Kevin Chong wants you to write about what you're obsessed with
Giller Prize finalist and CBC Short Story Prize juror gives his best writing advice
Kevin Chong is a Vancouver-based writer and associate professor at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. His other books include the nonfiction book Northern Dancer and fiction titles like The Plague and Beauty Plus Pity. His latest book, The Double Life of Benson Yu, is a finalist for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
The Double Life of Benson Yu recounts the difficult adolescence of the titular character growing up in a housing project in 1980s Chinatown. The story takes a metafictional twist when Yu's grip on memory and reality falters. The unique structure provides a layered and poignant look into how we come to terms with who we are, what happened to us as children and that finding hope and healing lies in whether we choose to suppress or process our experiences.
Chong has a long history with the CBC Literary Prizes. He was a reader for the CBC Short Story Prize in 2005 and 2012 before being announced as a juror for the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize alongside Suzette Mayr and Ashley Audrain. He was also longlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize twice, in 2015 for Empty Houses and in 2020 for White Space.
The 2024 CBC Short Story Prize is open for submissions until Nov. 1, 2023. You can submit original, unpublished fiction up to 2,500 words. The winner will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and will have their work published on CBC Books.
Chong spoke with Up North host Jonathan Pinto about The Double Life of Benson Yu making the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist and what he looks for in a great short story.
Congratulations on being Giller shortlisted. What went through your mind when you found out?
Well, it's funny you ask that because it's 7:30 in the morning when it's announced in Vancouver. I found out on Facebook Live because that's the only way I could access that sort of information. It was up on my iPad at 7:30 and I think that it started a little late, like maybe 7:45 and then they had all these speeches from sponsors and important folks.
Meanwhile I need to get started with my day and get dressed and then I need to make my daughter's lunch for her school day. Then they started announcing the names alphabetically. Now my name is pretty early in the alphabet, but there were two other nominees and they were reading the citations. It got to the point where it's either my name or not my name and I was anxiously hoping that it would be my name. They announced my name and we yelped. We were very excited and then I immediately started making a school lunch!
Tell me a bit about The Double Life of Benson Yu?
It's a book that makes me wish I had an easier way to explain it. It's about a guy named Benson Yu telling a story of his childhood in Chinatown in 1980s. He's telling a sanitized version of his childhood where he befriends somebody who is this benevolent karate master and in reality, something darker happened and it keeps trying to intrude on the story and suggest that it was darker because he can't maintain the integrity of this sort of false story. At some point, that integrity crumbles in a way that some people describe as being metafictional, the narrative destabilizes.
You've been involved in CBC Literary Prizes before. You were longlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize a few years ago. What role do these prizes play for writers?
Well, especially for aspiring writers, it gets them on a lot of folks' radars. It gets the attention of agents and editors. I've taught CBC Literary Prize-winning stories in my classes at UBC.
A lot of great things spring from even just being longlisted for a CBC Literary Prize.- Kevin Chong
It gets you eligible for grants. Sometimes, it leads to a book deal. A lot of great things spring from even just being longlisted for a CBC Literary Prize.
You're a juror this year for the CBC Short Story Prize. What makes a good short story to you?
There are two things. The first thing is there's gotta be some sort of tension. It can be like horror movie tension where there's something behind a door in the haunted house or it can be comic tension, like two people on a first date and it's kind of awkward. But it's got to be something there and we want to know how this tension is going to be resolved.
The second thing is an idiosyncratic voice. ChatGPT is mentioned and bandied about as something that can replace writers, but right now at least, it can't recreate a specific sort of human talking to you quality, that a story can bring through an author's word choice and a selection of details that can make you feel less lonely as a reader.
What's the hardest part of a short story compared to a novel?
Well, there's a reason why I'm a novelist. There's a bigger margin of error when writing a novel. With a short story you can't waste a sentence or paragraph or an image or a detail. A lot of times these images and details are weighted with multiple meanings, and as a result, story writing is very compact and dense compared to most novels.
With a short story you can't waste a sentence or paragraph or an image or a detail.- Kevin Chong
What advice would you give an aspiring writer who is thinking about entering this year's CBC Short Story Prize?
First off, just get something on the page. You're not going to be Alice Munro in your first draft. You're not going to be Alice Munro ever, but it's going to get better once you get something on the page and you write it and think through it.
And secondly, write about what obsesses you. Write about what scares you. Write in a way that's audacious.
Kevin Chong's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
