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dark by Mirabelle Chiderah Harris-Eze

CBC Books | Posted: April 11, 2024 1:30 PM | Last Updated: April 11

The Calgary writer is on the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist

Image | Mirabelle Chiderah Harris-Eze

Caption: Mirabelle Chiderah Harris-Eze is a Canadian-Nigerian-American writer from Calgary currently living in Ottawa. (Yujin Aspen Kim)

Mirabelle Chiderah Harris-Eze has made the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for dark.
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 Mirabelle Chiderah Harris-Eze

Mirabelle Chiderah Harris-Eze is a Canadian-Nigerian-American who writes about Chinooks, failure and Igbo masquerades. She grew up in Calgary and is currently based in Ottawa. Mirabelle's work has been longlisted for the international Commonwealth Short Story Prize thrice. Her story dark won the 2021 Writers' Union of Canada's Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers and was longlisted for the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize. Her story Brake (Little Girl, Little Mother) was longlisted for the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize. Mirabelle is currently working on her debut novel and believes the jubilant, harrowing and vast histories of the African diaspora are worth writing about.

Entry in five-ish words

"(In)visible teen internalizes social hierarchies."

The story's source of inspiration

"A Nigerian-Canadian community leader posted about an encounter she had in an African market in Calgary. She'd met a man buying bleaching soap for his six-year-old daughter on the advice of his wife. Apparently, this child was too dark. I was enraged — at this man and his wife — and when I am enraged, I write."

First lines

Your thighs are touching.
It's baseball, it's gym, and Mr. Anders is on the field, yelling about second base. You are both sitting on the wooden bench behind the backstop. Your thighs are touching through identical, nylon-blue gym shorts and, midway down, through skin.
"I'm so dark," Taku says.
You look up, look at him. "What?"

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:

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