Polly Phokeev has made the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Death of a Sparrow.

The winner of the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have their work published on CBC Books and win a two-week writing residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point. 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 12 and the winner will be announced on April 18.

If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2023 CBC Poetry Prize is open for submissions until May 31.

Polly Phokeev is a Toronto-based writer, working in several mediums: theatre, prose, screen. Her plays include the critically-acclaimed How We Are, The Mess and Seams. Recipient of the 2019 Jon Kaplan Legacy Fund Young Canadian Playwright Award and second place in the 2021 Toronto Star Short Story Contest, she holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. Polly is currently writing her debut novel, a short story collection, a couple of plays and a TV series. Her work often explores queerness, friendship, family and the stretch for mutual understanding.

"Heartbreak and a no-nonsense Babushka."

"This story was inspired by the end of a cherished relationship, and by memories of my late grandma. My grandma, who lived with us growing up, passed away before I came out. Though she was deeply entwined in my upbringing, there were fundamental things she never came to know about me — and, certainly, vice versa. What were the many secret griefs my grandma held to herself? As I reached to minimize my own heartbreak, measuring myself against her suffering, I also came to wonder — what use is it to make ourselves small? What are the unexpected ways in which, by opening a little, we might begin to understand each other?"

It's not a sign. It is a sparrow, maybe. Sasha doesn't know anything about birds. She does know that birds are not supposed to lay on the conservation area trail and contort themselves all over, wings twisting over their heads, beaks scraping at gray pebbles, making anguished chirps.

You still there? says Claire, through the grainy fizz of knock-off airpods. Sasha freezes.

The winner of the 2023 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 Artscape Gibraltar Point. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.

The 2023 CBC Poetry Prize is currently open until May 31, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The 2024 CBC Short Story Prize will open in September and the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January 2024.