B.C. writer Kailash Srinivasan wins $2.5K Writers' Union of Canada's Annual Short Fiction Competition
The Vancouver author is recognized for his short story titled 1984
Vancouver writer Kailash Srinivasan has won the $2,500 Writer's Union of Canada Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers.
The prize, which celebrates its 31st anniversary this year, celebrates the best story under 2,500 words.
Srinivasan was honoured for his story 1984. Jurors Francine Cunningham, Frances Itani, C.M. and Ian Roy commended it for its "confident style," "striking detail" and "ease of narration," in a press statement.
"This personalized account closely examines a disturbing societal fracture in the year 1984," they said. "Rooted in sometimes disturbing detail, this story is beautifully rendered, with uncompromising descriptions that challenge the reader."
Born and raised in India, Srinivasan now lives in Vancouver and is at work on his first novel. His writing highlights fractures of all kinds: personal, societal, economic, religious and political. 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.
Srinivasan was on the shortlist for the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize with his story The Baby. He was in fact 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.
Srinivasan's 1984 was chosen from a 12-story shortlist that was distilled from 652 submissions — and he's not the only one with a CBC Literary Prizes connection.
Also on the shortlist with a CBC Literary Prize are Jennilee Austria for When Faduma Saw Red, Lindsay Foran for Christmas in July, Evan J. for Four Stories, Zilla Jones for Unchained and Iryn Tushabe for Texture.
Austria was longlisted for the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize for her story Her Life's Work, Foran was longlisted for the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize for her story How to Build a Bomb, J. was longlisted for the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize for his poem Nest, Jones was a finalist for the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize for her story How to Make a Friend and Tushabe was longlisted for the 2016 CBC Nonfiction Prize for her story The Star in my Dream.