12 emerging Canadian writers make 2019 longlist for $10K Journey Prize for short fiction

Twelve Canadian writers on the rise are on the longlist for the 2019 Writers' Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize.

The annual $10,000 award is given to the best short fiction published in a Canadian magazine. It is geared to writers in the early stages of their careers. 

Writers on the 2019 longlist include Ottawa poet and author Ben Ladouceur, who won the Writers' Trust of Canada's $4,000 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ emerging writers in 2018, and ​​​​​Whitby, Ont.-based poet Canisia Lubrin, author of the 2018 Raymond Souster Award finalist Voodoo Hypothesis.

Troy Sebastian, a Ktunaxa writer living in Lekwungen territory, is on the longlist for his story tax niʔ pik̓ak — a long time ago, published in The Walrus. The piece was longlisted for the 2018 CBC Short Story Prize.

Two other former CBC Literary Prize finalists are also on the longlist: Victoria writer Jason Jobin for They Would Pour Us into Boxes published by EVENT and Sarah Christina Brown for Land of Living Skies published by PRISM International.

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The 2019 jury consists of short story author Carleigh Baker (a Vancouver Book Award winner and finalist for the 2012 Writers' Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize), novelist Catherine Hernandez (a finalist for the 2017 Toronto Book Award for the novel Scarborough) and poet and author Joshua Whitehead (whose debut novel Jonny Appleseed was on the shortlist for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction).

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Here's the complete list of longlisted stories:

• Land of Living Skies by Sarah Christina Brown (PRISM international)
• Every True Artist by Kai Conradi (The Malahat Review)
• Ọrun Is Heaven by Francesca Ekwuyasi (GUTS Magazine)
• They Would Pour Us into Boxes by Jason Jobin (EVENT)
• Waiting for Adnan by Hajera Khaja (Joyland Magazine)
• A Boy of Good Breeding by Ben Ladouceur (PRISM international)
• Pooka by Angélique Lalonde  (PRISM international)
• Candidate by Michael LaPointe (The Walrus)
• No ID or We Could Be Brothers by Canisia Lubrin (Brick)
• The Fish and the Dragons by Samantha Jade Macpherson  (The Fiddlehead)
• Tax Niʔ Pik̓ak (A Long Time Ago) by Troy Sebastian / Nupqu ʔak·ǂam̓ (The Walrus)
• Monsters by Leanne Toshiko Simpson (Release Any Words Stuck Inside of You)

The shortlist will be announced on Sept. 4, 2019. The winner will be announced on Nov. 5, 2019 in Toronto.

The 2018 Writers' Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize winner was Shashi Bhat for her short story Mute.

Past winners include Colette Langlois, Yann Martel, Alissa York and Yasuko Thanh.