizers, Aruparayil’s work often explores the space between speculative fiction and personal storytelling. She is currently working on her first book, “Mehendi Nights,” which is inspired by the same fictional world as the award-winning story.
Aruparayil has previously been nominated for the Deodar Prize, the PEN/Dau Prize for Emerging Writers, and the Pushcart Prize 2026.
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