Krista Jane May has made the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Tiny Sores.

The winner of the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have their work published on CBC Books and have the opportunity to 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.

The shortlist will be announced on April 22 and the winner will be announced on April 29.

Manitoba born and raised, Krista Jane May currently lives on Vancouver Island, having spent numerous years on each Canadian coast. Her work appears in the Antigonish Review, having placed second in the 2018 Sheldon Currie Fiction Prize competition, and in CommuterLit. She was awarded second place in the 2019 Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition and was shortlisted for the 2020 Pulp Literature Raven Short Story Contest and The Fiddlehead's 2020 Fiction Contest. She is currently working toward a collection of short stories.

"Gift from a tiny traveller."

"A spontaneous ferry trip to a small B.C. Gulf Island put me in close proximity with a young woman and a serious little girl clutching a bag of obviously well-loved books. Rather than lose themselves in an electronic world which is sadly the modern norm, the pair engaged with those around them in an extraordinary way and having been one of the fortunate recipients of their inclusivity, I came away with a lightened soul and an inability to forget them."

Johanna thought she was over it; a long time has passed since she's cried those tears. Then one late spring afternoon she spots them in the foot-passenger line-up for a small island ferry. The little girl — honey-blond with wind-tangled ringlets, the ends of which fade to the near transparent baby wisps of never-yet-cut hair — appears charmingly self-dressed in beach-sand-encrusted pink polka-dot leggings under a yellow and green madras sundress. The slightly buxom woman is perhaps 35; a breezy vibrant-hued skirt gently flutters about her ankles, medium-brown no-fuss braids fall over a plain cotton tee.

They're chatting with a white-haired couple hand-manoeuvring bicycles in the short queue, the elderly man enthusiastically showing the little girl what appears to be a brand new lidded carrying basket for his bike. She laughs delightedly at all the things she could put in there while the two women converse companionably. Suddenly — as if summoned — the child and the woman she must call "Mom" look Johanna's way and smile as one; they don't recognise her, of course, but they acknowledge her with such penetrating warmth, there can be no mistake.

The winner of the 2021 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 the 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.

The 2021 CBC Poetry Prize is open for submissions until May 31, 2021. The 2022 CBC Short Story Prize will open in September and the 2022 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January 2022.