Persistence pays off for McPherson

This year’s Commonwealth Short Story Prize has been awarded to Jamaican writer Kwame McPherson.

His entry was titled Ocoee, taking its name from a town in Florida where several African Americans were massacred in a horrifying, racially motivated incident in November 1920. It topped a field of 28 submissions shortlisted from among 6,642 entries.

This announcement was made by The Commonwealth Foundation during an online ceremony on Tuesday.

McPherson is the first Jamaican to win the contest and will receive a £5,000 (nearly J$1 million) prize for having the best piece of unpublished short fiction ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 words.

In an interview with The Gleaner, McPherson stated that this was his ninth attempt at the Prize, having first submitted an entry in 2009.

In May, the 57-year-old, who was born in London, England, to Jamaican parents, was named the Caribbean winner of the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize after being shortlisted as one of five regional winners of the world’s most global literature prize. He won a cash prize of £2,500 then.

McPherson told The Gleaner that this was the first time he had ever been shortlisted as a regional winner and for the overall Prize. It was a victory he did not expect.

“[It’s] awesome. That is – oh, man – complete and utter recognition for my talent and my skill and my ability ... . It’s still surreal to know that I’ve actually won internationally and I’m proud of that fact because as Jamaicans, we are winners, so winning in this field is a phenomenal feeling,” he said shortly after the announcement.

PRAISES FOR ‘OCOEE’

Pakistani writer and chair of the judges’ panel, Bilal Tanweer, said McPherson’s winning piece, Ocoee, was praised as forcing “a reckoning with the challenge that confronts all writers in the postcolonial world: how to write about a world that has been destroyed without any traces”.

The judge representing the Caribbean, St Lucian poet and novelist Mac Donald Dixon, said: “ Ocoee traverses genres. Although not set in the Caribbean, the food, the flavours, the people, narration, appearances and disappearances are all there and happening in a logical sequence that imbues the short story with life. It is palpable; there is nothing incredulous about it.”

McPherson said when he began his writing journey, it was not a conscious decision.

“It was just something I enjoyed doing. Creating and imagining worlds, sharing occurrences and experiences that brought no end of joy in seeing a reader engage and find pleasure in what I have produced. Having the ability to provoke thought, interest or move a reader from one mental and emotional state to the next is a skill within itself and one I have been blessedly bestowed with and do not take for granted,” he reflected in his speech on Tuesday.

“I am humbled since I stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before, especially those scribes, griots and storytellers of our story, fulfilling a purpose I now live, walk and breathe. I am extremely proud I have represented my many friends, family and, importantly, my country Jamaica, in the way that I have,” he added.

McPherson said he is now working on a number of soon-to-be-released fiction works that explore themes such as romance, Western culture, and science fiction.

“But what I would really really love, in terms of my vision of where I would like to see my writing, is [where] one of my pieces is made into a movie. That, for me, is the ultimate,” he revealed, adding that he already has the actors for the various roles in a film. Among those actors is a Jamaican and another is a British-Nigerian, but he would not divulge their names just yet.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com

Read more

McPherson’s work can be found on https://www.amazon.com/ and https://www.lulu.com/.

The literary magazine Granta has published all of the regional winning stories of the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, including Ocoee.

Submissions for the 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize will open on September 1, 2023.