David T.K.Wong Prize

Please note, the Trustees of the International PEN Foundation, together with the International PEN Board, have taken the decision to end the David T. K Wong prize and cancel the award planned for 2007. This difficult decision was made because of a large number of factors, including economic considerations regarding the continuation of the prize and International PEN's longer term strategy for the future. We hope this will not cause too much inconvenience and disappointment.

The International PEN David T.K.Wong Prize for Short Fiction 2005 goes to Sefi Atta for Twilight Trek

The Judges for the 2004/5 prize were David Lodge (Chair), Caryl Phillips & Eva Hoffman

Announced at this year's International PEN conference in Bled, the David T.K. Wond Prize for 2005 was awareded to Sefi Atta who entered via the African Writers Abroad centre. Sefi Atta currently lives in Meridian, Mississippi with her husband and daughter and teaches at the Meridian Community College and Mississippi State University.

Atta was born in Lagos, Nigeria and was educated in her home country as well as England and the USA. She is a graduate of the creative writing programme at Antioch University in Los Angeles and her short stories have appeared in journals such as the Los Angeles Review and Mississippi Review, also winning prizes such as third place in the Zoetrope Short Fiction contest. Atta's radio plays have been broadcast by the BBC and in 2002 the opening section of her debut novel, Everything Good Will Come, was short-listed for the Macmillan Writers Prize for Africa.

First prize: £7,500

2000/1 winner: Rachel Seiffert - The Crossing

2002/3 winner: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun (Submitted by PEN USA West)

The Judges in 2002/3 were: J. M. Coetzee, Michele Roberts and William Trevor.

Established in 2000, this international prize is presented every other year to promote literary excellence in the form of the short story written in English.

Unpublished stories of between 2,500 words to 6,000 words are welcome from writers worldwide but entries must incorporate one or more of International PEN's ideals as set out in the PEN charter.  Entries should not be sent direct to International PEN but should be submitted via the entrant's local PEN Centre.

For submissions made to the English Centre (for address see Contact) there is a non-refundable administrative fee of £25, payable by cheque with your submission (please make cheques payable to English PEN). The deadline for submissions is 30th September 2004. Please read the rules below before preparing your submission.

• Any writer whether published or unpublished throughout the world is eligible to enter. The prize of at least £7,500 will be awarded every two years for a short story in the English language.

• The story must be an original work in the English language, hitherto unpublished, of not less than 2,500 words and not more than 6,000 words. The theme of the story must concern one or more ideals of International PEN as set out in the PEN Charter.

• Entries should be typed in double spacing on one side only of A4 paper. Pages should be numbered and fastened securely together. No name, address or other identifying mark should appear on the typescript other than the title of the story on each page.

• Submissions will not be returned so entrants are advised to keep a copy. An entry implies acceptance of all the rules and conditions of the Award. Failure to comply will result in disqualification.

• A panel of not less than three or more than five judges to be appointed by the Trustees will select the Winner(s). The judges reserve the right to withhold an award in any year if, in their opinion, no suitable entries are submitted. The judges' decision to make an award or not in any year will be final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into. The judges, at their discretion, may decide in any year to award a second prize.

• In all cases, the copyright shall remain with the author but the Foundation shall reserve the right to publish the work or works in the magazine PEN International, or in anthology form.

• Stories should be sent to the entrant’s local PEN Centre or, if the local PEN Centre is not mounting a competition in that particular year, to a neighbouring PEN Centre. No submissions should be made direct to International PEN itself. The closing date for submissions to individual PEN Centres will be set by the Centre concerned but the closing date for submissions from Centres to International PEN’s headquarters will be 1 December in the year preceding the prize.

• Entrants may be required to pay an entry fee to cover administrative costs. Individual local PEN Centres will decide and advise entrants on this. Entry fees are non-returnable.

• International PEN and its Centres cannot undertake to make corrections or amendments to any typescripts submitted. Nor, while they will take great care of manuscripts submitted, can they be responsible for any that are damaged or lost while in the post.

• International PEN will notify participating PEN Centres of the winning entry or entries as soon as practicable. Entrants wishing to know the result of the competition should apply to their local PEN Centre.

• Each local PEN Centre is normally limited to a single submission though the Trustees, at their discretion, may agree to allow up to three submissions.