The Commonwealth Writers' Prize was a literary award established in 1987 by the Commonwealth Foundation. It award prizes for established and new writers across the Commonwealth. In 2011 the Commonwealth Writers' Prize was re-launched under the new name Commonwealth Writers - a world of new fiction with two new prizes, Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
Each year, prizes for Best Book (1987-2011) and Best First Book (1989-2011) were awarded in four regions: Africa, Caribbean and Canada, South Asia and Europe and South East Asia and Pacific. Eight regional winners then competed for the pan-Commonwealth Best Book and Best First Book prizes, awarded at a public programme held in a different Commonwealth country each year. In addition there was a Commonwealth Short Story Competition (1996-2011).