Youth by Nina Dragicevic

Nina Dragicevichas made the2022 CBC Short Story Prize longlistfor Youth.

• 36 writers make the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize longlist

The winner of the 2022CBC Short Story Prizewill receive $6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, have their work published onCBC Booksand have the opportunity to attend a two-week writing residency at theBanff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand have their work published onCBC Books.

The shortlist will be announced on April 21 and the winner will be announced onApril 28.

If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes,the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize is open for submissions until May 31.

• Calling all writers! The 2022 CBC Poetry Prize is now open!

About NinaDragicevic

Nina Dragicevic is a freelance journalist and fiction writer publishing under the name Nina Dunic. She won the Toronto Star Short Story Contest,placed third in the Humber Literary Review Emerging Writers Fiction Contest and was nominated for the Writers' Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. Born in Belgrade and brought to Toronto as an infant, Dragicevicgrew up in Scarborough, Ont., and Pickering, Ont., currently living in Scarborough. This is her third time on the CBC Short Story Prize longlist. She has just finished her first novel.

Entry in five-ish words

"Two women, two generations apart."

The story's source of inspiration

"I was taking the GO Train and passed a small creek where teenagers were hanging out."

First lines

The path was new enough, young enough, that you had to walk with feet single file and pick your footfalls carefully between the tree roots and rocks rising out of the ground. Sometimes the branches overhead dipped low and you had to duck beneath them, sometimes the trees crowded close on either side. But the path wasn't long and soon you were at the creek, a small clearing near the water.

After first seeing it, she didn't actually go there for a couple of months, only looked down onto the creek from the fifth floor balcony where she sat drinking iced tea or lemon water throughout the day.

About the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize

The winner of the 2022CBC Short Story Prizewill receive $6,000 from theCanada Council for the Arts, have their work published onCBC Booksand attend a two-week writing residency at theBanff Centre forArts and Creativity. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from theCanada Council for the Artsand have their work published onCBC Books.

The 2022CBC Poetry Prizeis currently open for submissions until May31, 2022. The2023CBC Short Story Prizewill open in September and the 2023CBC Nonfiction Prizewill open in January 2023.