Madeline Medensky has made the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Ash.

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.

Madeline Medensky is a student at the University of Waterloo majoring in English language and literature. She writes fiction, poetry and nonfiction and has published various pieces in magazines such as Creative Writing Ink and the The Antarctic Institute of Canada. She also has a self-published volume of poetry available, called Little Girl World. Growing up as a triplet and from a relatively large family in and of itself, her work explores what it means to be an individual, sharing in a world full of connection and separation, rivalry and response, and fear and hope.

"Learning about womanhood through others."

"The inspiration behind this story had to do a lot with my own thoughts about womanhood and sexuality growing up. I was raised Catholic and that doctrine certainly had a lot to do with the more conservative perception I had about sex, and the expression of sex, initially. It was confusing for me to think about discretion and promiscuity, and the careful edge between both extremes."

Her house seemed to be overflowing with children. Many times, I would see the front lawn scattered with the litter of them, tumbling and frolicking all over one another. The boys were rowdy and sinister in their play. They pulled the girls' hair and tied them to trees with twine. The older girls watched over the younger ones on the concrete stairs that led up to the front door but really they only soaked in the juice of the sun. Their hair turned very blonde, like sunlight fluff.

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.