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What About Sam by Rachael Riley

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

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

Image | Rachael Riley

Caption: Rachael Riley is a writer originally from Aotearoa, New Zealand, but currently lives in Montreal. (Buddy Cosplay)

Rachael Riley has made the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for What About Sam.
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 You can submit an original, unpublished poem or collection of poems from April 1-June 1.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 Rachael Riley

Rachael Riley (they/them) is a neurodivergent Pākehā (settler) writer from Aotearoa, New Zealand, currently completing their masters in creative writing at Concordia in Tiohti:áke/Montreal. Their poetry has appeared in Overcomm and LBRNTH, among others, and has been shortlisted for the Malahat New Horizons Award. Their fiction has been longlisted for the Masters Review Anthology and received the Fence Reader's Choice fellowship to the International Literary Seminars in Kenya. They are currently completing a long poem that explores the role of art and community in natural disaster recovery.

Entry in five-ish words

"Gay baseball (but not really)."

The short story's source of inspiration

"I had a vivid scene in my head. Two women were lying in the grass after a baseball game and one of them put her thumb in the other's mouth. It felt incredibly intimate and also fleeting. From there, I had to find out who these women were and why this moment was one that had to end."

First lines

"Why are we always on opposite teams?" Alice asked Joyce. The final ball had been an easy out and Alice was still hot with frustration.
"You wouldn't have it any other way," Joyce said. She drooped in the sun, her usually perky ponytail lying flat against a sticky neck.
The field had been mown the day before, the workers had left the cut grass in lazy piles. The two women hid under gum trees that creaked on the edge of the pitch, the spindly trunks promising a tired sort of shade. One of the team had brought beers and the bottles were still cold, moisture dripping down the necks. There was a chorus of clinking teeth against glass. The catcher was already talking about how he'd caught that last hit and his stint in the league.

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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