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A Good Visit by Susan Paddon

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

The Margaree, N.S. writer is on the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist

Image | Susan Paddon

Caption: Susan Paddon is a fiction and poetry writer living in Margaree, N.S. (Matthew Parsons)

Susan Paddon has made the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for A Good Visit.
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 Susan Paddon

Susan Paddon is a fiction and poetry writer. Her first book, Two Tragedies in 429 Breaths won the J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award and was a finalist for both the ReLit Award and the Raymond Souster Award. Her work has appeared in publications such as Best Poetry in Canada, Geist Magazine, Arc Poetry Magazine, Contemporary Verse 2, Desperately Seeking Susans and The Antigonish Review. She lives in Margaree, N.S.
Paddon was longlisted for the 2023 CBC Poetry Prize for The Horse that Dies. The Horse that Lives.

Entry in five-ish words

"Time. Observation. Communication. Misunderstanding. Friendship."

The story's source of inspiration

"In this story we meet two friends who have just 24 hours to catch up on the last three years. Their lives have taken very different turns. But the inspiration for this story was really the story within the story about Dinga — a woman on a train. I wanted to find a way to tell that — an uncomfortable snapshot into another life that is witnessed — only in part — but ultimately has to be left behind. I think, in a way, that's what the two friends do too. In their story, however, they reduce each other to a handful of memories or moments, but they care about each other a lot more than that."

First lines

I met Esther at the Gare du Nord on a Saturday morning in the spring of 2004. Her train, which had arrived 10 minutes earlier, had been right on time. I, on the other hand, had to hurry to get there, still wearing high heels and a tight-fitting outfit from the night before. I also wore my regret for having not slept at home across my face and the panic of being late swelled in my empty stomach. Men, standing outside of their taxis, whistled as I clumsily hurried towards the station.

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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