Emma Hudson has made the 2018 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for ricky.

Emma Hudson is a first-year medical student at McMaster University. She lives in the Niagara region with her family, where she grew up 10 steps away from the local library.

The fleeting discomforts of childhood.

"This story was a combination of my past work with vulnerable populations and my frustrations with the shortcomings of the classical coming-of-age narrative. I will forever be amazed by the resiliency some carry through their childhood."

When I was a little girl and learned that the Earth was round and spinning on an axis I thought it was nothing short of miraculous. My mother always hated the word miracle, said hearing it made her sick. She made me swear not to say it anymore, one stunningly hot evening while she hung laundry over the back fence. I was in charge of making sure the laundry wasn't snatched by Ern, who was always lurking shirtless in his yard next door. There was an unsettling sagging of skin where his ribs swung around his torso in a hug, lined up like soldiers. Mama once asked Ern if he would split the cost of fixing the hole that was glaring through the fence like an eye. I don't remember what he said, but I remember the hole staying where it was, clear as a promise.

The winner of the 2018 CBC Short Story Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, will have their story published on CBC Books and will have the opportunity to attend a 10-day writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their story published on CBC Books.