Mary Rokonadravu is a story writer from
Fiji
Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
. She was the first
Fijian to win the Pacific regional
Commonwealth Short Story Prize
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000 to 5,000 words). The prize is open to citizens of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations aged 18 and over. The Commonwealth Short ...
twice in 2015 and 2022.
Career
Rokonadravu was the first
Fijian to win the Pacific regional
Commonwealth Short Story Prize
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000 to 5,000 words). The prize is open to citizens of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations aged 18 and over. The Commonwealth Short ...
for her short story "''Famished Eels''" in 2015.
She was also shortlisted for the same award in 2017.
She has directed a prison writing programme at
Suva
Suva () is the capital and largest city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rewa Province, Central Divi ...
's seven correctional facilities for four years and in 2008, she published ''shedding Silences'', the
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
's first anthology of prison writing. In 2017, Rokonadravu launched a writing competition under the banner of the Fiji Media Watch Group.
Rokonadravu was again awarded with the
Commonwealth Short Story Prize
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000 to 5,000 words). The prize is open to citizens of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations aged 18 and over. The Commonwealth Short ...
for her story ''The Nightwatch'' in 2022.
Awards
Books
* ''Famished Eels'' — A short story narrating inter-family and regional relations.
* ''Sepia''
See also
*
Fijian literature
References
Living people
Fijian writers
Fijian women writers
21st-century Fijian writers
Year of birth missing (living people)
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