Sarah Balakrishnan Shortlisted in Prestigious Short Story Contest
Photo courtesy of Sarah Balakrishnan
Sarah Balakrishnan, Assistant Professor of History, was recently shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Balakrishnan specializes in imperialism and colonialism in West Africa, and explores the anticolonial movement in Southern Ghana.
Her short story, “When Things End,” is about a sexual relationship between a white Zimbabwean professor and a young graduate student of color. It explores themes of gender, race, power and inequality, and asks tough questions about what happens when a coercive relationship such as this one begins, and what happens when they end.
Balakrishnan was inspired to write the story when she was a graduate student studying at Harvard University. The #MeToo movement was sweeping through academia, asking important questions about consent, power dynamics and the fraught nature of relationships between those of unequal status.
“I wrote the first draft of ‘When Things End’ during the #MeToo period. It was the first short story that I ever wrote, and the one that has sat with me the longest,” said Balakrishnan.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from any of the Commonwealth’s 56 Member States. It is the most accessible and international of all writing competitions: In addition to English, entries can be submitted in Bengali, Chinese, Creole, French, Greek, Malay, Maltese, Portuguese, Samoan, Swahili, Tamil and Turkish — a diversity that reflects the richness of literary traditions.
Balakrishnan was shocked when she learned she was shortlisted for the prize. “The day before the submission was due, I stayed up all night redrafting my story, cutting over 1,000 words to meet the maximum word count,” she said. “I am enormously grateful that the judging committee has deemed my story worthy of this honor.”
Balakrishnan is currently in the final stages of drafting her debut short story collection. Regional winners will be announced in May, with the overall winner announced in June.
