Candace Allan has made the 2020 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Cavalier Boy.

The shortlist will be announced on April 15. The winner will be announced on April 22.

Candace Allan has been published in literary mags, broadcast on Alberta Anthology and twice won the Alberta Views Magazine competition. She's published a book, Text Me, Love Mom, which began as a four part series for CBC's Richardson's Roundup. Given that Candace raised four ambitious, opinionated and unusually tight-knit creators: a photographer, a comedian, a film producer and a visual artist, her well of literary inspiration never runs dry.

Mom riveted by daughter's first romance.

I was inspired to write Cavalier Boy by my eccentrically artistic (though still introverted) daughter's hesitant romance with a boy who I was aware was crushing on her — long before she was conscious of it.

She observes the two teenagers through the wide kitchen window as they lean toward each other, grinning. A neighbour watches with her. "Is that your daughter's boyfriend?"

"No. A friend. She calls him a friend."

"Looks like a boyfriend to me. What are they doing?"

"Eating the raspberries along the fence. I don't think they're ripe yet. I looked earlier. They're pink, not red."

"Well, if they're not together," the neighbour says, "they ought to be. Look at them flirting. Look at their faces."

The women turn away from the window and sigh audibly and then laugh at each other.

The winner of the 2020 CBC Short Story Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have their work published on CBC Books and attend a two-week 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 work published on CBC Books.