The Artist by Nina Dragicevic

Nina Dragicevic has made the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize longlistfor The Artist.

• 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 Nina Dragicevic

Nina Dragicevic is a freelance writer who publishes fiction under the name Nina Dunic. Her debut novel The Clarion is coming out with Invisible Publishing in September, with her collection of stories following in 2025. She's won the Toronto Star Short Story Contest twice, took third place in Humber Literary Review Emerging Writers Fiction Contestand has been nominated for the Journey Prize. Nina lives in Scarborough, in Toronto's east end, with her husband and two dogs.This is her fourth time on the CBC Short Story Prize longlist: she previously made the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for Youth, the2020CBCShort Story Prize longlist for Bodiesand the 2019 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for a previous version of Bodies.

Entry in five-ish words

"You should meet your heroes."

The story's source of inspiration

"Last year a boy travelled a long distance to see The Weeknd's concert in Toronto, but the show was cancelled during the Rogers blackout. The boy had dressed up like the star in one of his music videos, and a photo of his distraught reaction went viral. The Weeknd later met the boy at a rescheduled show a heartwarming moment. I wanted to experiment with the 'never meet your heroes'tradition, except without a disastrous outcome instead, a kind of deeper understanding.

"The second idea I wanted to explore was fame and success and money they don't 'cure'you. If, as an artist, you are sensitive and shy and lonelyand struggle with alcohol, you're still all those things even after you've made it. When you're young, when you idolize someone, I don't think you understand that.

"The last element is a bit autobiographical. As a kid, I had a lot of worries, I went through phases of being moody and withdrawn. I look back and try to remember what I worried about. I tried to look beyond all the specific details and concerns and see the bigger picture... or perhaps distilit down to one ultimate meaning. That's how I knew the last line."

First lines

She did her short hair in spikes, mostly upwards on the top of her head, a few sideways, the rest slicked down with heavy gel. It looked alright. She was wearing a purple t-shirt and the purple pants she had seen in the thrift store window, giving her the whole idea in the first place. He wore all purple in his last music video, and his hair like this. After buying the pants in the window she was suddenly thrust forward with new energy, thinking fast, especially at night waiting to fall asleep.

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.