Andrew Salomon and Mark Winkler Shortlisted for the 2016 Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Congratulations to PEN SA members Andrew Salomon and Mark Winkler on being shortlisted for the 2016 Commonwealth Short Story Prize!

Commonwealth Writers have shared the full shortlist here along with short excerpts from all of the shortlisted stories. Read the excerpts from Andrew and Mark’s stories below.

“The Entomologist’s Dream” by Andrew Salomon

Yasmin Ingabire.
Forty two.
Anywhere? You are sure about that, Sergeant Migambi? Very well, I think the appropriate place to start would be at the boxing gym in Kicukiro District. This was almost a year ago.
You know the sound a padded glove makes when it hits against someone’s ribs? It’s a kind of flat smack. I heard that sound all the time in the boxing gym. When I could hear a smack, a pause and then one or two more smacks in quick succession I’d know the boxers were in a clinch. I couldn’t see the ring or much else from where I sat, but I’d been going there long enough to be able to form a picture in my head of what was happening.

“When I Came Home” by Mark Winkler

When I came home there were strange people in my house, and they gathered tight at the front door to block my entry.
“How did you get in?” I asked.
A young woman raised her index finger and before my eyes the tip of it took the shape of a key.
“Go away,” she said. “You’ve lived in this house for long enough.”
The house had been my father’s, and his father’s before. Was she using the plural, I wondered? And if so how could she know these things?
I asked if I might collect some of my belongings.
“No,” the woman said. “You’ve had the benefit of them for long enough.” And she closed the door.

See the full shortlist: Commonwealth Writers

(Images courtesy of Books LIVE and Simone Scholtz)