Dorian McNamara Wins the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize!

Congratulations to Halifax writer Dorian McNamara, who has won the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize for his story You (Streetcar at Night). 

You (Streetcar at Night) tells the story of the before and after experiences of a trans person. The protagonist reflects on his first relationship as he and his fellow riders roll through the Toronto streets at night. Inspired by the author's upbringing in Toronto and his travels on streetcars and public transit, the story made a distinct impression on the prize jurors, who thought the story was full of nuance and humanity. 

The full story can be read right her on the CBC Books website!

As the Grand Prize winner, McNamara will receive a cash prize of $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and will be published on the CBC Books website. The four other finalists will each receive $1000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and will be published on CBC Books. 

Here's the full list of finalists:

• 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 entries were selected from more than 2,300 submissions received from across Canada. The public can read the shortlisted stories on cbcbooks.ca. 

The 2025 CBC Short Story Prize jurors were Conor Kerr, Kudakwashe Rutendo and Michael Christie. 

Conor Kerr is a Métis/Ukrainian writer who hails from many prairie towns and cities, including Saskatoon. A 2022 CBC Books writer to watch, his previous works include the poetry collection Old Gods and the novel Avenue of Champions, which was longlisted for the 2022 Giller Prize, was a finalist for the 2022 Amazon Canada First Novel Award and won the ReLit award the same year. In 2024, his book Prairie Edge was shortlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize. Kerr currently teaches creative writing at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

Kudakwashe Rutendo is an actor who fell in love with the stage by performing live poetry. Most recently, she starred in Backspot, a drama directed by D.W. Waterson and produced by Elliot Page and Page Boy Productions. Rutendo was selected as one of TIFF's 2023 Rising Stars and recently named by Hollywood Reporter as a rising star in the 2024 Women in Canada Entertainment issue. Rutendo was one of the Canada Reads 2024 contenders where she championed the linked short story collection Shut Up You're Pretty written by Téa Mutonji.

Michael Christie has become one of Canada's most acclaimed writers. His 2011 short story collection, The Beggar's Garden, won the Vancouver Book Award and was a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. His 2015 novel, If I Fall, If I Die, won the Northern Lit Award and was longlisted for the Giller Prize. His novel Greenwood won the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award (now the Canadian Crime Writing Awards) for best novel and was also longlisted for the Giller Prize.

Visit cbcbooks.ca for the complete CBC Short Story Prize longlist or for more information on the CBC Literary Prizes.