CBC’s Canada Writes Announces the Short Story Prize Finalists

CBC’s Canada Writes, along with its partners Canada Council for the Arts, Air Canada’s enRoute magazine and The Banff Centre, have announced the shortlist for their CBC Short Story Prize. The finalists have been chosen from over 2,400 story submissions from across Canada, with five English-language and five French-language nominees being selected.

This is an important prize that awards unpublished work and helps to promote authors who are at the beginning of their writing careers. The winner receives $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week residency at The Banff Centre, and will be published in Air Canada’s enRoute magazine. The other finalists receive $1,000 and publication on Canada Writes.

The five nominated English-language titles are:

• Becky Blake of Toronto, ON for "The Three Times Rule"
• Matthew Howard of Toronto, ON for "Old Hands"
• Roderick Moody-Corbett of Calgary, AB for "Parse"
• Eliza Roberston of Victoria, BC for "L'Étranger"
• Jay Tameling of Edmonton, AB for "Sweet Dynamite"

The five nominated French-language titles are:

• Sylvie Gendron of Montréal, QC for “L'edelweiss”
• Francis Mushidi Ihaza of Longueuil, QC for “Magnolias”
• Fabien Philippe of Montréal, QC for “Janken”
• Cédric Tremblay of Saint-Norbert, QC for “Jadis, les vents d'automne”
• Frédérick Wolfe of Montréal, QC for “L'appartement”

Between March 11th and 21st, you will be able to read the shortlisted stories at the Canada Writes website; these will be published on weekday mornings. You can already head over to the Canada Writes website to read Becky Blake’s "The Three Times Rule." You may also read Sylvie Gendron’s "L’edelweiss."

The winners will be selected by the CBC Short Story Prize jury, which includes writers Esi Edugyan, Lawrence Hill and Vincent Lam. The winners will be announced on March 26, 2013. There will also be an opportunity for readers to vote for their favourites starting March 15, 2013.