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Mothers Day, 2017 by Gráinne Downey

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

The Vancouver-based writer is on the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize longlist

Image | Gráinne Downey

Caption: Gráinne Downey is a writer living in Vancouver. (Submitted by Gráinne Downey)

Gráinne Downey has made the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Mothers Day, 2017.
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 You can submit an original, unpublished poem or collection of poems from April 1-June 1.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 Gráinne Downey

Gráinne Downey is a writer and visual artist living in Vancouver on the traditional, unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tseil-Waututh people. She is currently pursuing an MFA in creative writing at the University of British Columbia and was previously shortlisted for the 2024 Room Magazine Creative Non-Fiction contest.

Entry in five-ish words

"The ceiling won't stop leaking."

The short story's source of inspiration

"I spend a lot of time walking and running by the water, which means I see a lot of harbour seals. They're at once very normal, common animals and very magical ones. Selkie folklore felt like a natural outlet for a story about a woman's discomfort with her situation and her skin, so I chose to set the story in a more traditionally selkie-ish location, the north of Ireland."

First lines

Maureen empties the bucket once each morning and again in the evening before she goes to bed. The leak started two weeks ago, an issue with the pipes that her father began to explain before waving her away. "Don't worry yourself," he'd said, "I'll fix it." They laid a towel out and brought in a plastic bucket from the shed to catch the water that has since dripped ceaselessly day and night. It annoyed Maureen for a few days, but now the dripping feels as much a part of the house as the faulty screen door and the wobbling kitchen stool and her own dismal body. Last night as she washed up, the dripping created an ugly rhythm with the smoke detector beeping for a new battery and she found herself scrubbing in time.

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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