Dorian McNamara wrote a story about a trans man on the Toronto streetcar and won the CBC Short Story Prize
Daphné Santos-Vieira | CBC Books | Posted: April 17, 2025 1:30 PM | Last Updated: April 24
The Halifax writer spoke to Mattea Roach about the inspiration behind his CBC Literary Prize-winning work
Halifax writer Dorian McNamara has won the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize for his story You (Streetcar at Night).
He will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. McNamara's story was published on CBC Books. You can read You (Streetcar at Night) here.
If you're interested in other writing competitions, 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 You can submit an original, unpublished poem or collection of poems from April 1-June 1.
On Bookends with Mattea Roach, McNamara discussed his writing journey and how he came to write a story about a trans man travelling on a Toronto streetcar at night and reflecting on his first relationship before he transitioned.
"I sort of treated the streetcar as sort of a locked box almost. Because when you're really in a streetcar, all you're doing is you're sitting and the entire world is passing you by. It's a very strange experience and it leaves you with a lot of time to think. So I decided to create that sort of stagnant space that was full of memories weaving in and out as a way of exploring that dichotomy between stillness and motion," McNamara said of the inspiration for his story.
McNamara is a queer transgender writer currently living in Halifax. Originally from Toronto, he graduated with a BA in psychology from Dalhousie University. He is currently working on his first novel as well as publishing the creative newsletter Dear You.
The experience of riding the streetcar was something McNamara knows intimately: "I really like the streetcar. I like public transport — I find it so interesting to watch all of the different people going about their day. And how different my experience is from theirs and how little I really know of them. I think that streetcars are very nostalgic for me."
You're surrounded by people, but you're very alone. At night, that aloneness is amplified and you feel it much more. - Dorian McNamara
McNamara also had his reasons for wanting to set the story in the streetcar at night: "There's something sort of magical about being so tired — you're in this position where you're being still, you've been busy all day, let's say — and you're sitting down with people around you. But for a moment you don't know any of them and you can sort of pretend that they don't exist. And they're pretending you don't exist. You're surrounded by people, but you're very alone. At night, that aloneness is amplified and you feel it much more."
This year's winner and finalists were selected by a jury composed of Conor Kerr, Kudakwashe Rutendo and Michael Christie.
"From its opening lines, we were captivated by the deft and corporeal imagery of You (Streetcar at Night), with its lush descriptions of travelling via streetcar, and all the rhythm and music that one becomes enmeshed in along the way. But beyond its flowing narrative and lyrical writing, lay the story, and that is what called to us.
You (Streetcar at Night) follows a trans man's recollection of his first relationship, the narrative establishing itself as an address to his former partner, taking a novel route through aspects of transition," the jury said in a statement.
"Highlighting the nuanced duality of a Before and After, connected through a frank and vulnerable interiority. It is a requiem of sorts, a call to the past, that simultaneously grounds itself in a present of acceptance and true belonging. Where one can look at a stranger on a streetcar and see a whole history in their eyes.
One can look at a stranger on a streetcar and see a whole history in their eyes. - 2025 CBC Short Story Prize jury
"This story resoundingly illustrates — at a time when it could not be more needed — that within everyone, outside of all our external features and presentations, is a prevailing interiority and humanity, and that trans people are not a threat."
You (Streetcar at Night) tells the story of the before and after of a trans person. The protagonist reflects on his first relationship as he and his fellow riders roll through the Toronto streets at night.
"I think I struggle, like so many other trans people, with the term of like a before and an after transition. I don't know if the transition ever really ends. My experience of gender is constantly evolving and feels very fluid. For me, rather than writing about the before and the after, it was more about finding the past," McNamara said.
"Growing up in Toronto, I've always loved the streetcars. When I come home to visit my family, I find I am often on the streetcar. There's always a lot of memories tied to them, but after coming out, I got anxious that people who knew me before would recognize me then. Part of me wanted them to remember me and see me now, but another part of me was afraid of how people I used to know would react."
McNamara joins a long list of writers who have won CBC Literary Prizes, such as David Bergen, Michael Ondaatje, Carol Shields and Michael Winter.
The CBC Literary Prizes have been recognizing Canadian writers since 1979.
To be given the opportunity to share my writing with others and to be understood and to even perhaps have my writing understand others is an incredible gift. - Dorian McNamara
"Winning the CBC Short Story Prize is a monumental honour, one that still feels beyond me. Getting the news, I felt all the joy in my body well up in my throat and I did not know whether I was laughing or crying. Writing for me is a practice of trying to understand and often making peace with my inability to do so, be it regarding myself or others," said McNamara.
"To be given the opportunity to share my writing with others and to be understood and to even perhaps have my writing understand others is an incredible gift. I am so grateful for being given the chance to further my process and dedicate myself to my practice."
The other four finalists are Vincent Anioke of Waterloo, Ont. for Love is the Enemy; Trent Lewin of Waterloo, Ont. for Ghostworlds; Emi Sasagawa of Vancouver for Lessons from a peach and Zeina Sleiman of Edmonton for My Father's Soil.
They will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts.
The longlist was compiled by a group of qualified editors and writers from across Canada from more than 2,300 submissions.
The readers come up with a preliminary list of approximately 100 submissions that are then forwarded to a second reading committee. It is this committee who will decide upon the 30ish entries that comprise the longlist that is forwarded to the jury. The jury selects the shortlist and the eventual winner from the readers' longlisted selections.
Works are judged anonymously on the basis of the participant's use of language, originality of subject and writing style. For more on how the judging for the CBC Literary Prizes works, visit the FAQ page.
The 2025 winner of the Prix de la nouvelle Radio-Canada is Michel Trépanier for Le baiser des étoiles.
For Canadians interested in other writing competitions, check out the CBC Literary Prizes. The 2025 CBC Poetry Prize is currently accepting submissions until June 1, 2025. The 2026 CBC Short Story Prize will open in September and the 2026 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January.
The Bookends interview was produced by Erin Balser and Daphné Santos-Vieira.