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CBC
29-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
In Zilla Jones' novel, an opera singer gives a voice to the Grenada Revolution
The 1983 revolution in Grenada was a major moment of the Cold War era — and writer Zilla Jones grew up hearing stories about its connection to her own family. Jones transports readers back to that time in her debut novel, The World So Wide. It follows a Canadian opera singer, Felicity Alexander, who is caught up in the military coup and placed under house arrest. What unfolds next is a saga that spans decades and reflects on race, love, belonging and revolution. "What is nice about historical fiction is that it's historical, but it speaks to now," said Jones on Bookends with Mattea Roach. She crafted the novel by envisioning three parallel journeys involving her characters and herself. "One is the story of Grenada and the rise and fall of that revolution, one is Felicity and the rise and fall of her career, and then one is the rise and fall of me, the artist, the writer." Jones is a Winnipeg author and has been a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize on four occasions, and the CBC Nonfiction Prize in 2024. If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, 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 You can submit an original, unpublished poem or collection of poems from April 1-June 1. Jones joined Roach to talk about why opera centres the story, her own work as a lawyer and the power of art as protest. Mattea Roach: Your main character, Felicity Alexander, is a renowned international opera diva from Winnipeg Opera. What is it that draws her to the world of opera? Zilla Jones: Felicity has a very unusual beginning in the world of opera, for sure. She was born in 1947 in Winnipeg. She doesn't have any opera in her background that she knows of. Her mother's from Grenada and she's a single mother raising her. Her father isn't known to her; he's a Ukrainian Canadian man. She just has this innate belief in herself that drives her to go throughout the world and sing. - Zilla Jones She falls into opera by accident. She starts piano lessons as a child and the piano teacher discovers that she has this amazing voice and the piano teacher believes that that can be developed. Felicity just believes in her own talent really, when there's no real reason to. But she just has this innate belief in herself that drives her to go throughout the world and sing. What is your relationship with opera? I did study opera as my undergraduate degree. I've always just loved music and, like Felicity, I think from childhood, just been drawn to it. Opera in particular, I love because it's so dramatic. I think somewhere in the book talks about opera being a world — and you have all the human emotions, love, betrayal, revenge, forgiveness, all of that is there. Those are universal themes that anyone can enjoy. The format of it is sometimes intimidating because it's often not in your native language. So for English speakers, many of the operas are Italian or French or German. The style of music is very complex, so it does take some study to really appreciate opera, but I'm always somebody that wants to make art accessible. I think that people can understand it and writing about it is one way I think to come at it a little bit differently. So instead of using the music, you use the words to enter the world of music. There's quite a culture clash happening in this novel because we have, on the one hand, this character who is an opera singer. She is singing in opera houses in Europe. She's a regular at the Met in New York. But we meet her under house arrest in the country of Grenada in 1983, which was at the time a nation that was experiencing a military coup. What puts Felicity in this situation? She's in Grenada because of love, essentially. So when you read the novel, you'll see that her first and real love is a man named Claude Buckingham, who is from Grenada. He comes to London to study law. Felicity is there to study opera. They meet there and then they separate because they have different dreams and different destinies. Hers is to go and sing opera at the Met and in different places in the world, his is to go back to Grenada and bring the revolution, but she never forgets him. She sees this as her opportunity to reconnect with him and she also believes in the revolution so she wants to be there to support it. - Zilla Jones Near the beginning of the novel, she receives an invitation to come and perform at a showcase that's being held in Grenada. So she sees this as her opportunity to reconnect with him and she also believes in the revolution so she wants to be there to support it. Was there anything in your own personal experience that you were pulling from and crafting this character? That's always the question in fiction, right? How much of it is autofiction and how much is "fiction fiction?" And the good thing about writers is we don't have to tell. There are definitely pieces of me in there; and then there are things that are not me at all. I did study opera. So I know what it's like to be in that world as a little bit of an outsider and somebody that maybe didn't come to it the same way as other people. I am also a person of mixed-race; I am of Trinidadian heritage, but I also have roots from many of the other Caribbean islands. So I've always grown up with these stories of Caribbean history and the Grenada revolution had a huge role in my family story. I always heard about that story. These stories are definitely very much part of my DNA. But a lot of the other things that happen to Felicity are just imagination. What was the discourse like about the Grenada revolution when you were growing up? My connection to it was in multiple ways, but the leader of the Grenada Revolution in real life was somebody that my mother knew and my aunt knew, and he had actually been in a relationship with one of my mom's cousins, which is where I got the idea for Felicity because I always wondered what it would be like to see your ex-boyfriend executed in front of the world and how you go on from that. So they used to hang out in London and go to protests. And a lot of the things that the characters in the book are doing, anti-apartheid protests, in particular, as well as anti-nuclear bomb protests. So I always heard about him that way; my mom used to laugh about how he would come to the house when he was a young law student and say, "Someday I'm going to be the Prime Minister of Grenada." And they'd go, "Ha, ha, ha, ha, right, right, right." He actually did it. And then also later on, after they had their coup in 1979, when they did take power, my real life uncle worked for the Grenada government as a constitutional advisor, trying to get them to adapt a constitution for their own circumstances. So I heard about that and then just generally I would hear about how the revolution was killed, I guess, by the United States invasion and kind of was a cautionary tale a little bit that they got a little bit too confident. They poked the bear, they provoked the United States and they brought this on themselves. It was kind of almost a lesson to be more realistic in your revolution, when you choose to have it.
CBC
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
5 writers make the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize shortlist
Social Sharing Writers Vincent Anioke, Trent Lewin, Dorian McNamara, Emi Sasagawa and Zeina Sleiman have made the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize shortlist. Their nominated works are: Love is the Enemy by Vincent Anioke (Waterloo, Ont.) Ghostworlds by Trent Lewin (Waterloo, Ont.) You (Streetcar at Night) by Dorian McNamara (Halifax) Lessons from a peach by Emi Sasagawa (Vancouver) My Father's Soil by Zeina Sleiman (Edmonton) The winner will be announced on April 17. They will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. The remaining four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts. All five finalists had their work published on CBC Books. You can read their stories by clicking on the links above. The longlist was selected from more than 2,300 submissions. Submissions are processed by a two-tiered system: the initial submissions are screened by a reading committee chosen for each category from a group of qualified editors and writers across the country. Each entry is read by two readers. 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 long list that is forwarded to the jury. This year's finalists were selected by a jury composed of Conor Kerr, Kudakwashe Rutendo and Michael Christie. They will also select the winner. 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 shortlist for the French-language competition has also been revealed. To read more, go to the Prix de la création Radio-Canada. If you're interested in other writing competitions, check out the CBC Literary Prizes. The 2025 CBC Poetry Prize is currently accepting submissions. The 2026 CBC Short Story Prize will open in September and the 2026 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January. Get to know the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize English-language finalists below. Love is the Enemy by Vincent Anioke Vincent Anioke is a Nigerian Canadian writer and software engineer. His short stories have appeared in SmokeLong Quarterly, The Rumpus, The Masters Review and Passages North. He won the 2021 Austin Clarke Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the 2023 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Perfect Little Angels, his debut short story collection, was released in 2024 and shortlisted for the Dayne Ogilvie Prize. CBC Books named Anioke as one of the 2024 writers to watch. He is currently working on a novel. Anioke is no stranger to CBC Literary Prize success. His story Leave A Funny Message At The Beep was longlisted for the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize and his story Utopia was longlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize twice, in 2021 and 2023. Why he wrote Love is the Enemy:"I was reflecting on the dual nature of love after an intense personal experience — how love can exert a pressure that runs counter to our beloved's soul, or body, or agency, or desires, arguably for better or worse. I saw the tendrils of that duality tangled up in all kinds of love that define our lives: parental, patriotic, romantic, religious — and became interested in a tightly woven story that explored and hyper-focused on these threads. I was especially proud of this story, how it feels deeply Nigerian with its focus on roots and culture and tradition, deeply Canadian with its focus on migration and assimilation and redefinition, and deeply universal with its themes on love, loss, and belonging. "The CBC Short Story Prize has been on my radar since 2021, and I was especially proud of this story, how it feels deeply Nigerian with its focus on roots and culture and tradition, deeply Canadian with its focus on migration and assimilation and redefinition, and deeply universal with its themes on love, loss, and belonging." Ghostworlds by Trent Lewin Trent Lewin is a writer of East Indian origin, an immigrant to Canada and a climate advocate, that has been published by Boulevard, december, Grain, FreeFall and Ex-Puritan. He has also been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Lewin is hard at work on two novels and numerous short stories, all of which seek to blend the literary across a variety of genres. He has a background in education and engineering/science and lives in Waterloo, Ont. In 2014, Lewin was a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize for his story Saad Steps Out. More recently, he made the CBC Short Story Prize longlist in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Why he wrote Ghostworlds:"There is a theory that we don't encounter life from other planets because the beings there have created false realities in which they find a better existence than their real ones. Virtual worlds that are expansive and joyous and that draw them in, so that they don't have to deal with reality and thus never push outwards. I often wonder if we are heading on that track too, caught up in digital worlds rather than real ones, always looking for alternate realities to the one in which we live. I find that a bit disheartening but also a source of hope if we can harness that power in a positive way. I feel like we cling to those virtual worlds over Ontario winters, when we seldom see our own neighbours! It's one of those stories that I know I wanted to tell but went through many iterations to get to a point where it resonated with me. - Trent Lewin "This story pulled at me early on, but I rewrote it several times to find a way to bring a fairly complex message to life. It's one of those stories that I know I wanted to tell but went through many iterations to get to a point where it resonated with me. I remember having a fun moment in a coffee shop where I felt that it had finally landed, and knew right away that I wanted to share it. Having been shortlisted and longlisted by the CBC before, it just felt like the type of story that would resonate." Dorian 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. Why he wrote You (Streetcar at Night):"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. 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. - Dorian McNamara "I took an introduction to creative writing class in university and the professor recommended all of us submit to the CBC Short Story Prize. I ended up submitting a short story for the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize and decided I wanted to submit another one this year." Emi Sasagawa is a settler, immigrant and queer woman of colour, living and writing on the traditional, ancestral and stolen territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and Selilwitulh Nations. Sasagawa's debut novel Atomweight was selected by CBC Books as one of the works of Canadian fiction to read in the first half of 2023 and dubbed by The Tyee as "a propulsive exploration of growth and becoming." The novel is an invitation for readers to reflect on their intersectional identity, through privilege and power, and oppression and marginalization and reimagine how we may take up space and hold space for others. Sasagawa was also a finalist for the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize for her essay Dad's the Word. Why she wrote Lessons from a peach:"I was six years old when my grandfather died of cancer. I remember struggling to make sense of it — all my assumptions about safety and permanence painfully contradicted by his glaring absence. As a biracial person, I've had to navigate pain and loss through (sometimes seemingly competing) traditions. I wanted to write a story that reflected that tension, told from the perspective of a young girl, whose notions of who she is and how she grieves are still being formed. As a biracial person, I've had to navigate pain and loss through (sometimes seemingly competing) traditions. I wanted to write a story that reflected that tension. "After being shortlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize last year, I felt emboldened to submit a short story. Despite having published a novel, I still consider myself a nonfiction writer, so I needed the extra encouragement to submit this piece." My Father's Soil by Zeina Sleiman Zeina Sleiman is a Palestinian Canadian writer. She was born in Abu Dhabi and grew up between Montreal, Ottawa and Lebanon. She has a PhD in politics and works in the post-secondary sector. She is a former mentee in Canada's Writers' Union BIPOC connect program and is a recipient of grants and awards from the Silk Road institute, Canada Council for the Arts and the Edmonton Arts Foundation. Her debut novel, Where the Jasmine Blooms is out April 22, 2025. 71 Canadian fiction books to read in spring 2025 Why she wrote My Father's Soil:"The story was inspired by conversations I've had with various family members over the last two years, but mostly my dad. I've noticed that, as a member of the younger generation of the Palestinian diaspora, we cope and understand the situation back home differently and this story was written to highlight that a bit and to make sense of it all. I've noticed that, as a member of the younger generation of the Palestinian diaspora, we cope and understand the situation back home differently and this story was written to highlight that a bit and to make sense of it all. - Zeina Sleiman "It was a close friend of mine who encouraged me to write a story based on the conversations I had shared with her. And when I finally did, I sent it to her and another close person to me and they both shed tears at the end. That's when I felt like there was something in this story and decided to submit it to the CBC Short Story Prize."
CBC
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Personnel Unknown by John Sudlow
Social Sharing John Sudlow has made the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Personnel Unknown. The winner of the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and their work will be published on CBC Books. The four remaining 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 10 and the winner will be announced on April 17. If you're interested in other CBC Literary Prizes, 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 John Sudlow Born and raised in Toronto, John Sudlow has an Anglo-Irish background. A father of two adult children, he and his wife live in Oakville, Ont. He studied literature at York University (MA). He taught English and the history of rock and roll for several years. He loves literature, baseball and rock and roll. He has participated in several writing workshops and has written an unpublished collection of short stories set in east end Toronto. Entry in five-ish words "Found song parallels man's life." The short story's source of inspiration "A trip to Île d'Orléans and the magic found there." First lines Today, in an old suitcase I had been lugging around for years, like unexploded ordnance, I found Viktor's T-shirt. I had the same address for twelve years. In the last 10, eight. Just spaces. But Viktor's T-shirt is a record, the objective truth about who, where and when, but silent about what and why. It's the size of a large handkerchief, red cotton, made thin by repeated laundering. The image of the chieftain's head and script, once crisp and white, are faded and worn, like what happens to coins, letters, and headstones. But I know what was written there, "Le Domaine des Sorciers" and "St. Jean." 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:
CBC
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
How To Watch Your Daughter Die by Jessica Wegmann-Sanchez
Social Sharing Jessica Wegmann-Sanchez has made the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for How To Watch Your Daughter Die. The winner of the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and their work will be published on CBC Books. The four remaining 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 10 and the winner will be announced on April 17. If you're interested in other CBC Literary Prizes, 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 Jessica Wegmann-Sanchez Jessica Wegmann-Sanchez grew up in Edmonton, traditional territory of the Cree, Anishinaabe, Blackfoot, Métis, Dene and Nakota Sioux. She has a PhD in English from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and has published academic articles in critical race theory and medieval studies. Recently, she's transitioned to studying creative writing. She considers magical realism an analgesic to life's more harsh and brutal moments and is having fun writing a novel with her husband about a Mexican migrant and his daughter who are haunted by a troublesome psychic inheritance. Wegmann-Sanchez's story Eyeball Tacos was longlisted for the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize. Entry in five-ish words "One illness shatters many lives." The short story's source of inspiration "Through years of caring for a critically ill loved one, I attended support groups and heard the stories of many family caregivers. There is a crippling helplessness in watching a mental health or substance abuse disorder — or even a physical disease like dementia or cancer — come close to killing someone you love again and again. This is the first time I've ever written a story with a second-person narrator, but it seemed especially on point here to show that this nightmare experience represents not that of one fictional narrator with a child who is ill, but rather an ordeal that anyone could have to face." First lines Tell her to stop eating gluten. Tell her to hold an ice cube in each hand to learn distress tolerance. It's because you are too lenient. It's because you are too strict. It's because your husband is too emotionally absent. It's because you are too emotionally enmeshed. It's because of that time you responded impatiently to her at eight fifteen on a Thursday night seven years ago. The orderly leads you through the locked psych ward to the second secured portal. It looks like an airlock in a Hollywood movie spaceship. Your gaze drops as though the real solution and reason for your daughter's metamorphosis might be deciphered in the freckles bespeckling your folded hands. 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:
CBC
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Dirty Gert by Pamela van der Woude
Pamela van der Woude has made the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Dirty Gert. The winner of the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and their work will be published on CBC Books. The four remaining 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 10 and the winner will be announced on April 17. If you're interested in other CBC Literary Prizes, 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 Pamela van der Woude Pamela van der Woude writes fiction in Prince Edward County, Ont. She was the winner of the 2015 Writers' Union of Canada short story contest, shortlisted for the 2018 Room Magazine short story contest. Her most recent publication can be found in the 2024 inaugural edition of Common Measure. She has honed her writing craft for the last two decades and is currently revising her second novel that takes place in Prince Edward Island. Entry in five-ish words "A memory shaped by two." The short story's source of inspiration "Re-reading Annie Proulx's Close Range: Wyoming Stories on the beach last summer and being struck anew by the raw and exquisite nature of her writing about love and loneliness in settings that read like characters." First lines The two farms in Prince Edward Island, on Park Corners Lane, faced each other like opposing sisters, one rich, one poor. The poorer farm kept its curtains closed, its dogs tied up, its bushes untrimmed. The Wagner family came and went from here, necks bent, chins tucked, always looking down. This peculiar way of walking betrayed their identity. You could tell it was a Wagner just by looking at them with those heads positioned like tired turtles. On an early fall day, the Wagner mother called out to our mom. My mom ran over, nodded, rushed inside our house, ran to the Wagner's. My sisters and I watched, waited. Clumped together, like we did when we were curious, uncertain or maybe scared. Mom finally walked down the uneven steps of their side porch, head bowed like a Wagner. 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:
