How Far Should You Go? by Anne Baldo

The Windsor, Ont. writer is on the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist

Image | Anne Baldo

Caption: Anne Baldo is a writer living in Windsor, Ont. (Submitted by Anne Baldo)

Anne Baldo has made the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for How Far Should You Go?.
The winner of the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts(external link), have their work published on CBC Books(external link) and attend a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity(external link). The Four remaining finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts(external link) and have their work published on CBC Books(external link).
The shortlist will be announced on April 18 and the winner will be announced on April 25.
If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes(external link), the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize is open for submissions until June 1. The 2025 CBC Short Story Prize will open in September and the 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January.

About Anne Baldo

Anne Baldo lives in Windsor/Wawiiatanong, Ont. Her short fiction has previously appeared in Riddle Fence, Carousel, The West Trade Review and the short story collection Morse Code For Romantics. Baldo was previously longlisted for the 2019 CBC Nonfiction Prize for Expecting.

Entry in five-ish words

"The distances we travel continuously."

The story's source of inspiration

"I was reading a series of articles on Vox by Constance Grady about the 'bubblegum misogyny' that was so pervasive in pop culture at the turn of the century, trying to re-examine the ways I'd internalized the sexism of that time."

First lines

Ricky drives two hours to beg Malena to stay with him. She doesn't. Malena is the only girl, a real girl like us, not a celebrity like Britney Spears, who actually looks fashionable in trucker hats, like Paris Hilton in her black Material Junky hat, Juicy Couture tracksuit, wrap-around sunglasses, gold hearts on the sides.

Image | CBC Short Story Prize

Caption: The 2024 CBC Short Story Prize shortlist will be announced on April 18 and the winner will be announced on April 25. (Ben Shannon/CBC)

Check out the rest of the longlist

The longlist was selected from more than 1,900 submissions. A team of 12 writers and editors from across Canada compiled the list.
The jury selects the shortlist and the eventual winner from the readers' longlisted selections. This year's jury is comprised of Suzette Mayr, Kevin Chong and Ashley Audrain.
The complete longlist is: