A Very Full Life by Rebecca Cuneo Keenan
CBC Books | Posted: April 11, 2024 1:30 PM | Last Updated: April 11
The Toronto writer is on the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist
Rebecca Cuneo Keenan has made the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for A Very Full Life.
The winner of the 2024 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 Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. The four remaining 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 18 and the winner will be announced on April 25.
If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, 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 Rebecca Cuneo Keenan
Rebecca Cuneo Keenan is a working writer who has published widely as a freelance journalist, essayist and copywriter. She also wrote the popular blog Playground Confidential for nearly 10 years. Rebecca lives in Toronto with her husband and three children. She has recently begun to carve out some time to return to fiction writing, her first true love.
Entry in five-ish words
"Bundle buggy full of pickles."
The story's source of inspiration
"I like to go out at night to work on creative writing in coffee shops. One night, I saw a very small woman pulling a very heavy-looking bundle buggy up an escalator at the subway station and I knew there was something there."
First lines
Lucille was pulling the bundle buggy up behind her on the escalator, gripping the handle with both hands and yanking hard until the wheels of the shopping cart rounded the next step. She was only five feet tall and had never weighed much of anything to begin with. But lately she felt smaller than ever.
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:
- The White Stetson Hat by Dennis Allen (Edmonton)
- Leave A Funny Message at the Beep by Vincent Anioke (Waterloo, Ont.)
- How Far Should You Go? by Anne Baldo (Windsor, Ont.)
- Kind Lady Lives Here by Jennifer Booth (Cambridge, Ont.)
- A Very Full Life by Rebecca Cuneo Keenan (Toronto)
- Four-Boot Fred by Izzy Ferguson (Dundas, Ont.)
- The Sea Comes Pouring In by Phil Glennie (London, Ont.)
- We Asked Too Much From God by Marian Godfrey (Victoria)
- Old Bones by Kate Gunn (Vancouver)
- dark by Mirabelle Chiderah Harris-Eze (Calgary)
- Lamentations by Miriam Ho Nga Wai (Toronto)
- Tremor of the Tongue by Nnamdi Ibeanusi (Kitchener, Ont.)
- How to Make a Friend by Zilla Jones (Winnipeg)
- Shopping by Delailah M. K. Grondin (Windsor, Ont.)
- Tiny Gifts by Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li (Toronto)
- Best by Annick MacAskill (Halifax)
- Transcendence by Britt MacKenzie-Dale (Kelowna, B.C.)
- Outpour by Lauren McNeil (Revelstoke, B.C.)
- The Ball Game by Adam McPhee (Fort McMurray, Alta.)
- Fish Sauce by Alexandra Musten (Ottawa)
- Tamago by Lindsay Naito (North Vancouver, B.C.)
- the worst has already happened by KM Naud (Vancouver)
- A Good Visit by Susan Paddon (Margaree, N.S.)
- Fermentation by June Pyo Park (Montreal)
- The Green Guest House by Mina Sharif (Toronto)
- How to Give Your Grief to the Moon by Traci Skuce (Courtenay, B.C.)
- Disprin by Kailash Srinivasan (North Vancouver, B.C.)
- The Baby by Kailash Srinivasan (North Vancouver, B.C.)
- Smack Dab by D.D.R.Staines (Cambridge, Ont.)
- Permission to Pause by Carley Thorne (Toronto)