5 writers make the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize shortlist

Writers Kate Gunn, Miriam Ho Nga Wai, Zilla Jones, Kailash Srinivasan and Carley Thorne have made the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize shortlist.

Their nominated works are:

• Old Bones by Kate Gunn (Vancouver)
• Lamentations by Miriam Ho Nga Wai (Toronto)
• How to Make a Friend by Zilla Jones (Winnipeg)
• The Baby by Kailash Srinivasan (North Vancouver, B.C.)
• Permission to Pause by Carley Thorne (Toronto)

The winner will be announced on April 25. They will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

The remaining four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts.

All five finalists had their work published on CBC Books. You can read their stories by clicking on the links above.

This year's finalists were selected by a jury comprised of Suzette Mayr, Kevin Chong and Ashley Audrain. They will also select the winner.

• 7 ways winning a CBC Literary Prize will change your life

The longlist was compiled by a team of writers and editors from across Canada from more than 1,900 submissions.

The shortlist for the French-language competition has also been revealed. To read more, go to the Prix de la cration Radio-Canada.

Last year's winner was Vancouver writer Will Richter for his story Just a Howl.

• Vancouver writer Will Richter wins 2023 CBC Short Story Prize

If you're interested in other writing competitions, check out the CBC Literary Prizes. The 2024 CBC Poetry Prize is currently accepting submissions. The 2025 CBC Short Story Prize will open in September and the 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January.

Get to know the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize English-language finalists below.

Old Bones by Kate Gunn

Kate Gunn grew up on Galiano Island off the west coast of British Columbia. She currently lives and works in Vancouver. Her short fiction has previously appeared in Prism International and the Antigonish Review.

I wrote this story as a way to honour and understand the experiences of the women in my family who have experienced medical trauma.- Kate Gunn

Why she wrote Old Bones: "I wrote this story as a way to honour and understand the experiences of the women in my family who have experienced medical trauma. I also wanted to explore how these experiences replicate and transform over generations.

"I was previously longlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize in 2019 for Red Sails, a story about my grandmother's journey from Scotland to Canada in the 1950s. This year's submission is another piece of that story, told from a different perspective."

• Read Old Bones

Lamentations by Miriam Ho Nga Wai

Miriam Ho Nga Wai is an architect and writer based in Toronto. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Nimrod and Ecotone. She has been longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and was a finalist for the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction. She is a founding editor of the award-winning Canadian journal -SITE Magazine, and a former fiction editor at Guernica. Drawing on a background in architecture, her work explores themes of place, memory and longing. In the stolen hours before her daughter wakes up, she is hard at work on a novel and a short story collection.

I was in a long-distance relationship myself and began to imagine the lives of the 'astronaut wives' I'd known.- Miriam Ho Nga Wai

Why she wrote Lamentations: "Growing up, I witnessed how political unrest drives immigration to Canada and the way family units were often divided so that women and children were sent ahead to Canada. Years later, I was in a long-distance relationship myself and began to imagine the lives of the 'astronaut wives' I'd known."

• Read Lamentations

How to Make a Friend by Zilla Jones

Zilla Jones is an African-Canadian woman writing on Treaty 1 territory (Winnipeg). Her stories appear in Prairie Fire, The Malahat Review, Prism International, The Fiddlehead, FreeFall Magazine, the Ex-Puritan, Room Magazine, Bayou Magazine and The Journey Prize Stories. In 2023, she was a Journey Prize winner and a finalist in the Writers' Trust RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. She has also won the Malahat Review Open Season Award, the Jacob Zilber Prize for Short Fiction, the FreeFall short fiction award and placed second in the Prairie Fire and Austin Clarke contests. Her debut novel, The World So Wide, and a short fiction collection, So Much To Tell, are forthcoming with Cormorant Books in 2025 and 2026.

Jones previously made the 2020 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Our Father and has longlisted twice for earlier versions of How to Make a Friend, in 2022 and 2023.

This story teaches Black people how to build community with one another as an act of resistance.- Zilla Jones

Why she wrote How to Make a Friend: "The story is loosely based on my time as a scholarship student in an exclusive girls' private school. It came out of the Black Lives Matter reckoning, where I was looking at incidents of racism from my past and asking what we can learn from them. This story teaches Black people how to build community with one another as an act of resistance.

"I have always been led to share stories! This is the third time this particular story has been longlisted in the CBC Short Story Prize. I kept submitting it elsewhere and I always got very complimentary rejections, so when it came time to enter the CBC contest again and I looked at my available stories, this one kept calling out to me. I continued to believe in it despite the rejections it received, so here it is again. I guess this little story has now become a symbol of hope and resilience and self-belief."

• Read How to Make a Friend

The Baby by Kailash Srinivasan

Born and raised in India, Kailash Srinivasan now lives in Vancouver. His writing highlights fractures of all kinds: personal, societal, economic, religious and political. He also writes about injustice and inequality. His work has appeared in publications such as Identity Theory, Midway Journal, Snarl, Hunger, XRAY, Coachella Review, Selkie, Oyster River Pages, Sidereal and Lunch Ticket. He was shortlisted for the 2024 Malahat Review Open Season Awards Fiction, the 2023 Bridport Prize for Fiction and the 2022 Bristol Short Story Prize. He also received an honourable mention for the 2023 Craft First Chapters Contest. He's currently at work on his first novel.

Srinivasan was on the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist twice: for Disprin and for The Baby. He previously made the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for an earlier version of The Baby.

Why do we expect women to enjoy motherhood or the constant responsibility of caring for their child/children? Or love them by default?- Kailash Srinivasan

Why he wrote The Baby: "I came across a survey that asked its female readers if they would choose to have children again if given a choice. A majority of them said 'no,' which made me question our assumptions. Why do we expect women to enjoy motherhood or the constant responsibility of caring for their child/children? Or love them by default? It got me thinking about whether motherhood is a one-size-fits-all role.

"I have been a fan of the CBC Short Story Prize for a long time, having followed many of the shortlisted writers and winners and their incredible journeys. So naturally, I wanted to be a part of this prestigious award."

• Read The Baby

Permission to Pause by Carley Thorne

Carley Thorne is a comedian and writer living in Toronto. She is a Jack Whyte Storyteller's Award winner and her writing has been shortlisted for the 2023 Federation of BC Writers Contest Short Fiction. She has performed as a part of the JFL42 comedy festival and as an understudy at the Second City Toronto. Alongside Blair Macmillan, she is the creator and co-host of Girl Historians, a comedy podcast about history. The current season is all about the Salem Witch Trials. She is currently working on a novel.

I always find myself intrigued by people and how strange we are. I love characters who are freaks and unhinged weirdos.- Carley Thorne

Why she wrote Permission to Pause: "I always find myself intrigued by people and how strange we are. I love characters who are freaks and unhinged weirdos. The narrator of Permission to Pause definitely falls into that category. She is so deeply invested in personal wellness, but also obsessed with the brutalization of women. She loves self-care and self-harm in equal parts. That dissonance is really interesting to me. She is a terrible person, but I love her dearly."

• Read Permission to Pause