Her Life's Work by Jennilee Austria

Jennilee Austriahas made the2022 CBC Short Story Prize longlistfor Her Life's Work.

• 36 writers make the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize longlist

The winner of the 2022CBC Short Story Prizewill receive $6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, have their work published onCBC Booksand have the opportunity to attend a two-week writing residency at theBanff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand have their work published onCBC Books.

The shortlist will be announced on April 21 and the winner will be announced onApril 28.

If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes,the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize is open for submissions until May 31.

• Calling all writers! The 2022 CBC Poetry Prize is now open!

About Jennilee Austria

Jennilee Austria is a Filipina-Canadian author, speaker and school board consultant who builds bridges between educators and Filipino families. She has an MA in immigration and settlement studies and has attended writing programs at the Humber School for Writers and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. In 2021, she was published in Guernica Editions' Changing the Face of Canadian Literature: A Diverse Canadian Anthology. She was the runner-up in the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award recognizing Asian authors in the Canadian Diaspora.Originally from Sarnia, Ont., Austria is now based in Toronto, where she writes stories about theFilipinos who keep her awake at night.

Entry in five-ish words

"A grandmother's wish for success."

The story's source of inspiration

"As a teenager in Sarnia, I volunteered at a retirement home every Saturday. As I watched resident after resident fade away, I realised that I'd never seen a Filipino senior living in a retirement home.One question kept coming up in my mind: 'At the end of their life, what would a Filipino-Canadian retirement home resident be hoping for?'Although it took me two decades, I eventually answered my question through this story."

First lines

"Did I make it?"

She asks this all of the time. Whenever anyone bathes, feeds, or changes her, it's always the same question: "Did I make it?"

The other Personal Support Workers aren't from our country. They don't care enough to understand her.

"Sure, you made lots of it," they say, wrinkling their noses as they toss her adult diapers into the trash.

I'm the only one who knows what she means. When I'm alone with her, I lean close and say in Tagalog, "Yes, Nanay, you did everything you ever wanted to do. You made it."

About the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize

The winner of the 2022CBC Short Story Prizewill receive $6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, have their work published onCBC Booksand attend a two-week writing residency at theBanff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand have their work published onCBC Books.

The 2022CBC Poetry Prizeis currently open for submissions until May31, 2022. The2023CBC Short Story Prizewill open in September and the 2023CBC Nonfiction Prizewill open in January 2023.