Lee Maracle, Souvankham Thammavongsa and Craig Davidson to judge 2021 CBC Short Story Prize
Lee Maracle, Craig Davidson and Souvankham Thammavongsa will judge the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize.
The CBC Short Story Prize recognizes original, unpublished fiction that is up to 2,500 words. The winner will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, will attend a two-week writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and will have their work published on CBC Books.
Four finalists will receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and will have their work published on CBC Books.
The 2021 CBC Short Story Prize closed for submissions on Oct. 31, 2020 and the finalists will be announced in spring 2021.
Maracle published her first book in 1975. It was an autobiographical novel called Bobbi Lee: Indian Rebel and it was one of the first Indigenous works published in Canada. Since then, Maracle has written award-winning and critically acclaimed books in almost every genre. She's also a teacher, a lifelong political activist and an expert on First Nations culture and history. Her books include I Am Woman, My Conversations with Canadians, Celia's Song and Ravensong. Maracle was named to the Order of Canada in 2018.
Davidson has published several books of literary fiction including Cataract City, which was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2013, Rust and Bone, which was made into an Oscar-nominated feature film of the same name, The Fighter and The Saturday Night Ghost Club. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and his articles and journalism have been published in the National Post, Esquire, GQ, the Walrus and the Washington Post, among other places. He also writes horror novels under the name Nick Cutter. Davidson's memoir Precious Cargo was defended by Greg Johnson on Canada Reads 2018.
Thammavongsa's debut book of fiction, How to Pronounce Knife, won the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize. The title story was a finalist for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She is also the author of four poetry books: Light, winner of the Trillium Book Award for Poetry, Found, Small Arguments, winner of the ReLit Award, and, most recently, Cluster. Born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand, Thommavongsa was raised and educated in Toronto, where she is at work on her first novel. CBC Books named Thammavongsa a 2020 writer to watch.
The jury will select the shortlist and winner.
Last year's winner was Brenda Damen for her short story, Gibson. You can read the entire shortlist here.
The CBC Literary Prizes have been recognizing Canadian writers since 1979.
Past winners include Michael Ondaatje, Carol Shields, Michael Winter and Frances Itani.
The 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January. The 2021 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April.
