CBC Books, CBC’s online home for literary content, together with its partners the Canada Council for the Arts and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, today announced Kate Gunn of Vancouver as the winner of the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize. Gunn’s story, Old Bones, was selected from more than 2,000 entries.
As the grand-prize winner, Gunn will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and her work has been published on CBC Books.
The 2024 CBC Short Story Prize jurors Suzette Mayr, Kevin Chong and Ashley Audrain, said this about Gunn’s story:
“Old Bones distinguishes itself from the very first line. This intriguing story about a daughter’s understanding of her mother’s disability, and about feeling love for the very thing that causes pain, is our unanimous favourite. The imagery is striking, the writing tender and beautiful, the storytelling unexpected and powerful. We loved the sense of surprise as the narration unfolds, and the parallels throughout that deliver a satisfying sense of completeness. We marvelled at lines like, ‘She took the sun home with her when she left,’ and ‘All through that year in the hospital, my mother had a small area inside herself that she kept for dangerous wishes.’ This writer’s voice is thoughtful, original and confident, and we’re excited for what they’ll do next.”
Kate Gunn said, “Winning the CBC Short Story Prize is a huge honour. For me, writing is often about trying to communicate feelings and experiences that are hard to capture in words. Although writing itself is a solitary activity, I believe that it is also fundamentally about connection. I’m incredibly grateful that this story resonated with other people. I’m also very grateful to the jury for giving me an opportunity to take this process to a deeper level.”
The four runners-up for the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize, who will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, are: Miriam Ho Nga Wai of Toronto for Lamentations; Zilla Jones of Winnipeg for How to Make a Friend; Kailash Srinivasan of North Vancouver, B.C. for The Baby; and Carley Thorne of Toronto for Permission to Pause.
The winner of the Prix de la nouvelle Radio-Canada 2024 was also announced: Mathieu Blais for En plein bois. More information is available at ICI.Radio-canada.ca/icionlit.
For more information on the CBC Literary Prizes, please visit CBCBooks.ca.
