Awards Short Story Competition 2003 Details
Jamaican author wins 2002 Commonwealth Short Story Competition
Michael Reckord, a Jamaican writer and educator, is the overall winner of the
Commonwealth Short Story Competition, triumphing over 2,000 entries.
His story “The Cleaning Class” tells the dark tale of the youth gun crime situation which exists in his home country of Jamaica.
For the first time, the tenyear old speaks. “Yu fire de nine last night, Tony?” Remembering the acrid smell of the weapon before the cleaning started, the boys wait expectantly. Tony nods.
Hearts race. The climax is coming.
“We are a young country,” says Reckord. “Sixty percent of Jamaicans are under 30 and a horrific cri me situation exists. But there are reasons for crime, and a writer’s job is to look behind the news of the event.”
Michael first entered the Commonwealth Short Story Competition in 1998, where his story “Like
Smoke” won the Regional Award for the Caribbean. He has entered every year since then, and his persistence has paid off, quite literally, in the sum of £2,000.
“I was absolutely delighted at the news,” says Michael. “I knew I’d written a good story, but didn’t know what it might get, since I didn’t know the quality of the competition.”
The judges of the competition were Gabriel Gbadamosi, Nigerian playwright; Kailash Budhwar, former head of BBC Hindi Service and Margaret Meyer, Director of Literature at the British
Council.
The Commonwealth Short Story Competition began in 1996 and is funded by the Commonwealth
Foundation and administered by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA). The 26 winning stories have been recorded onto CD and distributed to broadcasting stations throughout the Commonwealth.
CBA Secretary-General Elizabeth Smith says the stories are a wonderfully diverse mixture from around the Commonwealth.
“The stories are exceptionally interesting in that they indicate the preoccupations of people in different areas and paint a fa scinating picture of cultural diversity.”
For more information, please contact Elizabeth Smith, CBA Secretary General by emailing cba@cba.org.uk
or by faxing +44 (0)20 7583 5549.
BIOGRAPHIES
Overall Winner
Michael Recko rd of Jamaica for “The Cleaning Class”
Michael Reckord is a Jamaican writer and educator. He has been writing for 40 years. He has won numerous local and international prizes for his stories, plays and poems. In 1998, he was the

Caribbean Regional Winner in the Commonwealth Short Story Competition for his story “Like
Smoke”.
Regional Winner, Africa
Victor Idem of Nigeria for “The Elder’s Viewpoint”
Victor Idem hails from the Annang tribe of Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria. He holds a degree in
Banking and Finance from the University of Calabar, Nigeria. He currently works as a consultant with the Support & Training Entrepreneurship Program, a non-governmental organisation in Akwa
Iboom.
Regional Winner, Asia
Shinie Antony of India for “A Dog’s Death”
Shinie Antony quit her job as a journalist with The Economic Times, The Financial Express and
Bridge News to focus on her passion for writing. In June 2002, her first book “Barefoot and
Pregnant,” was published by Rupa and Company. She won a Highly Commended Award in the
2001 Commonwealth Short Story Competition for her story “Somewhere in Gujarat.” She lives in
New Delhi.
Regional Winner, Australasia
Katie Henderson of New Zealand for “Mermaid”
Katie Henderson is a full-time mother of three. She was the recipient of the Bank of New
Zealand’s Katherine Mansfield Novice Writer’s Award in 1999 with her first-ever short story. She has since had work published in numerous literary journals and a short story anthology and has been broadcast by Radio New Zealand.
Regional Winner, Canada & Caribbean
Carin Oldfield of Canada for “Snapshots, Age 9”
A secretary for more than 20 years, Carin Oldfield gave up office work to devote more time to study and writing. She has since become very involved with the local writers’ community and works part-time as a museum guide, facilitating writing workshops for seniors and teens. Other interests include gardening. She is currently working on her first novel.
Regional Winner, Europe
Edouard Freeman of UK for “Shellshock”
Ed Freeman is an occasional computer programmer with nebulous literary aspirations. He lives in
London and is currently travelling in the Middle East.
Highly Commended Winners
Anthony Kwamlah Johnson of Ghana for “I’m go to sea”

Born and educated in Ghana, Anthony Kwamlah Johnson enjoys travelling. He lived in
Swaziland, teaching and writing, before returning to Ghana where he is a lecturer in the
Department of English at the University of Education in Winneba. His hobby is astronomy.
Jane Muthoni of Kenya for “Why Husbands Who Love Their BMWs Should Avoid High
Hairstyles”
Jane Muthoni is a Kenyan citizen currently based in Cairo. She writes short stories for children and adults. This is the first win in her year-old writing career. She is now working on her first novel.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie of Nigeria for “The Tree in Grandma’s Garden”
Raised in the university town of Nsukka, Nigeria, Chimamanda studied Communication and
Political Science in Connecticut, USA. She was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2002. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, will be published in Fall 2003.
Madhulika Liddle of India for “Love and the Papaya Man”
Madhulika Liddle began a career in hotel management before meandering into advertising. She works as an Assistant Editor with a travel portal in India. She resides in New Delhi and spends her free time writing fiction.
Nimi Kurian of India for “Have You Seen My Daughter?”
A mother of two sons, Nimi Kurian is also the author of the children’s book Stumble Down
Mystery. She works for The Hindu newspaper in Chennai, where she looks after the feature pages and educational programme.
Usha Rajagopalan of India for “Friends”
Usha Rajagopalan is a freelance writer. She was the Regional Winner for Asia in the 2001
Commonwealth Short Story Competition and the Andrew Fellow for Fiction at the University of
British Columbia, Canada in 1999. She has won several international prizes for poetry and is the author of a handbook for writers in India called Get Published! Her first novel is nearing completion.
Dr N C Edul of India for “Receding Waters”
Dr Edul is a Consulting Physician with a passion for writing. He has won several international awards and a number of his stories have been broadcast on BBC World Service. His first novel,
“Keeping Company” will be released at the end of this year.
Adrienne Jansen of New Zealand for “War”
Adrienne Jansen lives with her family in the multicultural city of Porirua, New Zealand, where she has taught English and writing skills to groups who have English as a second language. She has been published in poetry, fiction and non-fiction. She is particularly interested in subjects involving cultural diversity.
Danyl Mclauchlan of New Zealand for “The GHOST Library”

Danyl Mclaughlan was born in Wellington, New Zealand and studied Classics at Victoria
University. He has worked in the computer industry in New Zealand, London, New York and
Tokyo and travelled throughout Europe and the Middle East. Danyl is currently in the process of changing careers and is back in Wellington studying Genetics and Biological Medicine.
Steve Charters of New Zealand for “Between the Flags”
Steve Charters grew up in New Zealand and later attended acting school in England. He is completing a degree in English Literature and Theatre at Auckland University and has had his work published in the Flamingo anthology, Creative Juices.
Harold Coop of New Zealand for “What If”
Harold Coop is a former eye surgeon now working full-time on his arts, painting and writing. In
1964, he published House Surgeon under the name of Harold Valentine. He has had a dozen solo painting exhibitions in New Zealand. His story for children, “The Creator,” was included in a book for schools published by Oxford University Press. He and his wife now live in Auckland.
Janet Trull of Canada for “The Handyman”
Janet Trull is a literacy consultant living in Ancaster, Ontario with her husband and three children.
A graduate of McMaster University, her published works include short stories, personal essays and articles on literacy development in young children.
Jennifer Howe of Canada for “The Bees”
Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya in 1940, Jennifer Howe was educated in Penang, Australia,
Singapore and England. She now resides in Canada and has just finished her first book, Show
Me the Way to Go Home: Memoirs of a Colonial Brat.
Petti Fong of Canada for “Cemetery Visits”
Petti Fong is a graduate of the University of Regina in Saskatchewan and Columbia University in
New York. A reporter for The Vancouver Sun since 1994, she has previously received a Canada
Council Grant for writing. She lives in Vancouver with her husband Michael and their only child, a
Great Dane-Bull Mastiff cross, named Joey Potter.
Mary Geo Quinn of Antigua for “Joe”
Known as the Queen of Poetry in Antigua, Mary Geo Quinn is a retired head teacher with a background in Literature, Geography and Ancient History. She is the author of seven books and has had several of her poems set to music by American artists. She is the recipient of various international awards for her prose and poetry.
Gloria Keens Douglas of Grenada for “Sylvie’s Trials”
Gloria Keens Douglas was born in Trinidad and now lives and works as a school principal in
Grenada. She lived in Glasgow, Scotland for several years where she qualified in Nursing,
Midwifery and Social Work. Married with four children, she has been writing since childhood and enjoys composing poems, short stories and children’s stories.
Joanne Allong Haynes of Trinidad for “Foggy Mirrors”

A writer of poetry and prose and winner of several international awards, Joanne Allong Haynes has been chosen as one of the top ten emerging Caribbean writers by the Cropper Foundation and the University of the West Indies Creative Arts Centre. She works as a poet performer in schools throughout Trinidad, and she is completing her first novel, from which the extract “Foggy
Mirrors” came from.
Nora Nadjarian of Cyprus for “Spoon Sweet”
Nora Nadjarian was born in Cyprus and educated in England. A teacher by trade, she has had her work published in Cyprus, the UK and USA. She was a winner in the 2000 Scottish
International Open Poetry Competition. Last year, she was Highly Commended in the
Commonwealth Short Story Competition for her story Ledra Street. Pauline Liu-Devereux of UK for “Liverpool” Pauline Liu-Devereux began writing film scripts five years ago, but more recently has concentrated on short stories. She is an accomplished artist and has had her work exhibited internationally. She is studying for a degree in English Literature.
Deborah O’Donoghue of UK for “The Summit”
Deborah O’Donoghue was born in Plymouth, UK, in 1974. She studied English and French at the
University of Sussex, and Theatre at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris, where she taught for two years. She has worked in car body repairs, sold fish and chips and served drinks in a comedy club. She now teaches English in Sussex