Transcendence by Britt MacKenzie-Dale
CBC Books | Posted: April 11, 2024 1:30 PM | Last Updated: April 11
The Kelowna, B.C writer is on the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist
Britt MacKenzie-Dale has made the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Transcendence.
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 Britt MacKenzie-Dale
Britt MacKenzie-Dale is a PhD candidate at the University of New Brunswick, where she is writing a creative dissertation on the current state of animal agriculture in the West. She is the winner of the Okanagan Short Story Contest and the UNB Essay Prize. Since 2018, she has been the fiction editor for Qwerty magazine. Her fiction has been published with Prairie Fire and subTerrain, and her academic writing and reviews have been published with Palgrave Macmillan and The Adroit Journal.
Entry in five-ish words
"Father's story inspires student's heist."
The story's source of inspiration
"My PhD research explores human and animal relationships within animal agriculture and the emotional tensions of that kind of work. The first image that came to me was the father character's enigmatic story, where he sees his 4H goat. And from here I began thinking about, how do you make meaning when you're struggling? What are the possibilities of pushing back against the limitations of your life?"
First lines
Dad doesn't know about the heist when he comes up to visit. Has no clue I've been planning it all winter and that next week's go time.
We walk through campus, me and Dad. It's March and our faces are blotchy from pollen and pine. First, we talk about school and Dad says—
"What d'you study there?" He points a flaky finger at a brick building.
"Sociology."
"There?"
"Cultural studies."
"Cultural studies," he says, drawing out the syllables. "That's my girl. Studying the world."
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)