The Ball Game by Adam McPhee
CBC Books | Posted: April 11, 2024 1:30 PM | Last Updated: April 11
The Fort McMurray, Alta. writer is on the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist
Adam McPhee has made the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for The Ball Game.
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 Adam McPhee
Adam McPhee finds purpose and fulfilment in writing. His short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in publications such as Old Moon Quarterly, Wyngraf, Hellarkey, Ahoy Comics and Crab Tales Magazine. He is a submissions reader for Fusion Fragment. His literary interests include medievalism, the art of Brueghel the Elder and the epic Renaissance poetry of Ariosto. He grew up in Glace Bay, N.S. and currently lives in Alberta.
Entry in five-ish words
"Village game reveals dark truths."
The story's source of inspiration
"I believe there is a hidden violence that lurks beneath everything, though it can be very hard to notice. Setting my story in a world so different from ours allowed me to draw out this idea and interrogate it."
First lines
Ball! Ball! Ball! The shouting came from the other end of the field at about midday when we were taking a break from the plowing. Sure enough five or six fellows from the next village over were working their way towards us, driving a leather ball across the field by means of their kicks. Grampa wanted me to take our gear home, but I pretended not to hear him. The ox wasn't going to wander off and no one was going to steal our rusty spades.
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)