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Tiny Gifts by Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li

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

Image | Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li

Caption: Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li is a queer and neurodivergent Chinese-Canadian writer, musician, and interdisciplinary artist who travels between Toronto and Vancouver. (Serikbolsyn)

Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li has made the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Tiny Gifts.
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 Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li

Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li is a queer and neurodivergent Chinese-Canadian writer, musician and interdisciplinary artist. Her writing is published in The New Quarterly, The Fiddlehead and The Massachusetts Review, among others. She has been shortlisted for The Peter Hinchcliffe Short Fiction Award and The Kenyon Review Short Nonfiction Contest. She is also the author of Someday I Promise, I'll Love You (845 Press), as well as the writer/director of three short films that have premiered internationally in festivals. She is graduating with an MFA at the University of British Columbia and is looking for a home for her debut novel.

Entry in five-ish words

"Intergenerational magic in matrilineal lineage."

The story's source of inspiration

"Tiny Gifts has almost a seven-year history — I initially wrote it as an undergraduate to apply for a creative writing workshop at the University of Toronto; however, since then, the story has undergone multiple revisions. The narrative is a soft, dreamy realist story with Chinese myth elements which I wrote shortly after my grandmother's struggle with Alzheimer's and death. While she initially took care of me, she later returned to China as we didn't have many friends after we first immigrated and we didn't live within walking distance from Chinese communities (that we knew of at the time). I struggled with the 'what ifs '— what if she stayed behind with me — what would we have done together?"

First lines

When I was young, the redbirds used to leave me tiny gifts on the back porch. They'd come spiralling down, their feathers scooping the sky before they fell at the ledge of my window. The birds would tilt their heads, and I'd want to feed them seeds from a large bag my grandmother bought at the supermarket, but every time I stood up, they'd fly away. Still, she told me not to worry. They don't know words, she murmured. But they'll always return.

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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