Two-time CBC Literary Prize winner Chanel M. Sutherland talks about how her life inspired her winning stories
Eva Zhu | | Posted: April 28, 2022 12:01 PM | Last Updated: February 28
The Montreal writer is the winner of the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize and the 2021 Nonfiction Prize
Chanel M. Sutherland won the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize for Beneath the Softness of Snow. She received $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and attended a two-week writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
Sutherland's winning story was published on CBC Books. You can read Beneath the Softness of Snow here.
With this win, Sutherland is a two-time CBC Literary Prize winner — she also won the CBC Nonfiction Prize in 2021 for her story Umbrella.
The 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize is open for submissions until March 1, 2024 at 4:59 p.m. ET.
You can submit original, unpublished nonfiction that is up to 2,000 words in length. Nonfiction includes memoir, biography, humour writing, essay (including personal essay), travel writing and feature articles.
The Montreal-based marketing director and author is working on a collection of interconnected short stories that explore the complex relationships and experiences of life in a small Caribbean village.
Originally from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sutherland wrote Beneath the Softness of Snow because she wanted to write a story that captured the first moments of a young mother living in a foreign country — one she felt that was hostile toward her.
Sutherland spoke to CBC Books about the inspiration for Beneath the Softness of Snow — and how her writing career has changed since winning the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize.
When did the first kernel of inspiration for this story appear?
It was right after Umbrella went out and I received a bunch of messages from people about it. My mom and I then started talking about Umbrella and we reflected on that period in our life. One night I went to sleep and I woke up with the first line of Beneath the Softness of Snow in my head. I had this image of my mom in a room that was so foreign to her. Although it's something that is familiar in Canada, it's completely different from the Caribbean.
Even though Beneath the Softness of Snow is fiction, how much of it is based on your own experiences, as an immigrant to Canada?
I think we can call it something like a meta-fiction, where it's a fictionalized retelling of true events. The two sisters in the story are based on my mom and her sister, because my aunt came here first and then my mom followed her soon after and they lived together. She's the one that got my mom the job being a nanny. So that aspect of the story is true. The beginning of the story where my mom is imagining her two daughters sleeping on the mattress back home, that's also true because I do remember waking up the morning that my mom left. I was a toddler and I have this vivid memory of waking up and seeing her sneak out and leave. The images in the story are true but the story is fiction.
I have this vivid memory of waking up and seeing her sneak out and leave.
Because there are a lot of immigrants with the same experience as your mother living in Canada, what kind of impact would you want your story to have?
More than anything else, awareness; because I have friends or acquaintances who are immigrant women and men working here. People I've met at my workplace or people I've met in the community who are here trying to pave a way for themselves or their families back home. I see the way they're treated — people are not very obvious about their disdain or their dismissal of immigrants, especially immigrants who are working in the service industry or might be a janitor or a nanny or whatever.
But I see it and it makes me so uncomfortable — these are human beings and sometimes we're so dismissive and we don't see them. I hope my story will at least impact just one person so that they can stop and maybe have a conversation with [an immigrant] beyond, "Here, clean this."
Immigrant kids can often have strained relationships with their parents. What has been your experience?
With this story, my mom and I started having more open conversations. I think Umbrella broke this barrier that was between us where we never spoke about anything. We kept our feelings to ourselves and we just went on. My mom and I always had a good relationship. It took some time to get there, but once we got there, she's like my best friend. But even then, we weren't really discussing our past. We avoided the topic.
With this story, my mom and I started having more open conversations. I think Umbrella broke this barrier that was between us where we never spoke about anything.
Now, I find that we're closer as a result and we're more comfortable speaking to each other. My mom and I will go for a two hour walk and we'll talk about everything. And she's even told me recently, which is surprising to me, she said, "If you need to write stories about me that put me in a negative light, as long as you'll be honest, I have no problem with that. Because I think the more honest we are, the more people you help with your stories."
My mom has also helped me research things because I was so young when I moved here that some of the memories that I have are not necessarily correct or I might be misremembering something. Even my sisters and my aunts — we've all just become close as a result of this and they have been very supportive.
What was your mom's reaction to Beneath the Softness of Snow?
She sent me a text message right after she read it, and she said, "I'm crying right now. I'll message you when I'm not emotional." I haven't spoken to her since that message. But I think she's moved by it as she will obviously recognize herself in it. I know there will be conversations when she's digested it and had a moment to deal with whatever emotions she's feeling.
What's one thing that people will be surprised to learn about how you wrote this story?
I wrote it in the second person point of view because that's how it came to me. Then I gave it to my small writing group of friends for feedback and I was told to write it in first-person. So I went back and wrote it in first-person and spent two days just hating it so much that I got rid of the story. I ripped it up and deleted it from my computer because it caused me so much stress. Luckily I had emailed it to my friend. I was able to get it back after I had calmed down.
What made you want to submit Beneath the Softness of Snow to the CBC Short Story Prize?
Each year I have a list of prizes and to keep myself disciplined I have to make sure that I hit those targets by entering them. The CBC Literary Prizes is one that I've been following. I wanted to make sure I could stay consistent.
Since you won the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize last year, how has your writing career changed? Have more opportunities come up for you?
Winning the CBC Nonfiction Prize is a building block I didn't have before. Since winning, I've had established writers in Canada reach out — I have these connections that I would not have otherwise. People talk about Umbrella and how it's affected them and how much they've enjoyed it. I got a mentorship by entering Umbrella as the piece when they were choosing writers for a mentorship with the Quebec's Writers Federation. That's been cool. I've had three months working with this person and developing as a writer. I learned my strengths and weaknesses as a result. I'm building confidence because I'm not a very confident writer. I still have imposter syndrome.
Winning the CBC Nonfiction Prize is a building block I didn't have before. I've had established writers in Canada reach out — I have these connections that I would not have otherwise.
When I was announced as the CBC Nonfiction Prize winner, I had two agents and two publishing houses reach out asking me to send whatever collection I'm working on directly to them once it was done.
Now that you've also won the CBC Short Story Prize, what do you hope will happen?
I'm hoping for more networking. I find the more I network, the more I learn about writing as a craft, Canadian literature, what I want to be as a writer and what I want to contribute to Canadian literature. I had none of that before entering and winning the Nonfiction Prize.
Also, maybe a book deal. I'm working on a collection of short stories. That's part of the mentorship with the Quebec Writers' Federation. I'm going to the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in May for my residency. That's the project I'm going to be focusing on and will hopefully have something that I can start sending out early next year.
Why do you think aspiring writers should enter competitions like the CBC Literary Prizes?
I think first and foremost, entering gets more diverse voices out into the world. I think especially when it comes to our experiences — the more stories that I write and the more I share my stories with readers and enter these prizes and get to read other people's stories, the more diversity I see in CanLit. There's so much that connects us and it's very healing for me to be able to look at someone else's story and say, "Oh, this person is from a different country, but this could easily be a story that happened to me or somebody in my family."
You never know what's going to happen. I just took a chance. I've learned that by opening myself up and then getting my stories in front of readers, that I'm benefiting more. If you want to be a serious writer, you need to get yourself out there.
Chanel M. Sutherland's comments have been edited for length and clarity.