Smack Dab by D.D.R.Staines
CBC Books | Posted: April 11, 2024 1:30 PM | Last Updated: April 11
The Cambridge, Ont. writer is on the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist
D.D.R.Staines has made the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Smack Dab.
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 D.D.R.Staines
D.D.R.Staines lives in Cambridge, Ont. mostly retired now from a career in corporate sales and marketing. He is working on final drafts and finishing touches of a collection of his short fiction, for which he hopes to find a publisher later this year.
Entry in five-ish words
"The story of accidental heroism."
The story's source of inspiration
"I wrote almost all of the story in one sitting, though when I first sat down to write it, my only inspiration was the idea of the middle child from a large and unwell family being named Smack Dab. In the story, Lionel is unaware that he has been raised in an environment of sexual predation and the repression of females (among other issues). Some hope for him comes at the end of the story, once he realizes 'the house felt different' with his father gone. Still, the reader is left wondering if or how this 12-year-old boy will rid himself of the unhealthy behaviors he was brought up with."
First lines
Someone sent a lawyer to see me and Mama. He was a big fellow, chubby and soft, with a real fancy suit of clothes and shoes that were shined up more than anything shiny I ever saw before. His hands, except they were huge, were like a lady's hands, with clean, white fingernails and soft, pink skin. He smelled pretty good, I'll tell you that.
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)