CBC Literary Awards

CBC fiction contest longlist

The CBC announced the longlist for this year’s CBC Short Story Prize. I was pleased that my story “The River of Running Sand” garnered a nomination.

“The River of Running Sand” is set in northern Thailand at a human zoo where tourists come to gawk at hill tribe villagers. The protagonist is a teenager longing to emigrate to Canada, but she is kept stateless, without papers, and can only emigrate for humanitarian purposes–or because she cheats her way out of the country.

The CBC Short Story Prize is Canada’s most prestigious award for a single piece of short fiction.

CBC Short Story Award Longlist

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12/18/2014

Smiley

It won’t get you through the rub of the season, darlings, but here, allow me to purr at you a little. A reading of “Smiley” the 2014 CBC Literary Award winner, as recorded by Anne Malcolm, Montreal, 2014:

Smiley

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09/02/2014

12 CBC literary contest winners have new books this fall

And I am one of them! Click on each title to read about it and find links to the CBC award-winners.

CBC Lit Prize Pedigree: Books for fall

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07/22/2014

Blog Tour–Shelagh Plunkett

I am so happy to announce that one of the writers I’m tagging on our blog tour is definitely in–Shelagh Plunkett from Montreal. I look forward to reading her post.

Shelagh won first place in the CBC awards and recently published the wonderful “The Water Here is Never Blue” with Penguin Canada about her unconventional childhood in Guyana and Indonesia. Shelagh’s story is compelling and reason enough to pick up this book, yet I would also suggest reading this delicate book for her significant stylistic achievements.

Shelagh lives with her partner, Kari, and her two cats and one dog in Montreal.

I have messed up the timing of the blog posts, but stay tuned for Shelagh’s tour answers over at Shelagh Plunkett.

Goodreads Reviews

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05/09/2014

I was lucky to be flown to Montreal for the CBC Literary Awards/Blue Metropolis Lit Fest, a co-celebration with French winner Sarah Desrosiers. Besides the award ceremony, I got to spend much of the weekend with my old friends Michael Hendricks and Rene LeBoeuf, with whom I was a co-litigant in Canada’s same-sex marriage case. Also, I got to hear Shelagh Rogers interview one of my favourite novelists, Heather O’Neill, re: her (said to be glorious) new novel “The Girl Who Was Saturday Night.” I spent a terrific night carousing with an old friend who happened to be in town with her mom, the redoubtable author Marguerite Andersen, and I met (and really hit it off with) the talented 2007 CBC winner Shelagh Plunkett, whose writing I hope soon to catch up on, and Lisa Moore (<3). Christopher deRaddo launched his new novel “The Geography of Pluto.” Luminato swirled past: Richard Ford, Dany Laferriére etc. Then a high school chum and I drove up through Charlevoix for a few days.

Thank you Shelagh Rogers and Aylin Malcolm for putting up with my nerves.

Here is an interview link for an interview conducted by Aylin Malcolm:

Interview

A reading link:

Reading

And here is a photograph of the big screen which had the winning stories spooling over it: