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Slug Lord by Petra Chambers

CBC Books | Posted: April 3, 2025 1:30 PM | Last Updated: April 3

The Hornby Island, B.C., writer is on the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize longlist

Image | Petra Chambers

Caption: Petra Chambers is a writer from Hornby Island, B.C. (Arleta Turnbull)

Petra Chambers has made the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Slug Lord.
The winner of the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts(external link), a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity(external link) and their work will be published on CBC Books(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 10 and the winner will be announced on April 17.
If you're interested in other CBC Literary Prizes(external link), the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize is currently accepting submissions. You can submit an original, unpublished poem or collection of poems from April 1-June 1.
The 2026 CBC Short Story Prize will open in September and the 2026 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January.

About Petra Chambers

Petra Chambers lives in the traditional territory of the PE'ntlatc and K'ómoks Nation. She writes creative nonfiction, poetry, fiction and hybrid forms. Her work has been published by PRISM International, The Fiddlehead, Prairie Fire, Exile Editions, Contemporary Verse 2, Queens Quarterly and the Literary Review of Canada, among others. Her first poem was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. An emerging writer who lives with a mental illness that is sometimes disabling and almost always a source of material, Chambers just completed her first cross-genre book-length project.

Entry in five-ish words

"Fabulist allegory about privilege/ecology."

The short story's source of inspiration

"First, I had a dream about meeting creepy clattering creatures called 'The Pelagics' in the forest. The mushroom houses emerged from my continual subterranean ruminations about the housing crisis, the climate crisis and colonization. I was also thinking about mental illness, perception and how social location affects human behaviour. All of these themes influenced the storyline."

First lines

When I inherited an acreage on the Sunshine Coast from an old hippie uncle who, like me, was a bottom feeder in the family social hierarchy, it felt like a sign.
Influencers on social media said stuff like 'you can create your own reality' and 'do what you love, the money will follow.' New-age slogans that always seemed like mantras for the privileged, to help justify their summer houses and investment accounts. I knew that the stuff I loved doing — reading, smoking weed, and gardening — was unlikely to attract a big payout from the Cosmic Cha-ching Council, but I hated the city, so I bailed on my job and basement suite room and moved north.

Check out the rest of the longlist

The longlist was selected from more than 2,300 entries. 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 composed of Conor Kerr, Kudakwashe Rutendo and Michael Christie.
The complete list is:

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