A York author is celebrating after winning in ‘the world’s most global literary prize’.
Rue Baldry has won the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Canada and Europe).
The 53-year-old took the accolade amid strong competition from five other shortlisted writers.
Her winning work, Lech, Prince, and the Nice Things, tells the story of a young, black plasterer, drawn to committing petty acts of revenge against his employer’s neglected possessions.
Judges praised the “comedic sensibility” of “a genuinely surprising and unexpectedly moving story that explores such weighty – and timely – topics as racism, classism and inequality in modern-day Britain”.
Rue began writing the story in spring of 2020 during the first UK pandemic lockdown and the Black Lives Matter protests.
“The neighbours on both sides of our terraced house were having major building work done,” she said.
“Unable to write, I started to think about the experiences of workers in the building trade, and other working-class jobs, who were being disproportionately exposed to the virus.
“At the same time I was reading a lot of posts about the subtle (as well as blatant) racisms experienced by people of colour in the UK, which reminded me of experiences of friends.”
The judge representing the Canada and Europe region, British-Canadian author Katrina Best, said: “The writer’s considerable skill is evident in every element of this story, including deft observations, evocative descriptions, fully realised, complex and sympathetic characters, believable dialogue, and an expertly crafted narrative that is infused throughout with wry humour.”
Rue will go through to the final round of judging and the overall winner will be announced on 27 June.