Commonword alumni Sui Annukka shortlisted for the Discoveries Prize 2022

Picture of writer Sui Annuka

EDIT: On Thursday 2nd June Sui Annukka was awarded the Discoveries Prize 2022! Congratulations to Sui from everyone at Commonword/Cultureword 🎉

Commonword alumni Sui Annukka has been shortlisted for the Discoveries Prize 2022, run by The Women’s Prize Trust, Curtis Brown and Audible. It aims to find aspiring female writing talent from across the UK and Ireland. She is one of 6 authors selected from 2500 entries.

Of Sri Lankan heritage, Sui Annukka grew up in London and Colombo. She read Drama at the University of Bristol, and later studied Production Design at the National Film and Television School. She left her career in film art direction to spend more time on her writing.

Whilst living in Manchester between 2013 and 2018 Sui participated in Commonword’s Women in the Spotlight programme and had her writing, both flash fiction and poetry published by Crocus (in Shots in the Dark, Sounds Exceeding 80 Decibels and Elevator Fiction).

Sui commented on the impact of her time with Commonword:

“I absolutely loved living in Manchester. Commonword was a huge part of my Manchester experience. I was warmly welcomed into a longstanding writing community and encouraged to experiment across different media. It was such an exciting time in my life. I was writing consistently and spending a lot of time sitting in cafes, late into the night, talking about books, and theatre, and films – and writing – with the most brilliant people. I was given opportunities to perform my work and to start finding my voice. And, crucially, Commonword gave me my first experience of being edited and published in an anthology.

I regularly attended the Wednesday night Commonword crit group where I got to work with inspiring writers like Afshan D’souza Lodhi, Charlotte Maxwell, Christina Fonthes, Clare Ramsaran, Dipali Das, Hafsah Bashir, Heena Patel, Homera Cheema, Mahboobeh Rajabi, Meshach Brencher and Rebecca Zahabi amongst others.

I was mentored with unwavering commitment and dedication by the genius that is Martin De Mello; and continue to be championed by the inimitable Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi.

I have no doubt that being part of Commonword enriched me as a writer and as a human being, in ways that I can’t even begin to credit. I would not be on this longlist without them.

Congratulations to Sui from everyone at Commonword & all the best for the upcoming prize announcement!

You Should Blog It! Blog Competition 2011

The Commonword blog is having its first ever competition, with not one but TWO £100 first prizes, for writers living or working in the North of England.

Commonword is North West England’s leading writing development agency and has launched the careers of dozens of writers. The blog site www.commonwordblogs.org.uk was created as a space for writers to get feedback on new work and work in progress.

The blog is free to join and is open to everyone. The competition is free to enter. It is, however, open only to writers living or working in the North of England.

We’re looking for the 6 best posts of the year – 3 winners in the first half of the year and 3 winners in the second half – which can be short fiction, poetry, autobiography, an excerpt from a novel – in fact any kind of writing that works on a blog.

Winners will receive £100 for first place, £50 for second place and £25 for third.

At the end of the competition an eBook of the shortlisted writing will be published by Commonword.

To be eligible for the competition you must:

  • Be a member of the Commonword blog (if you’re not already a member you can sign up for free by emailing us at admin@cultureword.org.uk)
  • Live or work in the North of England
  • Must have made at least 5 useful comments on other writers’ work on the blog
  • Leave all your posts on the blog until the competition ends on 31 December 2011.

For full details of the competition click here