How to Make a Friend by Zilla Jones

Zilla Jones has made the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize longlistfor How to Make a Friend.

• 27 writers make the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize longlist

The winner of the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have their work published on CBC Books and win a two-week writing residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.

The shortlist will be announced on April 12 and the winner will be announced on April 18.

If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the 2023 CBC Poetry Prize is open for submissions until May 31.

• The 2023 CBC Poetry Prize is now open to Canadian poets

About Zilla Jones

Zilla Jones is an African Canadian woman writing on Treaty 1 territory (Winnipeg). She is a Journey Prize winner and has also won the Malahat Review Open Season, Jacob Zilber, GritLit and Freefall short story awards, placed second in the Prairie Fire and Austin Clarke contests, and received an honourable mention in Room's contest. She was a finalist in the Alberta Magazine Publishing Awards. Her work appears in several journals, including Prairie Fire, Prism, the Malahat Review, Freefall, the Fiddleheadand in The Journey Prize Stories 33. She writes on themes of identity, belonging, family and decolonization, and is working on two novels. She previously made the 2020CBCShort Story Prize longlist for Our Fatherand in 2022, she was longlisted for an earlier version of How to Make a Friend.

Entry in five-ish words

"It really does get better."

The story's source of inspiration

"Real-life memories of junior high juxtaposed with parenting and working with young people."

LISTEN | Zilla Jones speaks with Up To Speed's Faith Fundal about making the CBC Short Story Prize longlist

First lines

For starters, don't do what I did. Start planning during the summer, before you even start attending Spruce Lane School for Girls. Vacation somewhere the other girls do, like a cottage in Victoria Beach. When you're back in Winnipeg, take tennis or swimming lessons at the Winter Club. Ignore the fact that those are places that didn't admit Jews 50years ago, let alone people of colour. Whatever you do, don't spend your summer in Trinidad with Grandma and Grandpa Ramkissoon.

About the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize

The winner of the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, have their work published on CBC Books and attend a two-week writing residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.

The 2023 CBC Poetry Prize is currently open until May 31, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The 2024 CBC Short Story Prize will open in September and the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January 2024.