Sophia Wen has made the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Coconut Nui Mi.

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.

Sophia Wen is a 1.5th generation, Chinese Canadian immigrant. She is currently a resident physician in internal medicine in Toronto. In her free time, she is working on her certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto.

"Cultural rift in a dessert."

"Growing up as a Chinese Canadian immigrant, I started realizing at a young age that cultural identity is complicated. There were parts of my culture and family life that I hid at school to fit in better, and vice versa. Food is often a point of introduction to a culture, and how different 'ethnic' foods are received offers insight into how an entire culture is perceived. This story was inspired by those pivotal childhood experiences in learning about identity, internalized shame and how it feels to be caught in between cultures."

Anna sat on the old barstool, propping her elbows on the counter and swinging her legs back and forth as her mother cut rice flour dough into flat squares. Mama had cracked open the rusty window over the sink. Outside, it was 15 below and the midst of Toronto winter, but in here, the kitchen was sweltering, steam swirling to the ceiling whenever they opened the oven door.

Sweat beaded on Anna's forehead, but she stayed put, inhaling deeply. It smelled like a special occasion — her birthday, or Chinese New Year or one of those rare occasions when her parents held parties and all their friends would cram into the living room, raucous with gossip and laughter, while the kids packed into Anna's room for games, exalted at being allowed to stay up past midnight.

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.