Colleen René has made the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Growing Pains.

The winner of the 2022 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 21 and the winner will be announced on April 28.

If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize is open for submissions until May 31.

Colleen René is a writer from Dartmouth, N.S. She holds a BA in creative writing from Concordia University. Her work has appeared in journals across Canada and her short story All That's Left won Dalhousie University's James DeMille Short Story Prize in 2016. René currently lives in Toronto where she's working on her first novel Nothing in Truth Can Harm Us.

"While mom's away, dad tries."

"There's a George Harrison song called Behind That Locked Door and I listened to it a lot while writing this story. I was interested in exploring what happens when a man, who is set in his ways and uses elusiveness to protect himself, is challenged to deal with a reality he's been ignoring. His fear and sadness turn into anger because the other emotions are too big to hold. It's as if he's going through puberty alongside his kid. I also just enjoy writing from the perspective of children because they observe everything. They might not completely understand what's going on, but they sense when things are off."

Mom has been in the hospital ever since I found her on the floor. Dad works on the car all afternoon, but I know it doesn't need fixing. He grunts, head under the hood. I ask him if he knows where the fruit gummies are.

"Go to mom," he says.

It's his instinct. He throws down his wrench as if the words pinch a nerve.

The winner of the 2022 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.

The 2022 CBC Poetry Prize is currently open for submissions until May 31, 2022. The 2023 CBC Short Story Prize will open in September and the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January 2023.