How to Give Your Grief to the Moon by Traci Skuce
CBC Books | Posted: April 11, 2024 1:30 PM | Last Updated: April 11
The Courtenay, B.C. writer is on the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist
Traci Skuce has made the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for How to Give Your Grief to the Moon.
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 Traci Skuce
Traci Skuce lives, writes and swims on the traditional and unceded territories of the K'omoks First Nation. Her work has appeared in several literary journals throughout North America. In April 2020, her short story collection, Hunger Moon, was released by NeWest Press and was a finalist for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize.
Skuce was previously shortlisted for the 2015 CBC Nonfiction Prize and longlisted for the 2019 CBC Short Story Prize.
Entry in five-ish words
"Moon witnesses another human heartbreak."
The story's source of inspiration
"Unfortunately, the dissolution of my own marriage. Fortunately, my appreciation for witchy spells and turning to the natural world for support."
First lines
Choose a full moon. Plan on late September. When the leaves colour on the trees and the salmon spawn up the river. When the sandhill cranes point their instinctive beaks south and the last vestiges of forest fire smoke disappear.
Hours before moonrise, prepare.
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.)