Tremor of the Tongue by Nnamdi Ibeanusi
CBC Books | Posted: April 11, 2024 1:30 PM | Last Updated: April 11
The Kitchener, Ont. writer is on the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist
Nnamdi Ibeanusi has made the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Tremor of the Tongue.
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 Nnamdi Ibeanusi
Nnamdi Ibeanusi is a storyteller and software engineer. He grew up in Nigeria but now lives in Kitchener, Ont. He was shortlisted for the 2015 Awele Creative Trust Short Story Prize.
Entry in five-ish words
"What if snakes could talk?"
The story's source of inspiration
"Two unrelated events inspired this story. I was visiting home in Port Harcourt and, after an evening of torrential rainfall, I discovered a small snake in my room just before I went to bed. I asked the snake how it got into the house, but it did not understand my words.
"A few months later, my sister entered labour and I stayed up late into the night waiting for confirmation of the successful delivery. I mused about writing a letter, to my newly born nephew, describing the night he was born from my POV (to be read when he's older)."
First lines
We killed the first snake on a night when the clouds hung low and heavy after a deluge, and the swollen silver moon washed the earth in a forlorn pall. I was in bed loitering in the place one finds oneself when the body has not yet fallen asleep, but physical and mental faculties have taken on increasingly passive roles.
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)