South Africa Author, Lisa-Anne Julien, Emerges 2026 Africa’s Commonwealth Short Story Recipient

Summary: South African author Lisa-Anne Julien has won the Africa regional prize at the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her winning entry, “Me and Ma’am,” details the evolving relationship between a domestic worker and her employer over the span of a single working day. 

Ms Lisa-Anne Julien, a South African writer and author of “If you save me,” has won the Africa regional prize at the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her winning entry, “Me and Ma’am,” details the evolving relationship between a domestic worker and her employer over the span of a single working day. 

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is an annual, prestigious literary award established by the Commonwealth Foundation to champion unpublished short fiction. It targets short stories between 2,000 and 5,000 words and is open to all citizens of the 56 Commonwealth member countries, with an age range of 18 and above. Entries are accepted in 11 different languages, including Bengali, Chinese, French, Kiswahili, Portuguese, Samoan, Tamil, Zulu, and English. Regional winners receive £2,500, with the overall winner awarded £5,000.

The winning entry, “Me and Ma’am,” is a day-in-the-life of a domestic worker and her employer. The story offers a nuanced exploration of liberal guilt, female solidarity, tokenism, and modern class divides in contemporary South Africa. Speaking about the story, Julien stated that her entry was born from her long-term fascination with the people we hire to work inside our private spaces. The Africa region judging chair, Fred Khumalo, praised the piece for its perfect blend of serious introspection and shared humanity with moments of sharp humour. 

Julien is a literary prodigy whose debut novel, “If You Save Me,” won the University of Johannesburg’s 2022 Debut Prize for Fiction, and her fiction has appeared in Pree, the Caribbean literary magazine. Her writing residencies include Femrite, Yale Writers, and the Jakes Gerwel Foundation. This win places her among the five regional winners in contention for the overall prize, which will be announced in an online ceremony on 30 June.