Writers’ Trust announces 3 short story finalists for Journey Prize

TORONTO – Three writers have been chosen as finalists for the $10,000 Writers’ Trust Journey Prize.

Charlie Fiset of Kenogami Lake, Ont., was nominated for “If I Ever See the Sun,” published in The Fiddlehead.

Colette Langlois of Edmonton got the nod for “The Emigrants,” published in PRISM international, and J.R. McConvey of Toronto is in the running for “How the Grizzly Came to Hang in the Royal Oak Hotel,” published in EVENT.

Each of the three finalists will receive $1,000, while the prize winner will receive a total of $10,000. The journal that originally published the winning entry will also receive $2,000.

The winner will be announced on Nov. 2 at the Writers’ Trust Awards ceremony in Toronto.

The prize, in its 28th year, is for new and developing writers for the best short story first published in a Canadian literary journal during the previous year.

Jury members were writers Kate Cayley, Brian Francis and Madeleine Thien.

James A. Michener donated his Canadian royalty earnings from his 1998 novel “Journey” to make the prize possible.

McClelland & Stewart will publish the 11 stories that were nominated for this year’s long list in an annual fiction anthology “The Journey Prize Stories.”

Past winners include Yann Martel, Alissa York, Saleema Nawaz and Yasuko Thanh.