Dirty Gert by Pamela van der Woude
The Picton, Ont., writer is on the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize longlist
Pamela van der Woude has made the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Dirty Gert.
The winner of the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and their work will be published on CBC Books. The four remaining finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.
The shortlist will be announced on April 10 and the winner will be announced on April 17.
If you're interested in other CBC Literary Prizes, the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize is currently accepting submissions. You can submit an original, unpublished poem or collection of poems from April 1-June 1.
The 2026 CBC Short Story Prize will open in September and the 2026 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January.
About Pamela van der Woude
Pamela van der Woude writes fiction in Prince Edward County, Ont. She was the winner of the 2015 Writers' Union of Canada short story contest, shortlisted for the 2018 Room Magazine short story contest. Her most recent publication can be found in the 2024 inaugural edition of Common Measure. She has honed her writing craft for the last two decades and is currently revising her second novel that takes place in Prince Edward Island.
Entry in five-ish words
"A memory shaped by two."
The short story's source of inspiration
"Re-reading Annie Proulx's Close Range: Wyoming Stories on the beach last summer and being struck anew by the raw and exquisite nature of her writing about love and loneliness in settings that read like characters."
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From The Shipping News to Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx on the importance of place in her fiction
First lines
The two farms in Prince Edward Island, on Park Corners Lane, faced each other like opposing sisters, one rich, one poor. The poorer farm kept its curtains closed, its dogs tied up, its bushes untrimmed. The Wagner family came and went from here, necks bent, chins tucked, always looking down. This peculiar way of walking betrayed their identity. You could tell it was a Wagner just by looking at them with those heads positioned like tired turtles.
On an early fall day, the Wagner mother called out to our mom. My mom ran over, nodded, rushed inside our house, ran to the Wagner's. My sisters and I watched, waited. Clumped together, like we did when we were curious, uncertain or maybe scared. Mom finally walked down the uneven steps of their side porch, head bowed like a Wagner.
Check out the rest of the longlist
The longlist was selected from more than 2,300 entries. A team of 12 writers and editors from across Canada compiled the list.
The jury selects the shortlist and the eventual winner from the readers' longlisted selections. This year's jury is composed of Conor Kerr, Kudakwashe Rutendo and Michael Christie.
The complete list is:
- Love is the Enemy by Vincent Anioke (Waterloo, Ont.)
- Stubborn Knots by Ari Asho (Montreal)
- The Troll Artist by Pam Barnsley (Comox, B.C.)
- Zodiac Attack by Andrea Bishop (Salt Spring Island, B.C.)
- Point of Origin by Alison Braid-Fernandez (Summerland, B.C.)
- Sour Milk by Sarah Christina Brown (New Westminster, B.C.)
- Slug Lord by Petra Chambers (Hornby Island, B.C.)
- Cultus Spring by Jan Crerar (Salmon Arm, B.C.)
- 108th & Central by Barbara Darby (Lethbridge, Alta.)
- Savages by Lewis DeSoto (Toronto)
- Mothers Day, 2017 by Gráinne Downey (Vancouver)
- Driving in a Snowstorm by Izza Farhan (Toronto)
- Sudbury Saturday Night by Emily Groot (Sudbury, Ont.)
- Juicy Fruit, 1947 by Henry Heavyshield (Standoff, Alta.)
- Glow by Linda Kingston (Ottawa)
- Westward by Josée Lafrenière (Montreal)
- Ghostworlds by Trent Lewin (Waterloo, Ont.)
- Hope this Story has a Happy Ending by Heather Simeney MacLeod (Kamloops, B.C.)
- You (Streetcar at Night) by Dorian McNamara (Halifax)
- Apple Cake by Aleksandra Merk (Fonthill, Ont.)
- What About Sam by Rachael Riley (Montreal)
- Lessons from a peach by Emi Sasagawa (Vancouver)
- Grocery List for the Common Witch by Claire Scherzinger (Bremerton, Wash.)
- On a Tuesday in November by Aaron Schneider (London, Ont.)
- Real is Love by Michelle Sinclair (Ottawa)
- My Father's Soil by Zeina Sleiman (Edmonton)
- Personnel Unknown by John Sudlow (Oakville, Ont.)
- Dirty Gert by Pamela van der Woude (Picton, Ont.)
- Mount Zoo by Paul Warren (Duncan, B.C.)
- How To Watch Your Daughter Die by Jessica Wegmann-Sanchez (Edmonton)
- Self Care by Erin Wilk (Kitchener, Ont.)
- Gold by Julia Williams (Calgary)
