CBC Short Story Prize
CBC Books | CBC Books | Posted: April 28, 2017 7:24 PM | Last Updated: November 1
The CBC Short Story Prize is open between Sept. 1 and Nov. 1
The CBC Short Story Prize is open between Sept. 1 and Nov. 1 at 4:59 p.m. ET.
The winner receives $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.
Four finalists each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and their work is also published on CBC Books.
Who can enter?
The prize is open to all Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory of residence, whether living in Canada or abroad.
What can you submit?
You can submit original, unpublished fiction that is up to 2,500 words. There is no minimum word requirement.
Work that has been published online or in print or recorded for broadcast is considered "previously published" and is not eligible.
While the competition is active, submit online by creating an account through Submittable. A fee of $25.00 (taxes included) for administration purposes is required for each entry.
You may submit as many times as you like, but each entry will require the $25 submission fee.
What can you win?
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 have their work published on CBC Books.
"As much as a residency is about your individual practice, it can also be about building your writing community," two-time CBC Literary Prize winner Chanel M. Sutherland told CBC Books about her residency. "Before I knew it, I'd become part of a community of writers who to this day continue to inspire and support me."
"My visit let me recommit to trying to carve out pieces of time in my life for writing. I came home thinking, 'How do I do that at home?' It's so easy for the writing time to slip away. But I came home with a project that I now think is possible. That was the big deal," 2016 CBC Nonfiction Prize winner Leslie A. Davidson told CBC Books after completing her residency.
Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their story published on CBC Books. And all the longlisted writers will be featured on CBC Books.
Who is judging the prize?
A team of readers from across Canada will read the entries and determine the longlist. The shortlist and winner will be decided by a jury comprised of three prominent Canadian writers.
The judging process is blind, so your name will not be known by the readers or jurors until the final decisions have been made.
We have different readers and jurors every year. The 2025 readers and jurors will be announced during the submission period, between Sept. 1 and Nov. 1. The results (longlist, shortlist and winner) will be revealed in spring 2025.
"For the last few years submitting a story to the CBC competition has become an annual ritual," 2023 CBC Short Story Prize winner Will Richter told CBC Books.
Recent past CBC Short Story Prize jurors include Suzette Mayr, Kevin Chong and Ashley Audrain; Kim Fu, Norma Dunning and Steven Price; Omar El Akkad, Casey Plett and David Bergen; and Lee Maracle, Souvankham Thammavongsa and Craig Davidson.
LISTEN | Former juror Kevin Chong has advice for those submitting:
Who has won before?
The winner of the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize will join some esteemed company!
Last year's winner was Vancouver writer Kate Gunn for her story Old Bones. Gunn's winning story was selected from over 1,900 entries.
"Winning the CBC Short Story Prize is a huge honour. For me, writing is often about trying to communicate feelings and experiences that are hard to capture in words. Although writing itself is a solitary activity, I believe that it is also fundamentally about connection. I'm incredibly grateful that this story resonated with other people. I'm also very grateful to the jury for giving me an opportunity to take this process to a deeper level," Gunn told CBC Books.
The CBC Literary Prizes have been recognizing Canadian writers since 1979.
Other past CBC Literary Prize winners include David Bergen, Michael Ondaatje, Carol Shields and Michael Winter.
LISTEN | 2023 Short Story Prize winner Will Richter's interview on As It Happens:
What if I need help?
"Having a clear goal will help you become a better writer. Working under constraints like deadlines and word limits can often jump start your motivation to write and stir up creative energy," 2021 winner Corinna Chong told CBC Books.
Make sure to subscribe to the CBC Short Story Prize newsletter for writing tips and support along the way. We will send you writing tips, tricks and prompts every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday while the CBC Short Story Prize is open.
You should also consider joining our Canada Writes Facebook group! It's a place where writers across Canada can connect with each other, support each other and even offer each other feedback.
Anything else I need to know?
The 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January 2025 and the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize will open in April.
If you're looking to submit to the French short story prize, you can enter here.
If you are a writing group, library, school or bookstore who wants to let your community know about the CBC Literary Prizes, you can download a poster here.
Have questions? Check out our frequently asked questions or email us at canadawrites@cbc.ca.