Angélique Lalonde, Kai Conradi and Samantha Jade Macpherson are on the shortlist 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 toward writers in the early stages of their careers.

The finalists were selected by the jury, which was comprised of Carleigh Baker, Catherine Hernandez and Joshua Whitehead.

Lalonde is a finalist for Pooka, published by PRISM International. The B.C.-based writer tells the story of a carpet collector who fails at achieving online fame in her shortlisted piece.

"Angélique Lalonde's Pooka is a contemporary classic. Deftly weaving explorations of identity, isolation and displacement with colourful and unexpected imagery, Lalonde tells a powerful story of life on the precipice," said the jury in a press release.

"Told in clean, efficient prose, Pooka's story is both universal and deeply personal, with surprising twists and moments of dark humour that make it truly unforgettable."

Conradi, an undergraduate student at the University of Victoria, is shortlisted for his first published story Every True Artist, featured in The Malahat Review. Every True Artist follows an aspiring artist to a residency at a roadside motel in the desert.

"With humour as dry as the desert landscape it is set in, Every True Artist explores the absurdity of artistic creation. Kai Conradi expertly paints this side-splitting tale of an amateur about to embark on the (mis)adventure of a lifetime," the jury said.

Macpherson, originally from Okanagan Valley, B.C., has made the shortlist for The Fish and the Dragons, published in The Fiddlehead. The story is about a Chinese fisherman who makes the catch of a lifetime.

"Samantha Jade Macpherson's The Fish and the Dragons is an idyllic traversal of emigration, diaspora and the fraught lineage of a family living under conditions of immense poverty both in China and Canada. What Macpherson achieves here is a story that is brimming with majesty in such a way that the ancestral braids with the contemporary," the jury said.

"The Fish and the Dragons truly exemplifies a writer coming into her own voice."

The winner will be announced on Nov. 5, 2019 at the Writers' Trust of Canada's annual awards ceremony.

The 2018 winner was Shashi Bhat for her short story Mute.

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